Oliver Caplan !e Slanting Sun
soprano, horn, violin, percussion, piano
The Slanting Sun
Instrumentation: Soprano, Horn, Violin, Piano, Percussion (vibraphone, tam-tam, woodblock, whip mark tree)
Duration: 11’00”
Year: 2025
Program Note: Every morning, I begin my day with a cup of sencha (gyokuro, on special occasions), shipped directly from the tea felds of Uji to my little corners of the world in Massachusetts and Vermont. Such are the wonders of the modern world! I sip the emerald liquor—grassy, saline, umami—and think about the day ahead. But sometimes my mind wanders East (or is it West?) to a country that has stirred my heart.
I’ve spent over 2 months in Japan, mostly on Honshu and Kyūshū. As I write this note, a particular afternoon in Kurokawa comes to mind (November 2017). My husband Chris and I, having walked into town and back about a half-dozen times, gazed wistfully at a persimmon tree, down a steep hillside, perched over the river. Perfect orange globes adorned the branches, like lanterns beckoning, but just too high to reach. I know, because we tried yesterday. All of a sudden, a local worker popped out of the woods, breathing heavy from running up the hill. He was carrying a long poll with a basket on the end… and eating a persimmon! I don’t recall exactly how it happened (we did not know enough Japanese, nor him English), but all of a sudden Chris and I were following him, bounding down the mountain. e sweet golden fesh melted in our mouths, as we shared a conversation of smiles.
Autumn is a festive season in Japan. In Kyoto, the air smells of burnt caramel, from street vendors roasting sweet potatoes on sticks. Lush, mossy gardens are dappled with a rainbow of yellows and reds. Many temples even stay open late into the evening for special night-time foliage viewings.
e Slanting Sun is a tribute to this special time in a country that I love. e text draws on poetry—mostly haiku—from 14 luminaries: Bashô, Buson, Chiyo-ni, Chôshû, Issa, Kigiku, Kikaku, Kotomichi, Hokushi, Môgan, Ransetsu, Sazanami, Shiki and Zuiryu. Japanese culture is particularly attuned to the seasons (the traditional calendar recognizes 72 subdivisions!) and I curated these poems into sections that map the annual journey from the end of summer to the start of winter. If you know me, then you know I use a lot of words to say what I want to say. By contrast, these miniatures are a study in the art of succinctness, painting richly evocative scenes, often with under 10 words. Of course, there is this one, from Shiki: Eating persimmons; the bell sounds, of Horyuji Temple.
©2025 Oliver Caplan Music (ASCAP)
Oliver Caplan | music@olivercaplan.com | 617.894.0359 | www.olivercaplan.com
Just this morning, A single paulownia leaf Has gently fallen.
The sun, bright red, Relentlessly hot, But the wind is of autumn
-Issa
The S lanting S un Translations by
R.H. Blyth
The water-fowl Pecks and shivers The moon on the waves.
The moon in the water; Broken and broken again, Still it is there.
-Zuiryu
-Môgan
In the dark forest, A berry drops: The sound of water.
-Shiki
// At Nara; The smell of chrysanthemums, The ancient images of Buddha. -Bashô
The slanting sun: The shadow of a hill with a deer on it Enters the temple gate.
-Buson
The mountain grows darker, Taking the scarlet From the autumn leaves.
-Buson
The dance of the dragon-flies: A world In the setting sun.
-Kigiku
//
I kept hanging the moon On the pine-tree, and taking it off, Gazing at it the while.
-Hokushi
The autumn full moon; Children sitting in a row On the verandah of the temple.
-Bashô
//
Down from the mountain, The moon
-Chôshû
Accompanied me, And when I opened the gate, The moon too entered.
-Kotomichi
The bright moon: On the tatami The shadow of the pine-tree. -Kikaku
//
White dew on the bramble; One drop On each thorn. -Buson
Peeling a pear, Sweet drops trickle down The knife. -Shiki
The sparrows are flying From scarecrow To scarecrow. -Sazanami
A hundred different gourds, From the mind Of one vine. -Chiyo-ni
Eating persimmons; The bell sounds, Of Hôryûji Temple.
//
-Shiki
In the far depths of the forest, The woodpecker, And the sound of the axe.
-Buson
It Is colder; No insect Approaches the lamp.
-Shiki
The rice having been reaped, The wild camomiles weaken and dwindle, Along the path.
-Shiki
The water becoming lower, How thin and long The legs of the scarecrow!
-Buson
Fallen leaves Come flying from elsewhere: Autumn is ending.
-Shiki
//
It is deep midnight: The River of Heaven Has changed its place.
Leaning against the tree, Branches and leaves are few: A night of stars.
-Ransetsu
-Shiki