far-off music, barely audible (2004)
Genre / ジャンル
Orchestra
Instrumentation / 編成
2.2.2.2, 4.3.3.1, timpani, 2 perc, 6.6.4.4.3
Duration / 演奏時間
15 minutes
Other information / 他の情報
Programme Note
far-off music, barely audible takes its title from a line in Murakami Haruki’s novel Sputnik Sweetheart. The novel’s main character has come from Tokyo to a Greek island to search for his missing friend Sumire, and is awakened one night by ‘barely audible’ music coming from atop a nearby hill. As he walks towards the ghostly sounds, the music gradually takes on the character of a rough folk dance. He begins to think that possibly Sumire had heard the same ethereal music and been drawn away from this world, to what she called ‘the other side’.
My intention is not to recreate that aural scene, complete with Greek folk instruments and magical midnight sounds. I merely use it as an analogy; over the course of this piece the initially deep, ambient music gradually crystallises into a high, fast-paced dance. Within the piece there are six overlapping layers, each faster than the one before, so that the final layer is 6 times faster than the first one. All six layers have the same rhythmic and harmonic structure, so the main difference between the layers is the time it takes to go through them. I hope to alter the sense of time passing throughout the length of the piece, to transport you briefly away from ‘this side’.
My intention is not to recreate that aural scene, complete with Greek folk instruments and magical midnight sounds. I merely use it as an analogy; over the course of this piece the initially deep, ambient music gradually crystallises into a high, fast-paced dance. Within the piece there are six overlapping layers, each faster than the one before, so that the final layer is 6 times faster than the first one. All six layers have the same rhythmic and harmonic structure, so the main difference between the layers is the time it takes to go through them. I hope to alter the sense of time passing throughout the length of the piece, to transport you briefly away from ‘this side’.
Not published or recorded. Contact the composer for further information.