The composer had been amazed to listen and come to know the splendid musical capability of Dizi and Yangquin, demonstrated by Mr. Mingjun Wang and Ms. Min Lin in the summer 2017, of course, owing to the virtuosity of the two fabulous musicians. Dizi can run through very fast passages very lightly and precisely, and play slower melodies much expressively. Yangquin is maintaining its traditional characteristics of the instrument and can freely jump around, or expressively play tremolos (which is very much characteristic of the instrument) on the chromatic scale over full 4 octaves. I tried to fully take advantage of those amazing capabilities of the instruments, and make the music as much as delightful for the listeners. Though it is a short piece with divertimento character, it consists of roughly 5 parts, i.e. Introduction, Exposition, Yangqin Cadenza, Recapitulation, and Development/Coda. It is a kind of a compacted sonata form with some twist. Introduction starts with ad libtum performance of Yangqin and it introduce the basic four-note motif for the entire composition, i.e. “d-fis-c-f”. In Exposition, Dizi plays the rhythmic first subject over the ostinato of 16-note figure by Yangqin. As Dizi is basically a D major-instrument, the major part of Exposition is based on F# Phrygian. The second subject is slower and based on the “d-fis-c-f” motif. Yangqin extends the tonal feeling from D major toward a multi tonal space. Then a short cadenza by Yangqin follows. Capitalizing the instrument’s 12-tone ability, the music develops freely in the 12-tone system. The Recapitulation is based on roughly A Mixolydian and the first subject appears in a variation form in Dizi. The last part is coda but it has in the same time characteristics of Development of the first subject and the basic motif of “d-fis-c-f”. The composition premiered as a tentative version by O Mei-kun (Dizi) and Guo Min (Yangqin), on March 9, 2018, at “JFC Asian Traditional, Asian Contemporary”, in Tokyo, Japan, and premiered in the full version by Sham Kin-yu Kenneth (Dizi), Kwok Kaying (Yangqin) on May 31, 2018, “Aisan Tradition, Asian Contemporary”, in Hong Kong

J.B.Arban composed. Unaccompanied.

17 years passed already since the turn of the century. If the year 1052 was the beginning of mappo (the latter days of this world), the coming millennium is soon to be reached. While the classic super-natural spooks had been all confined into the ancient books and pictures, rather living people now look like spooks. This composition is pure program music aiming to picture “Hyakki Yakou” (“A Hundred Spooks Marching”-a Japanese tradition) with the ensemble of Japanese and western instruments. In ancient Miyako, a procession of a noble man was assaulted by numerous evil spirits. But because the people chanted Esoteric Shingon Mantra determinedly, those spooks vanished with agonizing cries under the ultimate power of Mantra. This composition was premiered on May 10th, 2018, in the 22nd Indépendant-the Japan Federation of Composers, by Hiromu Motonaga (Shakuhachi), Atsushi Tokutake (Clarinet), Miho Yamashita (Viola), Akemi Yamada (13-string Soh), Miho Jougasaki (17-string Soh), and Asako Hisatake (Violoncello).

The Potsdam Declaration is a surrender recommendation to Japan by the Allies led by the United States, announced on July 26, 1945, after Germany and Italy surrendered and the defeat of Japan became clearly unavoidable. There is no such humiliating document for us, Japanese, as defeated citizens, but the composer would like to revisit it, considering that it is a critical point of the modern history since Matthew Calbraith Perry's visit in Uraga, Japan, to require Japan to open a port for their whale hunting. The background of this Declaration includes, among others, the progress of the development of the atomic bomb in the United States (the President of the United States President Truman received a report of success of the experiment at Potsdam during the meeting period), the Far East policy of the Soviet Union, and plans and speculations of the Allies countries post-war power situation. While the “Declaration” describes democratic ideals, it reveals the power relationships and conflicts among all the super powers at the time. In composing, the composer focused on delivering the text to the audience as clearly as possible. With baritone’s text recitation, trumpet and piano play a role of shamisen against katari in Gidayu (although it is only an image). The text was translated from the original Declaration by the composer specifically for this composition. The text partly omits the original for clarity and musical requirements. The part following the text of the Potsdam Declaration is also the one that the composer transcribed from historical facts.

The Potsdam Declaration is a surrender recommendation to Japan by the Allies led by the United States, announced on July 26, 1945, after Germany and Italy surrendered and the defeat of Japan became clearly unavoidable. There is no such humiliating document for us, Japanese, as defeated citizens, but the composer would like to revisit it, considering that it is a critical point of the modern history since Matthew Calbraith Perry's visit in Uraga, Japan, to require Japan to open a port for their whale hunting. The background of this Declaration includes, among others, the progress of the development of the atomic bomb in the United States (the President of the United States President Truman received a report of success of the experiment at Potsdam during the meeting period), the Far East policy of the Soviet Union, and plans and speculations of the Allies countries post-war power situation. While the “Declaration” describes democratic ideals, it reveals the power relationships and conflicts among all the super powers at the time. In composing, the composer focused on delivering the text to the audience as clearly as possible. With baritone’s text recitation, trumpet and piano play a role of shamisen against katari in Gidayu (although it is only an image). The text was translated from the original Declaration by the composer specifically for this composition. The text partly omits the original for clarity and musical requirements. The part following the text of the Potsdam Declaration is also the one that the composer transcribed from historical facts.