CALLING for String Quartet（2013）

This work was commissioned by Hideaki Haginomori and Yuka Shibuya from the composers’ group FLAT. I had been thinking for a long time about how it might be possible to employ the genre of the string quartet in the manner of a string ensemble rather than in the traditional manner. I gained a hint from the ancient ceremonial performance known as utagaki in which groups of young men and women would engage in an increasingly intimate exchange of songs， calling to one another in the midst of nature. This gave me the idea of putting distance between the four players and then bringing them together into close contact through physical movement in the course of an analogous musical exchange. The three types of continuous change?the distance between the four players， their gradual ensuing contact， and their coming together in close proximity?form a unity with the generation of sound， thus constituting what for me was an interesting attempt to explore the relationship between sound and pattern.