Richard Wright (1908-1960) is best known for his fiction, particularly his incendiary novel "Native Son," published in 1940. These haiku were created during Wright’s self-imposed French exile, in the final year-and-a-half of his life. Wright culled 817 haiku from the 4000 that he had written to be published as "This Other World: Projections in the Haiku Manner;" I selected eight of these to represent musically, in the form of miniatures for violin and marimba. Wright uses stark, evocative imagery within the concise Japanese form to depict both natural and urban landscapes, the latter more familiar from the author’s literary masterpieces. On the surface these are spontaneous word paintings, but a closer look reveals great discipline and craftsmanship, in an economical form of self-expression. "Suite: Eight Haiku by Richard Wright" was recognized with a 2001 BMI Student Composer Award. Listen: http://bit.ly/1KdOB6h
