ABOUT THE EVENT

Naoyuki Manabe (shō) and Marc Sabat (violin) performs compositions by Banshikichō, John Cage, and Toshi Ichiyanagi at MaerzMusik 2012.

MaerzMusik is the annual Festival of Contemporary Music organised by the Berliner Festspiele. Established artists and young newcomers from all over the world come to Berlin each March to present a full programme with many world premieres and new productions, many of which are commissioned by MaerzMusik.

MaerzMusik is a direct reaction to new relations between sound and society today. The festival for contemporary music transcends the borders between tradition and innovation. With its broad range of orchestral and chamber music, innovative musical theatre, experimental works and media art it provides a fascinating and rich panorama of contemporary music.

The sounds of the shō mouth organ may seem foreign to listeners of Western music – they are reminiscent of an accordeon or a harmonica. The shō is used in traditional Japanese gagaku, a type of music that was played at the Imperial Courts. Approximately 90 compositions are still known of today. These works are tied to traditional rules that do not allow for improvisation. Banshikichō refers to the mode of the work within an untempered modal system, and contains very specific ornamentation, tuning and ranges. When the shō is played, melody, harmony and rhythm unfold in the movement and spatial sound development of dissonant clusters.

John Cage, who was in close contact with Japanese artists from the 1960s onwards, also studied traditional Japanese music with great intensity. His composition Two4 for violin and shō is a challenge in many ways. The violinist has to differentiate six microtones within a semitone, which results in 84 tones at his disposition within an octave. Even though Cage does not demand precision in each individual tone, a defined vagueness is to be displayed within a tonal space. While the violin necessitates playing notes of a long duration, the shō marches quickly through its sound material.

A friend, companion and pupil of John Cage’s, Toshi Ichiyanagi was born in 1933 in Kobe (Japan). From 1952 to 1961 he lived in the USA and attended, among other institutions, the New School for Social Research, at which Cage was an instructor. From 1956 to 1963 he was married to the artist Yoko Ono. Ichiyanagi was one of the New York avant-garde repesenatives of experimental music. After returning to Japan in 1961 he wrote numerous compositions, in which he combines classical Japanese with Western music.

This includes Transfiguration of the Moon (1988), performed here by two composers and soloists. While Naoyuki Manabe is a high-ranking Gagaku and shō musician, Marc Sabat’s long engagement with experimental music and pure tuning systems meant that he was predestined for this concert.

Last update 2012 Editorial Team Classictic.com

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