City of Song
by Chris Mosdell
The lyricist’s testament to the intense energies within his place of residence—a set of librettos and choral arias composed to sing Tokyo into life; songs that distill the nature of the city—a city comprising of twenty-three ku or wards (the precise number of chromosomes in a human reproductive cell), a city at once a living entity, at once a dramatic stage set. Consisting of forty-six librettos for soloists (twenty-three male/twenty-three female) and an additional twelve choral “throng songs” for the entire twelve million citizens of the city, the book is a vast operatic script. Songs include Aorta Avenue, Pieced By Mystic Shrapnel, In the Manic Dormitory of the Half-Harlot Boys and The Disintegration Jig.
Published by Edokko Editions, 2006.
Let the eruption rites get underway
At the Festival of Brilliant Decay...
— Chris Mosdell
