Texture

For the last few years, I have considered a musical work as ‘texture’ and have since composed by weaving ‘songs’ into it. ‘Song’ is the melody; a melody always has a central tone, and the central tone is surrounded by many ornaments. The melody adopts a lively calligraphy-like shape, an unforced linear of the Eastern brushstrokes. Furthermore, there is life inside this melodic line as there are in the branches and ivy of a plant, which stretches out freely into the beyond. A melody is then created in accordance with this and the two melodies, masculinity and femininity, still and motion, light and shade, strong and weak, high and low are knotted together without conflict, like the Yin and Yang of the East. This interrelation is gradually augmented and weaved into 3 voices, and still more into 4 voices. Sound texture created using a method based on the sound universe of Yin and Yang, contrary to the Western counterpoint. The arabesque pattern used in the Islamic culture is said to signify the oasis produced by plants that live in the desert, a longing for paradise.

The instrumentation is divided into the following 2 groups; a group consisting of a string quartet and another consisting of clarinet, bassoon, horn and double bass. Through unification and conflict between the 2 groups, the music gradually evolves into a more harmonic world.

- Toshio Hosokawa