Saturday, December 15, 2012

Sonos Receives Icy Reception





Sonos Handbell Ensemble received an icy reception by Mother Nature on our way to the second concert in Uonoma on our 7th tour to Japan last night. 
Heavy snow from a formidable blizzard accompanied us on the bus trip from Niigata to Uonoma, a city known for its premier rice situated amidst a winter vacation area with hot springs and ski resorts. Over 6 feet of snow lined the icy roads as the snow fell heavily at a 20 degree angle. The trip which normally would take an hour and a half took well over three. (Coming back was even worse with a 2-hour park on the road waiting for snow to be cleared.)
 
Cellist Emil Miland's 19th century cello, "Nestor", took the frigid weather in stride and had no complaints after warming up in the 1000-seat concert venue. Again, the hall had amazingly wonderful acoustics. Built in 1998, the sound was brilliant and alive at every point in the room. I don't know why the Japanese can get it so right time after time in their many halls and in America we have such consistent acoustical problems with the few halls we do have. 

Mother Nature might have provided an icy reception outside, but inside the people inside were warm and unusually demonstrative for the typical Japanese audience. It's not that they are not feeling it but their culture reserves large displays of emotion for the TV soap opera series and game shows.

They especially appreciate "Smirti" (Sanskrit for "Remembrance"), the work that I wrote for Emil in honor of 9/11. A spoken preface to the work explains:

The composer speaks -  
After the terrorist attack on New York's Twin Towers I felt a need to respond musically as a composer. It took 3 years before what I was feeling became strong enough to be able to write it down in the material world. It would have been easy to write something that reflected the surface tragedy, but that would tie the piece to just this one event.
I felt there was a deeper and more universal lesson to learn from that and all other catastrophic events. At the deepest level of human life we are all connected. So whatever happens to one of us happens to all of us - we are not isolated in the world. If we only understood this completely we would not do what we sometimes do to each other, because we do it to ourselves. 
Despite the tragic events that have occurred in your country with so much loss of life and property, the Japanese people have responded with great courage and strength. These qualities we all have, we just need to remember them. 
A single cellist enters the stage quietly and sits with his eyes closed. A community of people sits around him. He begins with music from another world, a world where spirits who have lost their life are trying to understand what just happened to them. 
A deep low song comes from the cello as the other players bring the support of the whole community and recount the events that have just happened. The cello reflects these events in a very strong, agitated section which eventually returns to the deep consoling song that brings strength and courage. 
Sonos offers Smirti, which means "remembrance," to all Japanese people in honor of their deep strength and courage.


Uonuma experienced a severe earthquake 6 years ago so this sentiment was especially meaningful to them. The manager pulled me aside after the concert and said that many top ensembles come and perform in this hall, they play beautiful melodies expertly, but that they do not touch his "bliss" (his word), they do not touch his heart. The joy of music making that Sonos displays did. You can't hope for any better reaction than that. That's why we do what we do and it appears to be working!
The next day we played in Morioka Civic Culture Hall (1400 seats). We were last there in 2005.


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