Waka was commissioned from and written for the Ensemble Omega in 2003. The music was inspired by the idiosyncratic sparsity of Japanese poetry; the form springs from a close metric correlation between musical and literary verses. The ‘waka’, or ‘tanka’, is a Japanese literary form based on a 5-7-5-7-7 verse structure which I have used as metric and rhythmic structure. Can music be perceived as poetry? Can sounds emulate, equal, or even surpass the evocative imagery of verbal description?

The world premiere took place at the ZKM in Karlsruhe on 6th November 2003 and was performed by Ensemble Omega with Youncher Park (percussion) and Alejo Pérez (conductor). A CD recording played by the Ensemble Omega with Youncher Park and Alejo Pérez is available on the Sargasso label, Sargasso SCD 28053.