“patrinia yellow” for Clarinet and Computer

This work is a live performance of a musical score by a clarinet and a computer expressing the annual cycle of a yellow patrinia. Premieringin Korea in 2013, the work comprises a clarinet performance, sounds of the clarinet recorded in real time, in addition to sounds created by acomputer that processed these sound sources. In a song lasting eleven minutes, there are three sections: In the first and second of these, the clarinet and computer play together, while in a third intermediary section the computer plays a solo performance. The compositional method of the piece involves the close arrangement of the sounds made by the performer and computer according to organic laws and parameters in order to express at various scales the circulation/elasticity/rhythm of the life of the plant that is its subject. With its methods of live performances and of processing recorded sound to produce music, or “real-time sampling” comparable to the ecological cycle of a plant, this work can be considered an attempt to explore an original music theory within contemporary music.

I am delighted to see that a work of “music” like this, which would normally be submitted to a composition contest, has been entered in the Japan Media Arts Festival. Not only this, but in its level of completion from the outset, and the sincere attitude with which it questions the use of technology and the meaning of “aesthetic” for us who live in the contemporary age, it excelled in comparison to a great number of works that were not “music”. In addition, the originality of the composer could also be felt, while a strong sense of necessity and persuasiveness in the piece’s detailed description, including musical notation and a technical commentary, or “music notation of a computer”, define the piece as an artwork. (MIWA Masahiro)