To François Bayle, whose prodding, ceaseless research on the sound-image has allowed the experience of this work.

This piece was inspired by the shortness of the haiku and its long resonance in the imagination. It evokes contrasting realms from the five Japanese seasons set within an ambiophonic space (spread over 16 channels in concert).

Nature, the cycle of its seasons and the human activities pertaining to them, provides the perfect playground for a sonic landscape, a genre native to acousmatic music. I had already dabbled in it with Paysage / vitesse in 1986.

This time, series of short tableaux, one per season, use a selection of classical and contemporary Japanese haikus to stimulate an imaginary world, mental pictures, and emotional memories in each listener. These tableaux rest on the same pictures and dynamics/movements the Western repertoire offers, from Antonio Vivaldi to Jean-Michel Jarre.

The prime quality of a haiku according to the disciples of Bashô — invariance and fluidity — is answered by the “permanence and variation” pair from Pierre Schaeffer’s typology, which characterizes any Apollonian style where “all is order and beauty” (Charles Baudelaire).

— Annette Vande Gorne [English translation: François Couture, v-20]

Haïkus, its five seasons and 17 haikus, was realized in 2016-20 at the Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio of Musiques & Recherches in Ohain (Belgium) with several creation grants from the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (Administration générale de la culture, Service de la musique). The complete Haïkus premiered on October 25, 2020, during the Espace du son festival at Théâtre Marni in Brussels (Belgium).

Composition

• 2016 – 2020, Métamorphoses d’Orphée — Musiques & Recherches, Ohain (Belgium)

Premiere

• October 25, 2020, Premiere of the complete work: L’Espace du son 2020: Création d’une œuvre d’Annette Vande Gorne, Théâtre Marni, Brussels (Belgium)