The Great Wave – 2/9/26
My favorite artist is Winslow Homer, whose marine paintings depict the north Atlantic hammering the rocky coast of Maine. Through that lens, the marine woodcuts of Hokusai are readily accessible to someone oblivious to the nuances of Edo woodcuts as I am. So I as naturally enamored of The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
Being a mathematician by trade, it is apparent that Hokusai’s use of perspective and form enjoy a certain ingrained mathematical harmony. So for example, a Fibonacci curve can be superimposed on the Wave. There are a number of ways that I have seen this attempted. Here is one:
My piece entitled “The Great Wave”, is inspired by Hokusai’s artwork. I wrote it 40 years ago, but have revised and reworked it a bit for this incarnation. Every time I play it, it is different. I rearrange the bits and pieces as the spirit moves me and there are a couple spots that allow for improvisation too.
I played The Great Wave on a 1992 Taylor 555c in a B tuning (BF#BF#G#C#) that I use for maybe 30 – 40 of my songs. For this recording I cheated and swapped in some light gauge strings to be able to play the main theme cleanly. It was a bear to manage on the usual John Pearce medium set I use.
It is also my Tiny Desk 2026 contest entrant, this is the fifth year I have submitted a piece to the NPR Tiny Desk contest. I hope you like it!