The composer lived in Japan from the age of 5 to 8. Some of his earliest musical recollections are Japanese.

Besides relying on motives from traditional Japanese music, In This World quotes three Japanese compositions:

–Etanraku, “a pedigree workhorse of a melody”, used again and again in l9th century “Imayo”, sung poetry associated with the nobility

–Edo Lullaby, from Japan’s later middle ages (17th cent. – 1868), the so-called Edo Period (Edo was the name for Tokyo before it became the capital of Japan)

–Midare, by Yatsuhashi Kangyo, composer of koto music, who lived from 1614 to 1685. The title means “rough, unorthodox.”

The title is taken from two haiku by Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), a much-loved poet, sometimes described as a Whitman or Neruda in miniature:

In this world

we walk on the roof of hell

gazing at flowers.

Only birds

Sing the music of heaven

in this world.