Daryl Jamieson

composer

Press



‘The third work in a trilogy begun in 2014, Is nowhere free of bad tidings? (2017) is based on a deep consideration of the flux of Japanese history. Taken together, the [Vanitas] trilogy is an epic musical work of extraordinarily elegance and contemporary topical perspective.… The piece succeeds in theatrically expressing, by means of its original notational system, the transient spirit of various times and societies, rendering a picture of the world darkly tinged by the harshness of reality.’
Toshi Ichiyanagi, citation for the 2018 Toshi Ichiyanagi Contemporary Prize


‘The soundscape is otherworldly and beguiling, very expressive .... Traditionally, Noh drama is powered by emotion so deep it can only be implied, aspiring to represent a mode of being beyond sorrow. Buddhism aspires to a state of being beyond suffering—Nirvana, a state of complete peace and beautiful stillness. Jamieson aimed to convey such metaphysical ideas through the music and the elegant visual simplicity of Matsumushi.’

Daphna Levit, in Opera Canada, Spring 2015


‘Jamieson's ... delicately-written piece [umoregi for string quartet (2014), premiered by Quatuor Bozzini 13 September 2014] was especially interesting.’

Miyuki Shiraishi, in On Stage, 26 Sept 2014 (Japanese; translated by Daryl Jamieson)


…Snow Meditation, performed a delicate trick in alluding to a particular style without quite sounding like it…. This was a short piece, but a remarkable one.’

Tim Rutherford-Johnson, in New Music Box


re: fugue in b for piano (2010) ‘…there is an almost mystical allusiveness to this piece that may be characteristic. A sense that life is being breathed into or through something that is hardly really there.’

Tim Rutherford-Johnson, The Rambler