Detail from the Record (2001)

There is a strand to my music that is fabulist, the atmosphere of which conjures both the whimsical and the darkling. Commissioned by the Michael Vyner Trust for the London Sinfonietta, and dedicated with affection to Oliver Knussen on his 50th birthday, Detail from the Record falls unashamedly into this category and is a distillation of musical episodes from a larger projected work, The Record of Ancient Matters (Ko - Ji - Ki), a puppet ballet based on Japanese folk tales.

Using thematic material from this larger work, and driven by the colourful, direct events of the narrative, the sections run continuously without a break:

1) …Of Moths and Dragonflies…
2) Broken Images
3) The Cold Lady
4) Bumbuku Chagama…

The first section depicts a wise poet who is grieved by the death of night insects, burnt as they are attracted to the light of his reading taper. To distract them he tells three stories: Broken Images presents transformation music heralding the discovery of a ruined temple filled with wondrous deities. From music for upper winds, a long horn solo with bubbling strings and a closing section for low tremolando, flutter-tonguing brass, we progress to section three: The Cold Lady. Yuki-Onna is a winter sprite who, instead of avenging a broken promise by claiming a family’s life, chooses love and ends her own life instead. A wind chorale with winding string melody (suggestive of her icy breath) is followed by a series of arpeggiated figures heard successively on viola, clarinet, flutes and piano, reminiscent of earlier events in the tale. The finale, Bumbuku Chagama, depicts an earth daemon who takes the form of a badger and lives in a tea-kettle! After adventures which have made his poor master a rich man, Bumbuku's time sadly ends and gradually the once animate kettle falls still.

© Kenneth Hesketh

Image: original design for The Record of Ancient Matters puppet by Amy Luckenbach