Pentacle for piano (2018)
Pentacles, mantras, mandalas — magical patterns born from ornament have fascinated people across cultures, both in the East and the West. In Western magic, the magic circle is said to separate the inside from the outside of the drawn pattern, protecting the magician from demons or confining them within the circle. The term magic circle (a pattern used to summon demons while forming a battle formation) is said to have been popularized by the manga artist Shigeru Mizuki in his work Akuma-kun. In another manga that I like, Mahōjin Guru Guru by Hiroyuki Eto, the idea is further developed into drawing the pattern while sliding and dancing.
If there is a discipline where one slides, dances, and traces patterns, it is figure skating. Japanese skater Yuzuru Hanyu had just won the gold medal at the PyeongChang Olympics, and the various figures drawn on the ice through dance, together with their sense of motion, truly captivate the audience like magic (coincidentally, Hanyu’s program was based on Abe no Seimei, the onmyōji). The magic of figure skating is supported by the humble discipline of compulsory figures, the precise tracing of geometric shapes. In the same way, the magic of pianism is supported by solfège, the accurate reading of the symbols written in the score.
The piano work Pentacle, composed at the request of my friend Yuiko Yasuda, who was preparing for the Orléans International Piano Competition, is based on a compositional approach in which the pianist “slides, dances, and draws patterns” through performance. I conceived a nested structure in which musical figures emerge from within the sound itself, together with a circular form that continuously returns without interruption, in order to transform the closed system of the notated pattern into an open system — a kind of summoning magic of resonance. I look forward to hearing what kind of demons Ms. Yasuda will summon from this pentacle to enchant the audience.
(Paris, February 17, 2018)
