EPISODES IN WHITE（2019）

This work was composed for performance on the ?rard piano owned by Suntory Hall. I initially tried out this instrument together with Asuka Iino， who commissioned and premiered the work， and was struck by its light and graceful tone， its refinement and its slightly decadent feel. Its tone seemed to share something in common with the distinctive milky shade of white that features in the paintings of the Franco-Japanese artist Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968)， and I decided to attempt to express this wonderful sense of whiteness in this work. I imagined post-World War I Paris， war-torn but full of hope， and Foujita at work in his Montparnasse atelier. I also imagined the ?rard piano， singing away in a legendary salon where Liszt had played nearly a century earlier.
The work consists of three short untitled pieces each of which expresses from a different angle the distinctive whiteness of Foujita’s paintings. I took special care with the particularly attractive tone that characterises the middle range of the ?rard piano， but I hope this work will prove equally attractive， albeit in a different manner， through performance on a modern piano.