Saturday, March 9 – 7pm: Japanese Contemporary Music: Past and Present
Sunday, March 10 – 5pm: Current Sounds Japan IV
The two concerts comprising the main event of Music From Japan Festival 2024, 49th Season and Ninth Artist Residency brought together diverse and essential elements representing contemporary Japanese music. The first concert, “Japanese Contemporary Music: Past and Present”, featured an eclectic program representing over a century of Japanese contemporary music, curated by Koichi Nishi. The second concert, “Current Sounds Japan IV”, continued Music From Japan’s tradition of bringing three Japanese composers to the festival for the American premiere of recent works from their respective catalogs along with the world premiere of works commissioned by MFJ for the occasion. Both concerts were performed by some of New York’s most skilled contemporary musicians, and were supplemented by engaging and informative lectures and/or forums.
Japanese Contemporary Music: Past and Present
On Saturday, March 9, 2024, the opening concert of the Music From Japan Festival 2024 commenced with a lecture from the evening’s curator, Koichi Nishi, titled, “Japanese Contemporary Music: Its History and Current State”. As a respected concert producer and music writer with decades of experience, Mr. Nishi set the stage for the performance with his unique and erudite perspective. His lecture provided background on the composers included in the program, as well as a broader sense of the groundwork laid in the 20th century and the subsequent work built upon it in Japanese Contemporary music.
The first piece on the program was Hochzeitsklänge (roughly translated as “Wedding Music”), by Kosaku Yamada. Written in 1913 for piano quintet, this work proceeds from the beginning in a festive, yet dignified manner. The pitch set of the introductory theme (scale degrees 1-3-2-9 + Hi-sa-fu-ku) are taken from part of his name and that of his fiancé, Fuku, a fact that intimates the level of depth and thought that went into this work. The piece underscores the unity of two parts by featuring a call and response between the piano and string quartet to begin, dancing as two distinct yet deeply connected halves. This is then followed by solo moments for the piano and string quartet respectively, and finally a more intertwined full ensemble section towards the end of the work.
Second on the program was the American premiere of Kikuko Kanai’s Three Capriccios (1966). This duo for trombone and piano is distinct, not only for having been written by a true pioneer of Japanese music – Kanai was one of the first women to rise to national prominence as a composer in the western classical lineage – but also for its neo-romanticism. Contrasting with many works for similar instruments from the same time, Three Capriccios is richly tonal and unapologetically romantic, though also indebted to Okinawan folk songs and other non-western material for its melodic material. This spirit was captivatingly embodied by the performers, Jen Baker (trombone) and Taka Kigawa (piano).
Ikuma Dan’s, Two Fragments in Black and Yellow (2001) was third on the program, also receiving its American premiere. Written during a visit to Suzhou, China (as a prominent proponent of Chinese and Japanese cultural exchange), this work was Dan’s last. The piece utilizes the full lushness of the string quartet – especially its lower register – while adding to it the dynamism of a solo violinist, in this case the vibrant playing of Miho Saegusa. The result combines an aesthetic rooted both in the second Viennese school and the French impressionism of that same period, while also offering something completely its own. The work oscillates between light and dark, the former emanating from the solo violin and the latter from the cello-driven string quartet material, evoking an emotional scale worthy of the master’s late period.
After a brief intermission, the program continued with Bansho (2019), by Yutaka Takahashi. We were lucky enough to have Mr. Takahashi present at the festival, and to have him perform the HiFuMi KamiUta (a Shinto ritual prayer) in the style of Noh dance and song. Performing alongside him was Taka Kigawa on piano. The performance was potent and moving, evoking fully the notion of Amida Buddha and the ritual worship of the setting sun – both ideas are embedded in the title, Bansho, which roughly translates to “late illumination”.
The evening’s music concluded with the world premiere of Shion Sahara’s newest piece, GPGP — The Great Pacific Garbage Patch — (2024). Written out of an effort to more deeply engage with issues of pollution, and to learn more about the namesake body of debris in particular, this work utilizes the duo format to suggest a conflict between nature and polluting forces; the former represented by the viola and the latter the trombone. As happens often with newly written contemporary music, the performers (Jen Baker and Stephanie Griffin) were engaged as collaborators in a sense, working together to overcome the rich technical challenges presented by the score. Along with this, props of detritus on stage created both an improvisational and theatrical character, unique to the moment and the character of the performance. Overall, it was an exciting and humorous end to the evening.
After the performances, longtime friend to Music From Japan, John Rockwell moderated a Q&A with Mr. Nishi, Mr. Takahashi and Jen Baker. They discussed the historical arc of the program, inquiring about the stylistic associations one could hear in the music, the rehearsal process for each piece and more.
CURRENT SOUNDS JAPAN IV
The final event of Music From Japan Festival 2024, Ninth Artist Residency and 49th Season took place on Sunday, March 10. “Current Sounds Japan IV” brought three dynamic Japanese composers working today to New York for the American premiere of recent works from their respective catalogs, to be presented alongside a brand new work commissioned by Music From Japan for the festival. Chiharu Wakabayashi, Mayuko Kawasaki and Koji Fukumaru presented works ranging in method, source material and style, all performed by a collection of New York’s finest contemporary instrumentalists.
The program’s first half featured a recent composition from each invited composer, none of which had been played in the US before. First up was Dashing out Kid V (rev. 2022) for accordion solo, by Chiharu Wakabayashi. WIlliam Schimmel performed this stark work with a captivating patience, reveling in its many silent, or nearly silent, passages. This tone was fitting of the composition’s inspiration, a “dashing out kid” graphic so ubiquitous in Mr. Wakabayshi’s home prefecture, it’s easy to ignore. This piece asks us to slow down and look more closely at what surrounds us.
Cicada’s Wings, Weaving Song (2022) came next – a playful and rhythmically driven duo for flute and koto by Mayuko Kawasaki. The piece employs various preparations for the koto, and auxiliary sound sources for both performers. As with many other works featured on the festival, Cicada’s Wings, Weaving Song uses the duo format to articulate a particular duality in sound – in this case the duality of the raucous noise produced by cicadas (flute) and the weaver’s loom (koto) from Niigata Prefecture, which can be used by a skilled operator to weave silk that approaches the delicacy of those same cicadas’ wings. Laura Cocks and Masayo Ishigure were able to balance their distinct roles with a cohesive duo sound, which seemed at times to come from an even larger grouping, with the help of the aforementioned preparations and sound sources.
Koji Fukumaru’s Figless II (2022) finished the first half of the concert. A timbrally rich and dynamic piece of music written for vibraphone, viola and cello, Figless II derives its name from the Bible’s New Testament. However, its driving force is purely musical in the composer’s description of it – “the music is intended to explore novel acoustic effects against the continuous background of fluctuating harmonies”. The virtuosity required to achieve this was no small feat, as the musicians were required to execute material spanning from the familiar and tonal to the extended and experimental, sometimes within a few bars.
After a short intermission, the program resumed with commissioned works from each composer – all world premieres. Reversing the order of the first half, Koji Fukumaru’s new piece, Figless III (2023) came first. This new edition to Mr. Fukumaru’s series augmented the instrumentation from Figless II, keeping the vibraphone, cello and viola, and adding to it both piano and accordion. In fact, Figless III started out as a shorter third movement for Figless II – once it became clear the form did not benefit from this third section, Mr. Fukumaru decided to develop it into its own piece. Figless III stands out in contrast to its predecessor, utilizing the larger instrumentation to produce a more festive and almost dance-like energy.
Next came Mayuko Kawasaki’s Nonexistent, or LIke a Flash (2024), for baritone saxophone and string trio. Drawing on her love for modern Japanese poetry, Ms. Kawasaki delved into Ryoji Asabuki’s collection, Misshitsu-ron (The Closed Room Treatise) for inspiration. More specifically, she drew upon the poet’s use of the word “nai” – a word with a nuanced meaning; “not, or nothing, does not, none, missing”. These subtly different interpretations of the word translated into compelling music in Nonexistent, or Like a Flash, yielding a wide range of timbres, rhythms, dynamics and densities.
The final commissioned work, and final work presented at the Music From Japan Festival 2024 was Chiharu Wakabayashi’s tree*wood*forest……. TRI-ODE II (2024). Perhaps the most technically difficult work on the program, this piece for viola, cello and contrabass was immediately distinct in its use of hocketing rhythms, relying on each player to embody a distinct rhythmic cell from their colleagues. The task was difficult enough that Mr. Wakabayashi assisted by conducting the piece. But the result was well worth it and executed with aplomb. As the composer himself described, we heard “contradictory times [that] are shared, reciprocated, and contained within each other”.
The program was followed by a forum with the commissioned composers, cellist Christopher Gross, and music critic Susan Brody, all moderated by Fred Sherry. The forum covered the range of materials, methods and style exhibited not only amongst the commissioned composers but also by each composer respectively, as well as the demands put on the instrumentalists to learn the pieces, and much more.
