The four works for piano recorded on this CD were written between 2017 and 2021. All were composed using a random number method. More precisely, each of the sonic components of sounds made from random numbers was changed, based on my own sensibility, into another sound that I was happy with. This transformation was carried out little by little every day, like writing in a diary, resulting in the creation of each individual sound.
I always write similar things in explanatory notes about my work, but when performing or hearing from start to finish these sounds created from random numbers, the music loses its directionality, its time stands still, and one's ears are opened up not to the music as a whole but rather to each individual moment of sound. I always hope they will be sounds that awaken memories in each listener.
Now I'll briefly explain the four pieces in this recording. "A Chair in Summer" was composed in 2020. The title was taken from the line in a poem by Setsuko Tsuji, "Beckoned by a butterfly's wings and a summer bench." The piece was created from just two types of elements—sounds that pass quickly, and sounds that are played in a slow, unhurried way. "of rain," also written in 2020, took inspiration from a line in a poem by E.E. Cummings: "Nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands." This was my first composition adopting the method of playing the inside of the piano. I used a grand piano in a rental studio, since I don't have one at home, and composed the piece through repeated trial and error. When it was premiered, I found that some of the playing methods were not effective, so I changed them to different methods for this CD recording.
"Night View" originally had the boring title "Piano Quintet Piano Solo Version." I changed it for inclusion of the work in this album. This is a piano-only version of "Piano Quintet," which I composed in 2017. Incidentally, "Piano Quintet" consists entirely of the repetition of one chord played on piano followed by a different chord played by string quartet. "Yakyoku" was composed in 2021. The title is from Akio Yashiro's piano piece "Nocturne," which he composed when he was in his teens. I first heard it when I was in high school. I recall that I wrote a piece with the same title when I was 19. In "Night View," which drew inspiration from the use of shadow in Hideaki Nishiyama's photo book "The Light that Never Touches," I aimed to create a murky feeling with various low sounds. I wanted to produce the beautiful murkiness of the low range. Like the first track on this album, "A Chair in Summer," it consists of sounds that pass quickly and sounds that are played slowly.
I'm not one of those people who have been playing an instrument or composing music since I was a child, so I can't play an instrument with dexterity or create various types of compositions with ease. But I like making things, and I particularly like making works with sounds, so at some point I realized that I was "composing." By the way, when I was a student, I wrote little novel-like works and poems, although I can't write that kind of thing anymore. At the time, I especially liked surrealist poetry and paintings. As for music, that's what I'm doing now, but there are times when I think it might have been better if I'd gone into a different type of "craft." In reality, though, it turned out, for better or worse, that I compose music. My intention is to create works with the feeling of making things, through the medium of music, that have the quality of poems or paintings. (It's up to people who listen to them to decide if I've succeeded.) Of all my recent music, I think the four pieces recorded here have achieved this aim with comparative success.
Lastly, I'd like to thank Satoko Inoue and everyone involved in the process of turning the pieces I scribbled into a CD.
Born in 1972, Taizo Hida is a composer based in Osaka. After graduating from the music department of Kyoto City University of Arts, he studied composition with Yoriaki Matsudaira. Pianist Satoko Inoue is known for her contemporary classical music performances inside and outside Japan. Her many albums include "Works for Piano" (ftarricl-666), a collection of compositions by Yuka Shibuya, released on the Ftarri Classical label in 2021.
The four works for piano on of rain (each around 15 minutes long) were composed by Taizo Hida between 2017 and 2021. All are performed by Satoko Inoue. Both the first track, “A Chair in Summer” (2020), and the final track, “Yakyoku” (2021), are made up entirely of sounds that pass very quickly and sounds that are played slowly. The title of “A Chair in Summer” was taken from a poem by Setsuko Tsuji, while that of “Yakyoku” (“nocturne”) is from a composition by Akio Yashiro. Track 2, “Night View,” is the piano solo version of “Piano Quintet,” a work for piano and string quartet composed in 2017. The title track, “of rain” (2020), is a compsition inspired by a line in a poem by E.E. Cummings. This is Hida’s first work for piano incorporating the method of playing the inside of the instrument.
The recording took place in the Main Hall of the Cultural Centre of Fujimi City on July 4 and 5, 2022. In these outstanding performances, the distinctive beauty of Taizo Hida’s compositions is ideally expressed by the renowned pianist Satoko Inoue.
All compositions by Taizo Hida
Satoko Inoue: piano
Recorded in the Main Hall of Cultural Centre of Fujimi City, July 4 and 5, 2022
Recording engineer: Yukio Kojima (ALM Records)
Assistant engineer and editing: Jun Kawanami (ALM Records)
Front cover photo: Taizo Hida
Back cover photo: Yuji Itoh
Design: Cathy Fishman
Delightful album! The piano skill, with purposely driven restraint has hints of Feldman. One rarely finds such appreciation for the silence between the notes. Richard Erickson
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