Program notes

Pleiades Dances

Pleiades Dances is a collection of little pieces. Yoshimatsu has written nine collections so far, each of which consists of seven pieces. In the preface to the music Yoshimatsu says that these new pieces are the results of [his] attempt to create "a new form of preludes for the modern piano." He also notes, "Simultaneously, they are the etudes in which the J. S. Bach's inventions are projected on the present age through a polarized prism, the transcriptions of imaginary dance music played in fantastical four-dimensional space spreading from ancient times to future and the tiniest dance suites composed only of dots and lines." Yoshimatsu's style can be described as eclectic. Pleiades Dances particularly shows traits from three different genres of music: classical, popular, and folk. Prelude to Little Spring, the first piece of the sixth collection, incorporates characteristics of popular and folk music. Liquid Invention, from the seventh collection, is modeled on J.S. Bach's Inventions although it is a three-voice invention instead of the two voices of Bach. It sounds rather modern because Yoshimatsu brings jazz elements to it. In Slightly Bright Waltz, from the third collection, there are some traits of folk music. Use of alternation of D-flat Lydian and D-flat major gives a vivid taste to the piece.

Patterns of Plants

Fujieda started the series Patterns of Plants in 1995 and completed it in 1999. In total, there are twelve collections, with four patterns in each. These are written for different instruments-some ensembles and some solos-and most collections include traditional Japanese instruments. The foundation of the work comes from data that is taken from plants using an apparatus called a "Plantron." The Plantron picks up from the surface of leaves bioelectric fluctuations in their daily activities, which are then analyzed and converted to digital sonic data by a computer. Thus, the voices of plants are transformed into musical melodies from the sonic data. The seventh collection was written for solo piano in 1997. It is intended to be played on a piano tuned as Werckmeister No. 3, a popular tuning in the Baroque period. He mentions, however, that the musicality of the pieces would not be spoiled by playing them on a modern piano of equal temperament. Pattern a is a good example of what Fujieda calls "ornamental variation in a Baroque style" in the preface to the music, whereas pattern b exemplifies the other style he mentions, "a chain of patterns found in Celtic music."

Tritrope

Tritrope is a piano piece written in 1978 while Nishimura was still a graduate student. The first half of the title comes from the word "triple" while the second half means "revolution, reflection, refraction." Nishimura intends to show the confrontation between and coexistence of different things in a single entity, which is his basic concept of heterophony. The tremolo part is, in particular, exemplifies one of his characteristics: heterophonic writing, which also appears on a larger scale at the beginning of his monumental work, Heterophony for two pianos and orchestra. According to Nishimura, Tritrope is oneness of different characters and writings that are heterophonically put together. Different things are believed to be essentially the same substance, which the composer calls an "organism". Thus, Tritrope unfolds Nishimura's microcosm.

The advent of postmodern music in Japan took place in the late 1970s at a time when neoromanticism was predominant there. Three new streams, however, appeared in 1985 in the works of a younger generation of Japanese composers: 1) eclectic music, 2) music that uses quotations, and 3) pan-Asian music.

Takashi Yoshimatsu (b. 1953) is a representative composer of eclectic music. He blends styles and traits of different periods and various genres, including jazz and rock, in his works. Mamoru Fujieda (b. 1955) composes music using preexisting melodic material. He calls this "a parasitic technique of composition," which is his own system of varying preexisting melodies. Generally speaking, Japanese postmodern music has been moving in tandem with prevailing trends in European countries. However, some Japanese composers are also seeking their identities in the pan-Asian movement. One composer, Akira Nishimura (b. 1953), has been writing this type of music extensively, employing a heterophonic writing style, which has caused a sensation within the contemporary-music scene in Japan.

This lecture-recital explores these three trends and the overall direction of Japanese postmodern music in the last twenty years through a detailed study of representative piano works by these three composers.

Akiko Fukuda started her piano lessons at the age of 6. After she graduated from the Osaka College of Music studying with Yukitoshi Ogawa, Ms. Fukuda came to the U.S. for further piano study with Georgy Sandor in New York. She also studied with Mark Silverman at the Manhattan School of Music, where she got her Master's degree in Music. Ms. Fukuda received a scholarship from Rotary International in order to study in the U.S. again with Sequeira Costa at the University of Kansas. She has participated in master classes by John Perry, Abey Simon, and Claude Frank. She has been active as a soloist and a chamber music performer inside and outside Japan and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.