| DESCRIPTION
Two by Four
features nagauta voice singing the names of stars in Latin and Japanese
along with gongs/taiko played mallet-style with two sticks in each
hand. The graphic-notation score is modeled after a Japanese star map
from the 16th century.
PROGRAM NOTESOne
summer, I visited Ōn Ensemble in Mt. Shasta. Two of the members were
raised near this sacred mountain. I wanted to experience the childhood
homes of these Los Angeles-based musicians.
One night, Maz,
Kris, Shoj and his dad told stories under the stars. I fell asleep
listening to their deep voices. In my slumber, I discovered that my
role as a composer was to discover alternate sound possibilities for
North American taiko music. Rather than structure rhythmic motifs, I
thought about patterns of noise. What if North American taiko music
embraced the attention to sound textures of hogaku music?
I
realized that Two by Four embraced the ephemeral quality of circulating
stars similar to the member of the Ōn Ensemble -- transnational artists
who travel between the United States and Japan.
Two by Four
hovers in a summer dream space, nagauta voice, gongs and taiko cross
between the Latin and Japanese words for stars, between now and then,
and between the listener and the night-mountain sky.
Byron Au Yong | | DETAILS
- Duration 5 minutes
- Commissioned by Ōn Ensemble
- Premiered at Grand Performances, California Plaza, Los Angeles, August 2003
- Recorded on the CD Dust and Sand, released by Ōn Ensemble in 2005
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