Hokkaido Spring – Bertha Hope

Hokkaido Spring begins with a meditative vamp intro, with the bass and piano repeating a cyclical phrase in low-register unison. The head seems at first quite different: a lively swinging theme beginning with two measures of rhythmic hits. However, variations of the intro vamp are incorporated into the melody. Like the intro, the head form is cyclical. It’s twelve measures long, but not quite a blues; the changes move first stepwise, then in a cycle of fourths, ending on two measures each of E♭6 and A♭7 to lead back to G minor for the next chorus.

Solos are on the head form; the intro doesn’t return, but there is a coda based on the beginning of the head, resolving back to Gm13.

Click on the second album cover for Bertha’s solo piano arrangement, recorded by Glenn Zaleski.

From the liner notes of “Between Two Kings”: “The opening motif of Hokkaido Spring comes from a chant Bertha heard while on the beautiful northernmost island of Japan. Later the pianist heard a similar song being ‘played’ by the wind on the five flagpoles in front of the building where she was performing. She recalls, ‘The wind moved the strings on these poles like five single string instruments that played this incredible melody that I couldn’t get out of my mind’.”