Mark

PROGRAM
NOTES



I pulse,
when you
breathe

For Amplified Soprano
and Alto Flute
2008

Notes by
Ken Ueno


Dedicated to
the Prana Duo.

text by
Ken Ueno.



TEXT
Kono kaze
uta no hibiki
utate kureta
TRANSLATION
This breeze
sang the resonance
of her song for me

This piece is a song in search of the main melody, a setting of the short text. Throughout much of the piece, the sounds of the text are gradually discovered, through divergences, parries, continuations, and, finally, a short glimpse, which turns out to be a sort of arrival. While the singer traverses horizontally through a forest of sounds in search of the main melody, the alto flute's journey is a vertical one, one that amplifies, develops, and contrasts, the sounds of the soprano.

In considering the relationship between the two performers, I developed a poetic image. I imagined a woman singing in a bamboo forest. As it is an ancient forest, the trees have many fissures, and, when the breezes passes, the air blowing into and through the fissures, resonates the hollow trees. The trees' resonance is the song the woman sings.

One technical feature developed for this piece is something I call "Beatings Modulation," where precise microtonal differences create beatings, the tempo of these pulsations, become the tempo for the ensuing section.







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© 2020 KEN UENO

Mark

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© 2020 KEN UENO

Mark