Byron Au Yong

songs of dislocation
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Forbidden Circles
for soprano, shakuhachi, shamisen, 17-string koto, percussion

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DESCRIPTION
With Forbidden Circles, I go beyond the circles of convention to investigate the forbidden. I am a Chinese American composer yet I write for Japanese musical instruments. The work is for hogaku ensemble yet is recently composed. The text is from a male perspective yet a female vocalist performs the songs. The Japanese poet Mutsuo Takahashi inspired the lyrics, yet his ideas are translated to and sung in English.

The contradictions abound yet provide the conceptual grounding for this work. The soprano chants a litany of Japanese vocal styles combined with outbursts from Takahashi's realizations of sexual longing to reach a place that reflects my everyday existence as a global citizen caught between cultures.
Byron Au Yong

DETAILS
  • Duration 5 minutes
  • Premiered at the Fukuoka Gendai Hogaku Festival, Acros Theatre in Japan, 2002
  • Performed by Ora-J at the International House of Japan in Tokyo on 20 October 2006

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