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Kenji Sakai - Blaze for solo bassoon by Kenji Sakai

from Japanese Music Now by Dai Fujikura, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Sayo Kosugi, Kenji Sakai

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about

Blaze, for bassoon, is highly technically challenging, and its many varied performance techniques require adherence to very strict timing. Actually, the structure of the composition is exceedingly simple: all the motifs in the work are spun from three major triads and one rhythmical figure. However, as the piece progresses and time goes on, it develops to the very limit, making complex demands on the listeners. “Limit” is the key word. It is the foundation on which I based the work from the beginning. Blaze, the image of flame feeds back into the composition of the work. Flames flicker, suddenly flare up, sometimes recede into embers, and the musician must embody in performance the very nature of the blaze itself.
Conspicuous among performance techniques are the chordal stops, evoked by the motifs. The bassoon being a melodic instrument, I chose to confront the concept of melody head on. As I now applied the work that I had previously done to this new instrument, I was able to propel my concept to a new dimension. I have divested myself of traditional European definitions of melody, which are already relegated in the contemporary composing world to the realm of antique intervals, and I have found a new range of possibilities in composing a melody.
--Kenji Sakai (English translation courtesy of Music From Japan)

credits

from Japanese Music Now, released July 25, 2018
Composed by Kenji Sakai (2015)
Evan Kuhlmann, bassoon

license

all rights reserved

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