Commission
Commissioned by Phidias Trio

Performance duration
11’ 30″

Premiere
Phidias Trio vol.8 “Journey, Wander…”
July 1, 2023, Tokyo, KM Art Hall
Maiko Matsuoka, Violin; Ryuta Iwase, Clarinet; Erika Kawamura, Piano

Year of composition
2023

Instrumentation
violin, bass clarinet and piano

Commentary
Each instrument plays a different series of notes. But, the piano plays two kinds of series of notes with different timbres – specifically, a part in the series of muted notes by Blu Tack, and a part in the series of normal notes – two or sometimes three at the same time. These series of notes may be placed within a certain range of tones without any particular order, or they may be placed sequentially as a scale. In some cases, the latter is characterised by a widening or narrowing of the space between notes, but both are plain and without any noticeable rhythmic features. Although they also share the same tempo and time signature (three four), they also use various tuplets and note values to make it seem as if each instrument or part is playing at a different tempo and time signature. Furthermore, even within a single instrument, a series of tones that consists of different tuplets and note values can be inserted, or even parallel to each other. There are of course moments when the notes played by each instrument or part sound at the same time. However, from an aural point of view, these ideas are probably less noticeable in many cases. In addition, because of the technique used, the notes produced by the instruments are not likely to blend together in any ‘fine’ or ‘good’ way as a sound. This music itself does not change much, and the same scenery continues from the beginning to the end. But, I consider this music to be music to listen to or experience in such a way that we simply surrender ourself to the transition of the sounds, or discover some kind of relationship between the notes from the audible sounds, or concentrate on listening to each sound as if it were etched in our ears or memory, etc. I myself listen to or experience this music in such a way. 

Now, I would like to turn the topic from the specifics of this piece (part of it) to a different perspective. However, it is not irrelevant to this piece.

Many people have probably seen or heard the expression that life is a journey (probably at least in Japan). There are times when we walk along a journey with a purpose, and there are surely times when we (try to) wander around aimlessly. There are also times when we stop and turn back. There are also times when we stop and turn back. I think that each pace of walking our way / living our life should be different (even if we are in the bad situation of being forced to do something…). In that process of walking / life, we are often exposed to other people. We often meet others with whom we have had no connection to by chance, sometimes a relationship is built and we walk / live together on the same way for a while. Of course, sometimes we just pass each other, sometimes we part ways, and sometimes we meet up again. Occasionally, even seemingly unrelated person(s) may have been walking together for a certain period of time, just not seen, which means that we had some kind of relationship with such he / she / they. The frequency of such events that lead to recognition and involvement with others is unique to each person’s case. We have stood on a way like this, and the way we walk on may be foggy or hazy, making it difficult to see the surroundings and the distance. This is because we can predict, but not perfectly foresee, what the future has in store for us.

So far, I have written about long journeys, but I also like to wander around in short or small areas. I think those moments are also important in life.

​Postscript
In society, some people are very prominent, conspicuous, remarkable, outstanding and so on, while others are not. But, to varying extents, there is one aspect of society that is formed by the interaction between the lives of these various people.