[Full programme note here]

HAGOROMO had originally been commissioned by the BBC for the 1975 Prom series, but proved most elusive. All my music of 1974 and 1975 grew out of ideas related to HAGOROMO - it shares musical material and techniques with SALVATION CREEK - but it was not till I settled again at Pittwater on the eastern edge of Ku-ringai Chase in 1976 that the music finally took shape.

It takes its name from the Noh play by Seami (15thC) which I first enjoyed in Arthur Waley's translation. An angel dances for two fishermen who have found her lost robe among the pines by the sea-shore one spring morning.

 

It is the sign of Spring.

Not Heaven is here but beauty of the wind and sky.

....

Waves lapping, wind in the pine-trees whispering

Along the quiet shore.

....

I am robed in sky, in the empty blue of heaven

...Now in a garment of spring mist.

(Translation by Arthur Waley)