music        news/events        bio        contact        recordings The Bee in the Champaka Flower 1989 soprano percussion   bass drum, flexatone, hi-hat, 3 korean blocks, marimba, ricciane, suspended cymbal,    tablas, tambourine, tam-tam, 3 tom-toms, tuned gongs, triangle duration 06' first performance: Gemini: Mary Wiegold & Simon Limbrick ICA, London / February 26, 1995 SCORE In a Golden Ring I Cannot Brahma Inside May He Protect You Endless is my Wealth Waiting I Love Those Celebrations Bright Flowers The Mind is Empty PROGRAM NOTE This work sets nine Indian texts, translated from the Sanskrit. They deal, sometimes at one and the same time, with passion and emptiness, voluptuousness and asceticism; interlocking themes which are a particular characteristic of Indian culture—always poised between two extremes each of which has the capacity to engulf the other. The score calls for a small but unusual battery of percussion including a pair of tablas, a small ratchet or ricciane, marimba, Korean blocks, small tuned gongs, and a mark tree. TEXTS In a Golden Ring Friend, a bee has flown into the Campaka flower, He looks as beautiful as a red lady-bug set in a  golden ring.  Hemacandra  I Cannot I know I shook like a vine he kissed me touched my two breasts as he pleased pushed the necklace aside I remember that much but what next the letting go the body turning to water but after that I keep trying to remember and I cannot  Vallabhadeva  Brahma Inside The goddess Laksmi loves to make love to Vishnu from on top looking down she sees in his navel a lotus and on it Brahma the god but she can't bear to stop so she puts her hand over Vishnu's right eye which is the sun and night comes on and the lotus closes with Brahma inside  Mammata  May he Protect You Krishna went out to play Mother and he ate dirt  Is that true Krishna  No who said it  Your brother Balarama  Not true Look at my face  Open your mouth  he opened it and she stood speechless inside was the universe  may he protect you  Candaka  Endless is my Wealth The sage king Janaka stands on a hill watching his city in flames "Endless is my wealth," he says  "I have nothing at all, and thus when this city of Mithila crumbles, red embers, white ashes all monuments of men destroyed, nothing of mine is burned." "I have nothing at all,  and endless is my wealth  Sankaracarya  Waking Even the man who is happy glimpses something or a hair of sound touches him  and his heart overflows with a longing he does not recognize  then it must be that he is remembering in a place out of reach shapes he has loved  in a life before this  the print of them still there in him waiting  Kalidasa  I Love Those Celebrations Holy sixth day in the woods they worship the trees then then my heart beat hard at how far I was going into the woods a snake appeared in front of me and I fell down I started writhing and rolling this way and that way my dress fell off my hair burned along my back thorns scratched me everywhere suddenly who I am who was I how I love those celebrations  Govindasvamin  Bright Flowers Beautiful branches swaying in heavy wind beautiful with throat songs of cuckoo's joy and singing of bees look oh you with beautiful limbs at the forest hung with bright flowers  Bharatamuni  The Mind is Empty Every impression that each of us carries from life to life is only an aspect of a dream and dream and dreams are formed in the mind and the mind is empty as the sky  anonymous  all poems (500BC–1000BC) trans. W. S. Merwin & J. Moussaieff Mason