Hiromi Ishii on "Summer Grasses":
"Summer Grasses" was composed to create an acoustic coexistence of the nature and culture. The material sounds are insects’ sounds and metal noises. The latter has been produced by rubbing and beating knives, and by jingling a metal spiral. The spectral data of the insect sounds have been used for formant filters in order to transform metal sounds. In this music moments of silence called ma - „moments of emptiness”, but high-tensioned silence - of traditional Japanese music, are another important 'acoustic factor' to structure the piece. Hiroshige Ando's print, A Picture of Listening to the Insects, a short haiku by Basho Matsuo (translation below), and an appreciation of Japanese swords produced as art crafts, inspired me to create a fantasy of insects and the metal.
Summer Grasses...
traces of dreams
of ancient warriors
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