Incidental music scored for solo piano to accompany the Japanese folk tale (ghost story) Yuki-Onna ("Snow Woman"). Part of a melodrama project initiated at Morley College, London, 2019.

Synopsis:

Two wood-cutters, Mosaku and his apprentice Minokichi, encounter a terrible snow-storm and take shelter in an empty hut by a river. The storm gets worse and worse, but they both finally fall asleep. When Minokichi wakes, he sees a woman all in white bending over Mosaku breathing bright white smoke onto his face. She then approaches Minokichi. She is very beautiful, but her eyes make him afraid. After a while she says, “I intended to do the same to you as I did to the old man, but I feel pity for you because you are a pretty young man. If you ever tell anybody what you have seen, however, I will kill you too.” And she vanishes into the snow storm. It is then that Minokichi discovers Mosaku dead on the floor of the hut.

Years later Minokichi meets a beautiful girl, who calls herself O-Yuki. He falls in love with her and they live together in his house, along with his mother, who fortunately takes a liking to her new “honourable daughter-in-law.” Over the years O-Yuki gives birth to ten children and the villagers all agree that she is a wonderful person. But she is somehow different from them, as she continues to look young and fresh, despite the passing years. Minokichi often thinks of telling O-Yuki about the events of years ago, and eventually, as he is gazing at her beauty one night, he can resist it no more. He begins to tell her about the snow storm and the terrifying snow-woman. To his horror O-Yuki becomes more and more angry, and she finally says: “It was me, it was me,… and I said I would kill you if you ever told anyone! But for these children asleep here, I would do so this very moment! You had better take very good care of them; for if ever they have reason to complain of you, I will treat you as you deserve!” As she screams at him her voice becomes thin, like the crying of the wind, and she melts into a bright white mist spiralling into the roof-beams. At that moment it starts to snow, but O-Yuki is never seen again.