Midlands Piano: Spotlighting Birmingham Composers | Concert | NottNOISE

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Part of NottNOISE New Music Marathon, 29 November 2020. For full programme see www.lakesidearts.org.uk/NottNoiseMarathon

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Cobalt Piano Duo (Fumiko Miyachi & Kate Halsall) https://cobaltpianoduo.com
Fumiko Miyachi Up & Down
Michael Wolters Gisela Doesn't Care

Ikuko Inoguchi (piano) http://ikukoinoguchi.com
John Cage Haiku & Seven Haiku
Jonathan Harvey Haiku
Joe Cutler Local Music for piano and harmonica
Toshio Hosokawa Etude III

Fumiko Miyachi, Up and Down
Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Strange, Charm are six movements for piano four hands and two e-bows named after the six flavours of quarks. The order of the movements played is not fixed, as long as the pairs are played next to each other. Each flavour loosely dictates the musical material; Top operates only in the higher register of the instrument, for example.

Michael Wolters, Gisela doesn’t care
I started playing the flute when I was 10 years old. My first flute teacher was called Gisela. She was the daughter of the local baker. My mum dropped me off every Thursday afternoon and then waited for me next door at the butcher's, who I was related to in a way that I never really understood exactly. Anyway, Gisela and I played lots of flute duets by Telemann (never Bach), Mozart and some really dodgy French and German flute composers. I found most of the music not worth practicing, there was the occasional piece that I loved... and that was always a slow Telemann movement (which is strange because I've always preferred listening to fast music with a good pulse). Gisela was frightening, usually angry with me for not practicing and told me several times that I was not good enough to be in the local orchestra. I had been writing little flute duets ever since I knew how the flute worked and it took me a lot of courage to show her what I had written. When I finally brought them to a lesson she just said without looking at them: "I'm not interested in that. I'm here to teach you the flute". Gisela doesn't care is based on my favourite Telemann Largo.

John Cage, Haiku and Seven Haiku
Jonathan Harvey, Haiku
Toshio Hosokawa, Etude III
Joe Culter, Local Music
i. Susie and Ian and Ian and Susie
ii. January Coda Blues-Waltz
iii. Bright sun, winter mornings

All of the works are short but exhibit individual styles and responses to the subject matter. Cage’s Haiku consists of five movements under different titles. In the third movement, sonority created by silently depressed keys and a damper pedal alludes to “Frog’s Voice”. In Seven Haiku the haiku numbers are not audible but visible only in notation. Cage’s use of chance operations in the composing process attempts to materialise the Kegon concepts of “unimpededness” and “interpenetration”. Harvey’s Haiku, whose title is written in the style of Japanese calligraphy, contains only 17 notes. The last note prolonged by a damper pedal directs the listener’s attention to a dying sound. Hosokawa’s Etude III, another work associated with calligraphy, integrates the Japanese concept of ma and aims to capture an intense concentration of the calligrapher who anticipates next strokes. Cutler’s Local Music was written in January 2020 for Ikuko Inoguchi. Local Music contains three pieces under different titles that form his original haiku. The titles are a quiet celebration of the local (moments of beauty from a cold January). His use of harmonica in outer pieces, reminding of the Japanese haiku’s origin as a witty literary game, celebrates life through the act of inhaling and exhaling.

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