This piano solo is taken from the ensemble work Things That Gain By Being Painted for soprano, speaker, cello and piano. The text comes from the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon written in the 10th century by a lady-in-waiting at the Japanese court.In the original work music and text inhabit separate worlds; they run in parallel but mostly ignore each other.The following text was part of the piece:Things that give a hot feeling,the effect of tears on make-up,the folly of unattractive people who sleep together during the day.
Gerald Barry (b.1952)
