Takahiro Kuroda
Composer
von Grau umrahmte Stille
Commission
Commissioned by Satoko Inoue
Performance duration
40’
Premiere
March 6, 2022, Tokyo, Tokyo Opera City Recital Hall
Satoko Inoue, Piano
Year of composition
2021
Instrumentation
Piano
Commentary (English version)
This is the first piece that reflects my post-2021 thinking and interest in "thinking about the existence of sound and silence and their relationship, as well as my interest in the presence and transformation of time and space in compositional works that arise from that thinking."
When a drop of water is placed on a piece of white paper or tissue paper on a desk, the wetted area becomes darker and appears grayish in color. This is simply because the amount of light reflected has been reduced by the wetness. When the water soaks into the paper or tissue paper sufficiently, the parts that were not visible due to the paper or tissue paper become visible through them.
This piece was composed in 2021. When composing this piece, I imagined the space of the performance hall as white paper or tissue paper, and the sound as a drop of water. I was composing this piece with the image of transforming the space little by little according to these images. That is, this is how I imagined it: by placing the sound in the space like a drop of water on a piece of paper or tissue paper, the space as the paper or tissue paper becomes wet and its color becomes darker, furthermore, as the space becomes wetter and wetter, the other side of the space becomes transparent.
Sounds and silences are invisible and pass away, but what the listener hears/feels is stored in his (her) memory as an experience, consciously or unconsciously. Now, do the listeners feel any difference in the space they are in before and after listening to this work? I wish, we can hallucinate the transformation of the space as sounds are placed and accumulated over time.
Commentary (Japanese version)
この作品は「音と沈黙が存在することやそれらの関係性について考え、さらにその思考から生まれる作曲作品における時間や空間の在り方や変容について関心がある」という、私の2021年以降の思考と関心を反映させた最初の作品です。
机の上に置いた白い紙やティッシュペーパー上に水滴を垂らすと、濡れた部分は濃くなり灰色のような色に見えます。これは、簡単に説明すると濡れたことによって光の反射量が減ったからです。さらに水滴を垂らしていき、水が十分に染み込むと紙やティッシュペーパーの向こう側が透けて見えるようになります。
この作品は2021年に作曲されましたが、その際に、演奏会場の空間を白い紙やティッシュペーパーに、音を水滴と見立て、水滴を垂らしていくように音を空間に置いていき、紙やティッシュペーパーが濡れていくことで色が濃くなるような、更には向こう側が透けて見えるような変化のように、空間を少しずつ変容させていくイメージを持って臨んでいました。
音や沈黙は目に見えなく過ぎ去っていくものですが、聴き手が聴いた／感じたそれらは彼（女）らの記憶に意識的に、或いは無意識的に体験として蓄積されていきます。さて、聴き手はこの作品を聴く前と聴いた後で、自分たちのいる空間に対して何か違いを感じるのでしょうか？願わくは、時間の経過とともに音が置かれ、蓄積されていくことで空間が変容していく様を幻視できることを。
