{"id":291,"date":"2012-07-05T21:05:15","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T12:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/?post_type=portfolio&p=291"},"modified":"2019-08-15T13:13:26","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T23:13:26","slug":"songs-of-a-thousand-autumns","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/works\/songs-of-a-thousand-autumns\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs of a Thousand Autumns"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_gallery el_id=”gallery-147004″ type=”carousel” medias=”80698,80699,80700,80701″ carousel_lg=”1″ carousel_md=”1″ carousel_sm=”1″ gutter_size=”3″ carousel_type=”fade” carousel_interval=”10000″ carousel_navspeed=”1000″ carousel_loop=”yes” carousel_nav=”yes” carousel_nav_skin=”dark” carousel_dots=”yes” stage_padding=”0″ single_overlay_opacity=”50″ single_image_anim=”no” single_padding=”2″ single_border=”yes”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text]6. \u201cThings that lose by being painted\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_single_image media=”80703″ media_width_percent=”100″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text]7. \u201cSince my heart placed me on board your drifting ship\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_single_image media=”80704″ media_width_percent=”100″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text]8. \u201cLike a ripple that chases the slightest caress of the breeze\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_single_image media=”80702″ media_width_percent=”100″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ align_horizontal=”align_center” overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ shift_y_down=”0″ z_index=”0″ width=”1\/1″][vc_column_text]Tracy Satterfield, soprano
\nAndres Gonzalez, violin
\nSuzanne LeFevre, viola
\nPatrick Moore, cello
\nKimi Kawashima, piano[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_column_text]When I began composing\u00a0Songs of a Thousand Autumns<\/em>\u00a0I had intended to set the texts of only one poet. The love poems of Ono no Komachi, a ninth-century Japanese poet, had left a powerful impression on me. Since first discovering them I had been waiting for the opportunity to put these words to music. Komachi\u2019s poems, written in the standard five-line tanka form, are infused with a sense of longing, impermanence and, at times, despair. Such themes are typical of ancient Japanese poetry. But something was needed to balance out all this anxiety. Sei Shonagon, like Komachi, was active in the court during Japan\u2019s Heian period, and is most famous for having written a collection of short texts called The Pillow Book. Unlike Komachi, Shonagon\u2019s texts are often lighthearted, whimsical, and humorous, with writings titled \u201cOxen should have very small foreheads,\u201d and \u201cI cannot stand a woman who wears sleeves of unequal width.\u201d In The Pillow Book she also compiled a number of lists, and it is these texts that I inserted between Komachi\u2019s poems.<\/p>\n

The music itself draws on the music which filled the halls of the court where Komachi and Shonagon were writing. This court music, called Gagaku, has been well-preserved in Japan for more than a thousand years. In this song cycle the instruments often imitate the sounds and melodies of the various instruments in a Gagaku ensemble. The piece opens with a song accompanied almost entirely by string harmonics. This pure sound is an imitation of the sho, the Japanese mouth organ that provides the harmonic backdrop in Gagaku pieces. The seventh song (\u201cSince my heart placed me on board your drifting ship\u201d) begins with a quotation of a melody which would be played by the fue, a wooden flute, accompanied by percussive sounds mimicking the kakko, a small drum. And in the twelfth song (\u201cThis body grown fragile\u201d) the piano takes on the role of the koto, a plucked string instrument. This same song is a loose transcription of a Gagaku piece called Senshuraku, which would be played to mark the ending of an event. It is from this piece that this song cycle takes its title. Senshuraku, literally translated from the Japanese, means \u201cA Thousand Autumns.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first performance of this piece took place on an Intermezzo Chamber Music Series Concert in Salt Lake City, with Tracy Rhodus (soprano), Dara Morales (violin), Julie Edwards (viola), Walter Haman (cello) and Kimi Kawashima (piano).<\/p>\n

. . . Songs of a Thousand Autumns<\/em>\u00a0. . . is a deeply subjective cycle of great fragility which places Satterfield’s command of pitch and line against some gorgeous writing for violin, viola, cello and piano, before erupting into a restrained tsunami.<\/p>\n

–Fanfare<\/em>\u00a0magazine, Feb. 2017<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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