Daryl Jamieson, ‘from the Centre’ and ‘from the North’ from Descants 4 (2021)

Описание: Performed by Tomoko Akasaka (viola)

Programme Note:
Descants is a series of pieces for solo instruments in natural environments. ‘Natural’, in my meaning, includes humanmade environments, eschewing any artificial distinction between humans and the rest of the environment. The composed music is intended to become a part of the natural
soundscape, not foregrounded or separated from the natural sounds around it.
Descants 4 consists of five short pieces for viola. It is loosely structured around a mediaeval Japanese conception of poetry and other arts, which related it to esoteric Buddhist practice, Confucianism, and nature. The key concept is the phrase 'every living thing, without exception, composes poetry', where living things also include water, rocks, and the very land itself, and where composing poetry is equivalent to offering praise to Buddha and revealing the secret spiritual truths of the universe.


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Music and the Non-Human
2024 Concert Series, Concert 5
21 October, Kyushu University, Faculty of Design, Acoustic Research Centre

Series Concept:
This year's concert series ‘Music and the Non-Human’ is part of a three-year research project that draws on Japanese philosophy and aesthetics rooted in premodern, non-Western ontologies to interpret the relationship between human and non-human sounds from a new perspective.
The composers explore their relationship with nature and spiritual elements, drawing inspiration from pre-modern philosophy and nō theatre works. Inspiration from nature, field recordings and contemporary music with traditional instruments intersect to define meaningful ways of creating, listening to, sharing (and discussing) music in unstable times.