Yuasa - Cosmos Haptic II

This music, the seventh of my solo pieces for piano, was commissioned by the eminent Japanese pianist Aki Takahashi and premiered at her recital in Yokohama in February 1986. Cosmos Haptic II is based on a modal arrangement of twelve tones, a kind of custom "dodecaphony," and it is comprised of six sections of different character. I intended throughout to write a music that can come to life only on the piano, developing the characteristics of this instrument to the utmost, especially the sonority generated from its massive body (functioning as the resonator). In this piece, the continuous focus of attention should be on the transformation of reverberation (blended by the use of pedals) along with the passage of time, rather than the arrangement of the notes themselves.

This is the second instantiation of Cosmos Haptic, which I composed in 1957. This work reflects a certain image that I had at the time of composing. The image emerges from the intercourse between humanity and the universe, and contains the most primitive, vital, and religious emotions. Out of that, I believe, a deep human passion had developed, and from there, the earliest music arose. (Primitive religions occurred in a similar way when human beings brought the universe into relationship with themselves and differentiated if from human existence.) "Haptic" is a word employed in Icon and Idea by Sir Herbert Read. It is used to explain the way that painters of primitive art such as that found in the Caves of Altamira grasped form using their inner perceptions (at the level of the somatic cell) rather than simply observing the drawn subject from the outside. - JY

Niimi - Ohju

The title consists of two juxtaposed Chinese kanji characters - "Oh," meaning horizontal, and "ju," meaning vertical. The idea of opposites implied here can also be extended to signify the juxtaposition of time vs. space.

Zeami (early 15th century Japan - known as the founder of modern Noh drama) describes the singing in Noh as consisting of a "vertical" and "horizontal" voice. By this he meant the deep voice originating in the chest and the finer voice coming from the head region.

I had two ideas in mind concerning the title's horizontal/vertical concept. The first is the vocal calls made by the drummers in Noh drama; sounds which range from high to low notes and strike deep into the hearts of the listeners; arousing the pathos, suffering and warmth of our world, yet, at the same time transcending all of this. This total experience was reborn within me as inspiration for new violoncello compositional material, and a new realization of the horizontal/vertical relationship.

The other idea concerns compositional structure. Horizontal and vertical, again juxtaposed to represent the essence of space and time. The spatial expansion of each section, 1 through 12, is horizontal, but in the movement from one section to the next, one experiences the vertical world of time.

I have used the violoncello, an introverted instrument capable of rich tonal possibilities, to express the callings of a voice deep within me, and I listen to violoncello in this piece as my own voice, speaking softly out of my soul. - TN

Nishimura - Madoromi III

This is the third work in my chamber music series Madoromi. Translated to English, madoromi means "under the spell of sleep…..a strong desire (or lack of resistance) to sleep….drift into sleep with strong power." The type of sleep, itself, is shallow, but the dreams that one experiences are often more realistic than reality. One experiences vividly and dramatically the outside layer of this psychological world. It is a world that is above a realistic and continuous time stream; but this world also has a connection with reality. One may think of the ocean as an illustration - realistic experience is above the water, and a shallow dream is just under the surface of the water. The dream from shallow sleeping is a psychological or inside world of the ocean scenery and false experience.

Against the soft acoustics of madoromi, its dream sometimes strongly shakes the psychological world. It is a fight between Eros and Tanatos in a psychological zone that is lit by the real world. One wakes up momentarily between the wave of madoromi, and again sinks between the waves - waves between reality and un-reality…..between both types of sleepiness - the spell and emancipation of drowsiness. I wanted to write music that floats between the surface wave of this inner world.

Madoromi III is commissioned by and dedicated to Kazuko Tanosaki and E. Michael Richards. The clarinet part is based on special techniques and notation from Mr. Richards' superior book, The Clarinet of the Twenty-First Century. - AN

Niimi - The Soul Bird

Frequently, it has been thought that the bird is symbolic of flight, and is a substantialized one of a soul. Also, regarding the uttered sound, a life (soul) lives upon individual sound - floating, dancing, and then flying into the cosmos. I hope my written sounds will become such a thing - the flute sound begins its life, and moves ahead by flying within the harmonics sounded by the piano. The music is written in one movement. - TN

Nishimura - Organums: III. Hemiola; IV. Melisma

Organums consists of 5 pieces. I want the listener to stare at the sounds - to put himself inside the acoustics. The soundspace gap becomes bigger and starts showing the cosmos on the other side. In the first two pieces I use drones to create high tension. The form that I envision (mikagura) is that from before Japanese recognized the concept of time….stopping time, painting over other time with layering.

The third piece, Hemiola, is based on two meanings of the 2 to 3 ratio. The first is the division of a half note into three equal parts. The second is the interval of the perfect fifth - 2/3 of an octave. I use six notes from middle C. The dream of a clear perfect fifth world….as if it is a primitive cosmos moving in perfect harmony.

Melisma refers to ornamental singing style. In this piece, the melody and melisma separate. They eventually become close, and the melody becomes thicker creating layers. The melisma moves to the inside of these acoustic layers. The melisma becomes trills and vibrates. I wanted to draw sound as a living creature. - AN