Born in New York and raised in England and Japan, Haruko Tanaka’s work as an artist spanned film, photography, performance, installation, writing, drawing, graphic design, and collective actions. Deeply contemplative and playful, her work asked its viewers to immerse themselves in the sensory effects of being as they emerged in patterns of travel, migration, relationships, food, language, and the divine. A devout Buddhist, curious, and loving, Haruko inquired into people’s lives with humor and affection and quietly helped countless people with their struggles. She danced, sang, joked, and appreciated the smallest gift, knowing how to savor life. She loved cats (dogs too!), movies and popcorn, hip-hop, the Rock, tennis, folding things, and above all else her family and friends.

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The expression “ghosts see ghosts” was shared with me in English by a Japanese composer friend living and working in Thailand. It is a Thai expression, and while I can’t recall the exact explanation he gave, my impression was that it meant something similar to the English expression “It takes one to know one.” The unseen see the fellow unseen. The forgotten see the fellow forgotten.

The composition Ghosts See Ghosts offers an opportunity to say and hear this translated expression over and over. It is also an occasion to explore other three-word phrases in English constructed in the same manner—one word in the middle sandwiched between the same two words on both ends,for example, “never say never” and “time after time.” All in all, Ghosts See Ghosts is a call-and-response piece that bounces back and forth between mirrored words, inching forward through a life.

I wrote Ghosts See Ghosts for a Reader’s Chorus of twelve or more voices. Founded in 2014 by artists Sara Roberts and Jordan Biren in Los Angeles, The Reader’s Chorus is a group of people who love to read aloud together. We come from varied backgrounds: musicians, filmmakers, poets, visual artists, teachers, etc. We meet every week to experiment with the possibilities of the speaking voice, combining the timbres of differing voices, trying strange speech rhythms and common ones, figuring out ways to have the text move from voice to voice across the room. Members of the chorus bring in a text, something they’ve written or found, and the group, through experimentation, orchestrates it. What we do involves aspects of experimental music practice, poetry, chant, and theater. Our focus, though, is on performing the sound of reading.

Ghosts See Ghosts is dedicated to Jordan Biren, friend, poet, video artist, cofounder of The Reader’s Chorus in Los Angeles, and facilitator of many a blazing hot summer’s eve Reader’s Chorus lab meeting at 951 Chung King Road, home of the Poetic Research Bureau in Chinatown, in downtown Los Angeles. Jordan and his beautiful voice left us in the summer of 2018. One by one, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, gone baby gone.

Haruko Tanaka
June 2019, North Fork, California

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The Reader’s Chorus of twelve or more voices shall be split into two groups of six or more—a ghost chorus and a group of individual petitioners. In an emergency, the piece may be performed by a minimum of four readers.

Configuration “A”

Petitioner
Ghosts see ghosts

Ghost Chorus
What the what

Petitioner
Ghosts see ghosts

Ghost Chorus
What the what

Petitioner
Ghosts see ghosts

Ghost Chorus
What the what

~Chime~ Continue chime while moving into Configuration “B”

Petitioner
Day to day                        Side by side                     Apples to apples

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Petitioner
Step by step                     Toe heel toe

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Petitioner
Head to head                    Face to face                           Eye to eye

Petitioner
Mouth to mouth            Heart to heart                          Toe to toe

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Petitioner
Mano a mano                     Tête-á-tête

Petitioner
Measure for measure     Pound for pound

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Petitioner
On and on                       Around and around

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Petitioner
Month to month           Paycheck to paycheck           Home sweet home

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Petitioner
Bite after bite

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Petitioner
Blood for blood           Violence begets violence            Again and again

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Petitioner
I and I                                       Dog eat dog

Petitioner
Sorry not sorry                Through and through

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Petitioner
Bit by bit

Petitioner
Little by little

Petitioner
Over and over

Petitioner
Line by line

Petitioner
Word for word

Petitioner
Page after page

Petitioner
Cover to cover

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

~Chime~

Move through Transition “C” during following segment

Petitioner                         Petitioner                           Petitioner
Run Forest run                   Run Lola run                            Sit Ubu sit

Petitioner                         Petitioner                            Petitioner
Boy on boy                            Girl on girl                           Never say never

All Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Configuration “D”

~Chime~

Petitioners (half the group)
Day by day

Petitioners (half the group)
Hand in hand

Petitioners (half the group)
Arm in arm

Petitioners (half the group)
Up and up

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Petitioners (half the group)
Black on black

Petitioners (half the group)
Time after time

Petitioners (half the group)
White on white

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Soloist                          Soloist                               Soloist                             Soloist

All in all                       One by one                        Ashes to ashes                      Dust to dust

~Chime~

Petitioners (All)
Gone baby gone

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Petitioners (All)
Gone baby gone

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

Petitioners (All)
Gone baby gone

Ghost Chorus
Ghosts see ghosts

~Chime~