Andrew Juniper (Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence) notes that, "If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi." Richard Powell (Wabi Sabi Simple) distills it to "nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect." Whatever is true of this aesthetic, in Schocker's reality it becomes two movements of both haunting and frenetic music in a Japanese vein. We are fortunate to have a YouTube performance by the composer and pianist Fumi Kuwajima as a guide.

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Text from the scanned back cover:

WABI-SABI for Flute and Piano
Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese term referring to a creative aesthetic evoked from the principles of impermanence, imperfection, and incompleteness, and the beauty that arises from these constraints. To an American composer, it’s also a fun-sounding word with a lot of phonetic bounce. Dedicated to Soshu Sen, the 14th President of Tea Ceremony, Schocker’s WABI-SABI uses Japanese melodic style in creating a unity of these seemingly opposite inspirations.

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