削ろう会・Kezuroukai (2017)

When sketching this work, I heard about the kezuroukai, a competition for wood workers and craftspeople to gather and try to shave the thinnest possible strips of wood. These people use incredibly sharp planers that cut pieces so thin, the sheets’ thickness is measured in microns, units that are one millionth of a meter.

Because these sheets of wood are so thin, light can actually pass through them. In this piece, I instruct the shō player to sing while playing, creating beatings between the reeds inside the windchest and the performer’s voice.

Kezuroukai was written for the 2018 Beyond Microtonal Music Festival at the University of Pittsburgh. It is dedicated to Chatori Shimizu, who premiered the piece at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium on the University of Pittsburgh campus on January 13, 2018 by Shimizu.

score can be purchased here

score excerpt