Songs for Wind Ensemble Yo Goto

Program note:

Songs (2009) was commissioned by the Hamamatsu Cultural Foundation, Japan. The commission project, titled Band Ishin that means Band Restoration, commissions new works for wind ensemble from Japanese composers who especially work in the field of orchestra, chorus, jazz, television, and film. The work was completed in December, 2009 and premiered in March, 2010 in Hamamatusu. Goto has written some works that explore musical simultaneity in order to liberate an audience from experiences of linear-oriented time, and Songs is included in such a series of works. This piece requires 24 parts; each part is played by just one player. Therefore, the players are regarded as soloists. Soloists are expected to play simple songs and song fragments in their own way and sometimes in their own tempo. Consequently, Songs sounds like an accumulation of freely performed melodies. Although some songs have different characters, all of them are derived from a melody played by the clarinet at the beginning of the piece. (Yo Goto)