THUNDER
Soaring II – Iris Shiraishi (b1954)
Iris Shiraishi (b1954), a Japanese American composer and taiko drummer, joined Mu Daiko, a nine-member professional taiko ensemble from St. Paul Minnesota, in 1997 and then became apart of the staff in 2002. As Taiko Programs Director, she facilitates the public taiko classes along with the rehearsals and performances for Mu Daiko and the Mu Community Taiko Group. Shiraishi maintains an active performing, composing and residency/studio teaching schedule and is a member of Mu’s Core Artistic Group. She has a BM in Composition from the University of Hawaii, an MA in Composition, an MFA in Arts Administration from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. in Music Therapy from the University of Minnesota.
Soaring II was composed in 2006 and was supported in part through SUBITO, the quick advancement grant program of the American Composers Forum. Soaring describes the sensation of lightness and freedom the composer has had in “flying” dreams over the years. It uses Okinawa’s distinctive melodic scale and Hachijojima’s wonderful drumming style for inspiration and guidance.
For More Information Contact: www.macphail.org/faculty/iris-shiraishi
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Message from Miyako Island – III. Hyanna – Naoko Zukeran (b1966)
Naoko Zukeran (b1966), holds her Bachelor degree in composition from the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. Her recognition as a composer became known after she was awarded the 1999 Best Composed Work Award in the Choral Composition Competition sponsored by Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture. Since then Zukeran has become a highly recognized and commissioned composer in Japan. Her output consists of primarily choral music and, although she composes for all types of choruses, she has a particular gift for setting music for women’s and children’s voices. Recently, Zukeran finished her first theatrical work. Currently she lives in Okinawa where she teaches and serves as a part-time lecturer at the Okinawa Prefectural University of the Arts.
Message from Miyako Island is a multi-movement work based on and inspired by a collection of traditional folks songs that had been born from the suffocating feeling of living in the Miyako-jima Islands. Located about 190 miles south of the Okinawa Islands, the Miyako-jima Islands, in the 15th century, were a part of the independent Ryūkyū Kingdom, a tributary state of China. Influenced by the need to obtain trade relations with China in 1609 the Japanese authorized the Satsuma clan to invaded the Ryūkyū Kingdom. At that time Japan had no formal diplomatic relations with China, thus it was essential that they not realize that the Ryūkyū Kingdom was under their control. This caused a 300 year suppression of the people: they forbid them from adopting Japanese names, clothes, or customs, and required any person aged 15-50 to pay a heavy tax to the Satsuma clan. Despite their hard life these fun and lively folk songs uplifted the spirit of the Miyako-jima people. When hearing these folk songs Naoko explains, “I have a hard time separating the singing and dancing of Miyako- jima Island with the difficult life the people had experienced. However, it is the singing and dancing that allowed the community to overcome the pains to these oppressions.” Music is very important to the Miyako-jima people and is considered more honorable than combat skills. The folk music from Miyako is bright and spirited and they are always performed jubilantly. In Message from Miyako Island, Zukeran sets these folk songs in the traditional modes of Miyako and Ryūkyū and colors them with modern western harmonies. Message from Miyako Island was premiered in Tokyo, 2007.
Translation & Description:
I. Nakaya-no Mabunarya Ayagu
Row the ship to which a fisherman, coming to Miyako-jima Island from Hirara-shi, sings a song.
II. Tarama-yo(folk song and dance performed for three days in August)
We pray for a rich year handed down to us.
III. Hyanna-no Machigama-no Ayagu
(The silly song which a woman Matigama sang making fun of one’s beauty).
For More Information Contact: www.editionkawai.jp
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Sacramento Sanka – arr. Yoko Fujimoto (b1952)
Naoko Zukeran (b1966), Yoko Fujimoto (b1952) is a senior member of the professional wadaiko performing group, KODO which she joined in 1976. She currently serves as Kodo’s principal vocalist, performs in the song and dance group ‘Hanayui’, and holds concerts and drum-and-song workshops with her husband Yoshikazu Fujimoto, Kodo’s principal O-daiko player. Sacramento Sanka is the result of a conversation between Sacramento Taiko Dan’s Music Director, Tiffany Tamaribuchi and Fujimoto. (Tiffany and Yoko had been discussing their love for traditional music and folk songs and about creating a traditionally styled folk song expressing the character of Sacramento. A very long discussion ensued about the notable things that could be recounted in the piece. They talked for hours and later, Yoko handed her a composition with seven verses neatly hand-written on a piece of notebook paper.)
Sacramento Sanka speaks about the rivers and deltas, the history of flooding in the city, the gold rush, salmon runs, the varied wildlife, rafting and fishing, the whitewater and eddies, and the constant flow of water that could be crystal clear, green, brown, or black as night. It discusses the various seasons, especially the blistering heat of summer and how the delta breezes cooled everything down at night. The blooming flowers, the snow-covered Sierra Nevada on the eastern horizon on a very clear day. The Japanese farmers that had settled in the region who had grown all sorts of crops, especially strawberries, and how in the winter the tule fog often blanketed the city and in summertime the air was thick with the smoke from burning rice straw.
For More Information Contact: www.kodo.or.jp/en/tag/yoko-fujimoto
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