Wordless Haiku (2025)

Wordless Haiku is a solo work for organ that reimagines the haiku as a musical form. Drawing inspiration from the traditional 5-7-5 syllabic structure, I translated this pattern into rhythmic groupings and formal divisions, using it as the framework for the piece’s pacing and development. Despite its roots in a form celebrated for its brevity and conciseness, the music unfolds with a wide emotional and coloristic range, creating an ironic tension between the haiku’s minimalist spirit and the organ’s expansive sonic possibilities.

In addition to its structural basis in haiku, Wordless Haiku also takes inspiration from Steely Dan’s Mu chord progression as heard in their song Deacon Blues. I treat this progression not as a strict harmonic template, but as a point of departure for generating melodic, harmonic, and textural ideas. By filtering a pop-influenced harmonic language through the lens of an ancient poetic form, the piece seeks to explore contrasts between economy and excess, stillness and motion, intimacy and grandeur.

The rhythmic structures that emerge from the reimagined haiku form produce irregular patterns and phrase lengths not commonly found in traditional organ literature. Combined with the influence of pop and jazz harmonic colors, this creates a sound world that is both novel and challenging for the instrument. As a result, Wordless Haiku offers performers opportunities for new interpretive approaches, particularly in shaping expressive phrasing within odd meters and navigating post-tonal harmonic environments. It also holds pedagogical value as a tool for developing rhythmic flexibility, dynamic nuance, and stylistic versatility in organists engaging with contemporary repertoire.

Organist Michael Guarneiri premiered Wordless Haiku as part of my Master’s recital at the Setnor School of Music in Syracuse, NY.