Autumn River

Combining the simplicity of pentatonic melody with a richer harmonic background, these songs are a fusion of the Eastern culture that framed my youth and the Western culture that was my upbringing. In many ways, therefore, they are an expression of the person I am - in that they belong to one tradition…but also not.
Grateful thanks goes to Sally Wilson for her support, encouragement and willingness to work on these songs in the very straightened circumstances of the current pandemic and for singing them so beautifully. I know we both hope very much that you will enjoy them.
I acknowledge, also, a debt of gratitude to David Hinton for his beautifully limpid translations of the Chinese text. If interested in Chinese poetry and culture, please visit his website: www.davidhinto...
As for Li Po (AD 701-762), some 1000 poems remain of what was once, it seems, a much larger legacy. With Du Fu, his younger contemporary, he is considered to be one of the greatest poets of China’s Tang dynasty. Caught up in the horrors and fall-out of the An Lu-shan rebellion, he spent much of his life as an unsettled wanderer. Often drunk, it is said he died falling out of a boat whilst trying to catch a reflection of the moon in the water…and that leaves in its wake a metaphor for his life, perhaps.