I recently read John Green’s new book Everything is Tuberculosis. In this book, he describes the tragically short life of the Japanese poet, Masaoka Shiki. Masaoka, who revived the poetic forms of haiku and tanka in the late nineteenth century, died an agonizing death from tuberculosis in his mid 30s. His poems are both beautiful and haunting, with vivid imagery and rich symbolism.

Inspired by both Masaoka and Green, I’ve begun work on a piece for oboe and vibraphone based on Masaoka’s work.

The seven selected poems feature his despair and suffering, including imagery of snow and luffa plants. Each is being written into a movement of music, with the tentative title The Tuberculosis Verses. I intend the whole work to be about 10 minutes in length. The oboe-vibraphone duo is a beautiful, but unfortunately under-explored, medium in chamber music, and this will be my (first) contribution to the genre.

If you’re interested in joining the project, or know of someone who would be, please reach out via the Google Form link here! Click this link for a preview of movements 1-5.