MUSICAL WORKS

OSAKA Naotoshi / 小坂直敏

1994

Limpid mirror / 真澄鏡 / Masokagami

Birth Y: 1953 Birth C: JAPAN Gender: Male

Dest: Concert

Media Specification: Mixed music

Performer(s): Setsu Inoue, Soprano Naotoshi Osaka, computer

First perf.: Computer Music Today, organized by Japan Computer Music Association, at Kobe Xebec Hall, Nov. 6, 1994

Perf. Country: JAPAN, DENMARK

Instruments: For Soprano and computer

Production Periods: 1994

Prog. notes: The word Masokagami represents a limpid mirror used in religious services in ancient Japan. It also contains the words for `shine' and `image's. In music or acoustic signal, it is very important to repeat or overlap the same information over and over again. In the counterpoint, which is one of the fundamental composition techniques, musical order is produced by using the repetition of theme's variation, such as inversion, retrograde etc. In the meantime, the acoustic signal gives us different impressions in relation to the delay time, such as timbre variation, reverberation, and echo.
The concept of “repeating the same information” is important not only in music, but also in visual art and even in daily life. Various mirrors are tools to reflect or repeat rays. By choosing a mirror as the theme of a piece, the composer tries to evoke a double effect, conveying the impression of the mirror and musical unification. Lyric texts are referred to “Man'yoshu”, which is an eighth century style of poetry, consisting mainly off tanka poems, the Japanese ode of 31 (5+7+5+7+7) syllables. Three tankas are selected because of their relevance to a mirror,
2. masokagami:
o No. 2810 Otonomi o Kikiteya kohim masokagami meni tadani ahite kohimakumo ooku.
o No. 2811 konokoto o kikamto aram masokagami tereru tsukiyomo yaminomini mitsu.
o No. 2634 Satotoomi kohiwabinikeri masokagami omokagesarazu yumeni miekoso.
In this performance, MAX and Otkinshi are running on a Next computer with ISPW.

Editor: N. Osaka (Sept. 17, 2012)

Comment: Osaka's Reg. No. 4
Reperformed at MUSIANA 95, at Lousiana Museum, Denmark with Hanne Andersen (Soprano) on Sep. 3, 1995.