IROHA


for soprano and 13 strings koto (2011)

Created by Mao Morita (Soprano) Fumie Hihara (Koto) Salle d’Art Lyrique, CNSMDP, Paris 2011.

In this piece, written around April 2011 for the final concert of the vocal class of Conservatoire de Paris, I’ve used one traditional poem “Iroha-uta”. This poem contains each character of the Japanese syllabary exactly once, but there are at least two way of pronunciation, mainly because of the sound change in the distance of history.

I used this sort of today’s and the past’s difference as the effects of sound modulation or iteration of phrases, and for developing this musicale intention, I’ve also reached to other ways of pronunciation, like as french way of “r” or the voiceless sound.

For the part of japanese traditional instrument Koto, which is the similar instrument of Gayageum, I’ve discussed with the instrumentalist and developed the way of playing as tapping the table of resonance or changing the position of strings, alongside the researchs and inspirations on the traditional gesture of playing.

quotes from the program note

(repeat performance  Soprano : Jeehyun Kim, Gayageum : Seyeon Park, Tongyeong Arts Center, Korea, March 2012)