Well Drops / 井の滴り (2023)
Genre / ジャンル
fixed audio media / 固定オーディオ・メディア
Duration / 演奏時間
9 minutes / ９分
Other information / 他の情報
Premièred 1 September 2023, Koishikawa Botanical Garden, Tokyo Japan
2023年9月1日、東京都小石川植物園に於いて初演されました
2023年9月1日、東京都小石川植物園に於いて初演されました
Programme Note
Well Drops was commissioned by the University of Tokyo’s memu earth lab for their 2023 ‘sounding garden’ project. This project consisted of ten electronic and electroacoustic works installed in the Koishikawa Botanical Gardens, both in around the gardens and in various greenhouses and buildings. This piece for six speakers was written for the well of the hospital which was on the site in the Edo period, next to the garden of medicinal herbs. Each of the six channels is completely independent, with a different sound source for each. The speakers in the garden were placed in a circle around the well, positioned so that it would be difficult to hear all six at the same time except from the very centre of the circle (i.e., the well).
The six sound sources were (1) a soundscape recording of the ambient resonances deep inside the well; (2) piezo contact microphone recording of the ambient vibrations of the well; (3) soundscape recording of the medicinal herb garden at dusk; (4) Nō actor Imamura Yoshitarō chanting an except from the climax of Konparu Zenchiku’s nō play Ugetsu, which is a play about the aestheticisation of humbleness, the equality of men’s and women’s work (the latter of which would have included healing) and Zenchiku’s understanding of spirituality as including nature and humanity on an equal footing; (5) a female shaman Koyama Yoshiko who uses her voice to channel the voices of the medicinal plants she works with; and (6) the sound of a viola player (Tomoko Akasaka) imitating seagulls with her instrument by the shore of Iki-no-matsubara.
By bringing together sounds of the land, air, and water, and highlighting the equality of plants and humans, women’s work (healing)/knowledge (medicinal plants) and men’s, the past (history of the place, as well as Zenchiku’s aesthetics and spirituality) and the present, the work encourages curiosity in the listener about the future – what we can learn from the past that modernity has forgotten or suppressed.
The six sound sources were (1) a soundscape recording of the ambient resonances deep inside the well; (2) piezo contact microphone recording of the ambient vibrations of the well; (3) soundscape recording of the medicinal herb garden at dusk; (4) Nō actor Imamura Yoshitarō chanting an except from the climax of Konparu Zenchiku’s nō play Ugetsu, which is a play about the aestheticisation of humbleness, the equality of men’s and women’s work (the latter of which would have included healing) and Zenchiku’s understanding of spirituality as including nature and humanity on an equal footing; (5) a female shaman Koyama Yoshiko who uses her voice to channel the voices of the medicinal plants she works with; and (6) the sound of a viola player (Tomoko Akasaka) imitating seagulls with her instrument by the shore of Iki-no-matsubara.
By bringing together sounds of the land, air, and water, and highlighting the equality of plants and humans, women’s work (healing)/knowledge (medicinal plants) and men’s, the past (history of the place, as well as Zenchiku’s aesthetics and spirituality) and the present, the work encourages curiosity in the listener about the future – what we can learn from the past that modernity has forgotten or suppressed.
解説
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