Mulberry / In The Woods / In Summer / Under The Umbrella

Mulberry was written in 1998, and is dedicated to the memory of Toru Takemitsu. The work explores the juxtapositions, overlaps and superimpositions of the chordal material. The orchestra of In the Woods (1989) is divided into two groups, each with a full complement of woodwinds, brasses, strings and percussion. The composition is characterized by the antiphonal treatment of the melodic/harmonic materials; by the note-to-note, hocket-like distribution (to different instruments) of the constituents of a single melodic line; and by the recurrences of constantly evolving thematic material. In Summer was written in 2004, under commission from the Suntory Music Foundation, and was premiered in the Jo Kondo Composer's Portrait Concert held on October 7, 2004, at Suntory Hall, Tokyo, with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paul Zukofsky. Structurally, this work is the simplest of these three orchestral works. The composition is only a single melodic line of chord-colored successive tones, each section of the line cast in a different tempo. As there are no overlaps or chordal superimpositions, the composition is truly a line drawn by the single stroke of a thick brush. Under the Umbrella (1976), was written for, and premiered by, the Canadian percussion group Nexus. The work requires 5 percussionists (for this premiere recording Bob Becker, Bill Cahn, Robin Engelman, Russ Hartenberger and John Wyre) playing 25 (untuned) cowbells ("almglocken"), and a gong. The work is in four movements. The first emphasizes rhythmic cells and their staggered repetition. The event-density is thick, and the tempo is fast. The second movement, because of its thinner texture and slower tempo, emphasizes the melodic content. The third movement has the slowest tempo and the thickest texture, with much interplay between strongly accented punctuations, and the use of "rolling" to produce sustained sounds; and this interplay emphasizes the timbral sound image arising from an ensemble of homogeneous sound sources (25 cowbells), which incorporates pitches that do not belong to any single conventional tuning system, and which also include a high content of non-tempered harmonics. The fourth movement, having the fastest tempo in combination with a thin texture akin to that of the second movement, once again emphasizes the melodic content. As the shortest movement, and coming as it does after the long, slow, and demanding third movement, this segment affords a final release to a composition about which Morton Feldman said "I think [it] is going to be another kind of classic as the years go by." (This recording of "Under the Umbrella" originally appeared on CP2 11 LP: https://www.discogs.com/Jo-Kondo-Standing-Sight-Rhythmics-Under-The-Umbrella/release/1872169; it has been remixed and remastered for this release.)