Kubugam Kakaruk

for Woodwind Quintet

Duration: 9:30 min.

Program Notes:

Kubugam Kakaruk, translated from Melanesian Pidgin, means “Rooster from Kubugam.” The morning after I moved to the Papua New Guinean village of Kubugam, I was awakened at 5AM by the roosters of my host and every neighbour within a mile. The second thing that came to my mind was, “They all sound so different! I need to transcribe these!” (The first thing had been, “I wish the roosters didn’t start crowing so early,” which my roommate later told me was inaccurate because she had heard them crowing at numerous points throughout the night.) The oboe presents several of these rooster crows while the flute and clarinet contribute the more pleasant bird songs of the Kubugam soundscape.

The talent of the musicians at the local Catholic church also provided much inspiration. At one service, they employed at least five musical styles - a mix of local and borrowed; traditional and contemporary. I initially began to compose a mass for choir accompanied by woodwind quintet, but the project soon gave way to others that promised more immediate performances. Seven years later, when the Troy Metro Symphony Orchestra Woodwind Quintet encouraged me to compose something for our group, I decided to retain key aspects of my original concept for the mass, but downscale it to create a single movement work without choir. The horn's initial entrance presents the original intended melody for the Kyrie.

The ocean appears as a third significant image in Kubugam Kakaruk, for Kubugam hugs the coast to the north. The repetitive, overlapping motifs that synchronise and desynchronise imitate the swelling of the waves that endlessly chase each other toward the beach. A canoe gliding through the water takes shape in the drawn-out melody that emerges first in the oboe and bassoon, and then in the flute and horn.