Australia Asia Foundation Sonic Gallery

Sonic Exhibition 05/06
November - December 2006

Three Japanese Soundscapes

for Japanese instruments

Music created by Marty Regan

Three Japanese Soundscapes (MP3)

Composer's notes:

Three Japanese Soundscapes is my first composition for Japanese instruments ensemble. It was composed over a three-month period from November 2000 to January 2001, just a few months after I arrived in Tokyo as a Japanese government-sponsored research student and started taking lessons on the shakuhachi, studying composition for traditional Japanese instruments, and playing taiko.

This piece reflects a period in my development as a cross-cultural composer when I was completely enamored with traditional Japanese music. The multiple influences in this piece are subtle and difficult to pinpoint, but my aim was to give voice to the sonic soundscape that surrounded me in my daily life in Tokyo. There are elements of numerous genres of traditional Japanese music that live in the work, including classical koto and shakuhachi repertoire, Japanese theater music, and festival taiko music, not to mention gendai-h?aku (contemporary music for traditional instruments) and the undeniable influence of my teacher, Minoru Miki.

It is divided into three movements, Jo, Ha, and Kyu. These terms are borrowed from gagaku (Japanese imperial court music imported from China during the seventh-century) and classical koto repertoire, referring to a traditional aesthetic form characterized by specific tempo relationships. Jo is an introduction characterized by a slow, irregular, and fluctuating pulse, Ha is characterized a regular pulse that gradually accelerates, and Kyu is characterized by rushing forward to a dynamic and textural climax. While this served a basic starting point for the piece, I depart from the form on numerous occasions. My use of the term, therefore, is more allegorical than descriptive. That is to say, I use the term to pay homage to the many genres of traditional Japanese music that are reflect in the piece.

The first two movements are monothematic, and towards the end of the third movement after an exciting taiko cadenza, these two themes reappear and are layered on top of each other as the taiko leads the ensemble into a wild, exciting, and fiery finish reminiscent of a boisterous Japanese festival. Three Japanese Soundscapes was premiered at National Theater in June 2001 as part of the National Theater of Japan Composition Contest for Traditional Japanese Instruments.

About the composer

Marty Regan graduated from Oberlin College in 1995 with a B.M. in Composition and a B.A. in English and East Asian Studies. From 2000-2002 he studied composition and took applied lessons on traditional Japanese instruments as a Japanese government-sponsored research student at Tokyo College of Music. He has composed many works for traditional Japanese instruments, is active as a composer and conductor in AURA-J (a contemporary music ensemble of Japanese instrumentalists) and is currently working on an English translation of Minoru Miki's book, Composing for Japanese Instruments, for publication. In June 2001 and 2002, his compositions Three Japanese Soundscapes and Shinonome no Uta (Song-Poem of the Eastern Clouds) were premiered at the 4th and 5th Annual Composition Competition for Traditional Japanese Instruments at the National Theatre of Japan. In 2005 he was awarded the Tai Hei Shakuhachi Scholarship in recognition of his efforts in advocating the Japanese performing arts abroad and studied traditional Korean music at the National Center for the Korean Traditional Performing Arts under the auspices of the Korea Foundation. He spent the 2005-2006 academic year in Tokyo working on his dissertation under the auspices of the Japan Foundation Doctoral Fellowship and the Andrew Nyborg Fellowship in Music and just completed his Ph.D. in Music with an emphasis in Composition at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. He lives in Boulder, Colorado. Marty Regan can be contacted at: http://martyregan.com