9 Haiku are a set of varied musical reflections on texts by Basho. Haiku pose a paradox in terms of scope, their concise forms revealing an entire world within. In keeping with this, some of the reflections are as long as 3 minutes, others barely 30 seconds. I chose the texts, then arranged them in a specific order based on subject (birds, moon, bells), framing them by two outer texts suggesting the beginning and end of a life journey. The first setting does make use of an actual rice planting song (Ta-ue-uta), which also recurs in the other settings. The last haiku is significant in that it is Basho’s “death poem” – the last haiku he ever wrote. 9 Haiku was originally composed for Eleonore Pameijier and Marcel Worms as part of their ‘6 Continents Project’.