Utterance by Michiko Kawagoe

CD YGM-09
Published by Yank Gulch Music
Copyright © 2011. All rights reserved.

Introduction.

The compact disc Utterance contains the second collection of music Michiko Kawagoe has released through Yank Gulch Music. She composed these works from 2007 through 2010 using SYNTAL, a computer system for specifying and synthesizing speech-derived music (for an overview, click here.)

Program Notes.

1. The sounds in Blur (2007) are strongly contrasted---straight and vibrato tones, noise and pitched sounds, voiced and unvoiced plosive-like sounds. Overlapping of these elements serve to "blur" their contrasts, however, with rhythmic figures marking the overlaps. Opening motives are repeated at the end, but otherwise the music is through-composed. Blur may be regarded as attempting paradoxical clarification of matters unclear or uncertain.

Here is the opening of Blur:

2. grotto (2009) depicts an imaginary scene in which a young boy in a grotto is walking toward the exit. Encountering many unfamiliar phenonmena, he proceeds step-by-step with curiosity, expectation, and anxiety. Contrasts between straight and vibrato tones suggest the atmosphere of the grotto.

Here are the first phrases of grotto:

3. Thinking (2010) employs consonant-like sounds at fast tempos. These sounds, which include glissandi, suggest thought processes that wander from one thing to another. The eight independent voices further enrich the piece's texture and scope.

Here is the beginning of Thinking:

4. aa lava (2009) emphasizes transformations of the motives presented at the opening. Among the parameters transformed are the waveform type, flutter, and vibrato. Repeated transformations depict the movement of lava restlessly flowing out of vocanic erruptions of an Hawaiian crater. The title is a reference to the Hawaiian word for this kind of lava.

Here are the opening sounds of aa lava:

5. In Iolite Turning (2010) the circle of vowel-like colors (more on "color music") provided by the SYNTAL synthesis program is sounded first in whispers. Then the circular motion is repeated at different speeds, dynamics, and tone qualities throughout the piece. The title refers to the popular gemstone, ``iolite'', which reflects different shades of yellow-gray, light blue and blue violet, depending on the angle of regard. Mounted on a chain and turned, the iolite's recycling succession of visual colors is closely mimicked by the circling sound colors of the piece.

This excerpt is about two minutes from the beginning of Iolite Turning:

About the Composer

Michiko Kawagoe was born in Osaka, Japan, and now lives in Tsukuba. Her works have been performed and broadcast in the United States, Israel, Europe, Russia and Japan. After graduating from Oita Prefectural College of Art (Japan) with a major in oil painting, she received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Louisiana State University on full scholarships where she studied composition with Dinos Constantinides and Stephen David Beck, and piano with Michael Girt. In 1995-96, she was enrolled in the special artist diploma course at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance (Israel) through a grant from the Japan Israel Women's Welfare Organization. There she studied composition and orchestration with Menachem Zur and Ami Maayani. In 1998-99 she studied the SYNTAL system with Wayne Slawson at the Computer and Electronic Music Studio of the University of California, Davis ((more on SYNTAL). Her works include instrumental and vocal music in addition to electro-acoustic music. She has won numerous awards, including a grand prize in the 10th Miyanichi Music Competition in 2004 in Japan, a special prize in TIAA composers competition in 2010, and a honorable mention and finalists on International Music Prizes 2009 and 2010 by the National Academy of Music, U.S.A. Her computer composition, "Propagation" was included in the Ubuibi project "Women Take Back the Noise," a CD compilation of the works of 47 women composers and sound designers world wide. Recent premieres include her music for SYNTAL and Shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese bamboo flute.

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