simon hutchinson

Umagata (2010)

I’ve just gotten a recording of the fantastic performance of my piece Umagata from earlier this month. Sarah Ogmundson (flute) and Seth Stewart (guitar), played this piece with spirit and verve, making the piece really come to life.

This piece also had a wonderful performance at its premiere at Bates College, March 25, by Nicole Rabata (flute) and Miles Isacke (guitar) who both helped me in making some edits to the piece. I haven’t, however, received a recording of that performance yet.

From the original program notes:

While thinking about a composition to complete the concert this evening, I originally planned to write a large piece, enlisting all of our instrumentalists. Recently, however, I have been particularly inspired by the melody of the Northern Japanese folk song, Nanbu Umagata Bushi, which depicts a leisurely ride on horseback, enjoying the natural scenery of Iwate Prefecture. I hope this last piece, a re-imagining of that song, will be a dulcet conclusion to this program.

I’ve finally gotten a chance to post the Mp3s from the TaiHei Ensemble “New Sounds of Korea” Concert that was on May 5th. For this concert we worked with two performers from Korea, Yusun Kim on gayageum and Hyerim Choi on ajaeng. I had the opportunity to work with both of them on this project, on two separate pieces, and you can hear the wonderful results on the TaiHei Ensemble Media Page.

I have a number of other unsorted, unedited audio files on my computer desktop right now from a variety of different concerts that occurred in the past two weeks, and I’m hoping to have a chance to post them here little by little (as I get them sorted and edited). So please check back soon!

This academic year has been rich with opportunities for writing vocal music. In addition to the two choral pieces I wrote for Fall quarter, I also had the opportunity of writing two art songs, one for a collaboration with Nicolas Isherwood’s vocal studio, and one for another collaboration during a residency with Lucy Shelton.

Of course this composition process lead to a lot of singing to myself in a a variety of inappropriate locations, but that’s not really anything new for me. Since September, I’ve learned quite a bit about writing for the voice, and I’ve found I need to direct my attention to a lot of factors that I took for granted, such as the idea of rhythmic placement of consonant sounds.

Regardless, it’s been a great experience, and here’s what it sounded like:

Sea Lily
Katherine Price, Soprano

Text by H.D.

Reed,
slashed and torn
but doubly rich–
such great heads as yours
drift upon temple-steps,
but you are shattered
in the wind.

Myrtle-bark
is flecked from you,
scales are dashed
from your stem,
sand cuts your petal,
furrows it with hard edge,
like flint
on a bright stone.

Yet though the whole wind
slash at your bark,
you are lifted up,
aye–though it hiss
to cover you with froth.

On a March Day
Annie Reser, Soprano; Ben Krause, Piano.

Text by Sara Teasdale

Here in the teeth of this triumphant wind
That shakes the naked shadows on the ground,
Making a key-board of the earth to strike
From clattering tree and hedge a separate sound,

Bear witness for me that I loved my life,
All things that hurt me and all things that healed,
And that I swore it this day in March,
Here at the edge of this new-broken field.

You only knew me, tell them I was glad
For every hour since my hour of birth,
And that I ceased to fear, as once I feared,
The last complete reunion with the earth.

Some of you might have noticed that I have a rather large amount of upcoming concerts. I’m rather surprised by this myself. It seems that a number of my projects have come together at the same time. I guess I shouldn’t be so shocked, since this is how things tend to work when one is in an academic program.

This summer, I’ll be traveling back to Japan to study shamisen, shakuhachi, and hopefully start to learn a bit of nohkan (transverse flute). I don’t have any concerts planned for when I’m out there, so these concerts will most likely be my last until next September, at the very least, my last in the US.

Anyway, here’s the list:

Tonight! In Pittsburgh, The The Duquesne Contemporary Ensemble with premiere my piece, “fuurin” for flute and trumpet.

This Sunday!, Katherine Price will premiere my piece “Sea Lily” for unaccompanied soprano as part of the Oregon Composers Forum / UO Vocal Department Unaccompanied Workshop Premieres.

May 1st, I will share some of my fixed media collaborations, and possibly a sneak peak at my new piece, “Koryphaios” for alto flute and electronics at the mysterious [m] concert.

May 2nd, Tara Schwab will premiere “Koryphaios” for alto flute and electronics at the Future Music Oregon / Molly Barth’s Flute Studio Concert.

May 5th is a very special concert, involving performers Yusun Kim and Hyerim Choi who are coming from South Korea to join the TaiHei Ensemble in an evening of premieres, including my pieces “PulseStream” for ajaeang and electronics and “Diaspora” for alto sax and gayageum.

May 8th is the Future Music Oregon Concert, where I will perform my piece “Requiem” for shamisen and electronics.

May 10th, I will be performing shamisen again with renown cellist Ronald Feldman, premiering my new duet for shamisen and cello (title pending).

May 11th, last but not least, my piece “Umagata” for flute and guitar will be performed at the Oregon Composers Forum spring concert.

I hope to see some of you a these performances.

After that, it’s a full summer of studying Japanese music, revising scores, and sending pieces off to competitions!

On the advice of my friends and colleagues and inspired by my peers, I’m looking into expanding my web presence. Check back here soon for an updated page layout and design!

In the meantime, I’ve created myself a facebook page:

As well as one for the TaiHei Ensemble

I’m still getting the hang of posting events and content. So please bear with me as I figure everything out.

Also, those of you in Eugene, don’t miss the premiere of my piece “On a March Day” performed by Annie Reser this Tuesday. More details here!

Here’s another video and another sneak peak of my concert at Bates College next week. Chris has created this video and the hatsuyuki video as a paired set, and the motivic similarities are immediately apparent (are the similarities in the musical content of the pieces!).

(This piece exists in a live version too)

Gwangpunge deollin ewha omyeo gamyeo nalidaga
Gajie motoreugo geomijule geolligeoda
Jeo geomi nakhwain jul moreugo nabi jabdeut hareonda.

Falling pear-blossoms whirl madly about in the wind,
Unable to return to the tree; they are caught in spiders’ webs
And those spiders pounce on them, thinking they are butterflies.

Yi Chongbo (1693-1766)

Last Saturday’s Future Music Oregon concert saw the premiere of my piece “21st-Century Matsuri” for 8-channel fixed media. I was in charge of putting together the programs for that concert, however, and unfortunately I somehow managed to do everything perfectly except for the title of my piece (a problem that I seem to often have when using old documents as a template).

Anyway, this piece is another about Japanese Festivals (like “hayashi”), but a little bit more more introspective. See the program notes:

Some of my favorite experiences when I visit Japan are the local festivals. These matsuri are wonderful displays of community through music and dance that do not really have analogs in modern US culture. Despite my love of these festivals, though, I often have a great sense of alienation when I attend, because, at a matsuri, I begin to feel my own “foreignness” more acutely than at any other time, as I am often alone in groups of hundreds from the local community.

Thinking about this tension, I composed this piece, 21-st Century Matsuri, as a kind of electronic concerto, playing with this interaction of the individual and society.

21st-Century Matsuri