Mardi 15 March 2022, 14:30 - 17:30
Seminar 13 : Works of Daryl Jamieson for shō
Ircam, Salle Stravinsky l Ircam YouTube
Dary Jamieson (Kyushu University) : Shō and u: An exploration of physical and generic
limitations through a decade of collaboration with Ko Ishikawa__François-Xavier Féron (STMS - CNRS, Ircam, Sorbonne Université, Ministère de laculture) : Fallings pour shō (et u), alto et violoncelle de Daryl Jamieson : l’expressiond’une pensée interculturelle_______
Dary Jamieson (Kyushu University) : Shō and u: An exploration of physical and generic
limitations through a decade of collaboration with Ko Ishikawa
Over the past 10 years I have written five chamber or solo pieces for shō and/or u, all of whichwere written for Ko Ishikawa. These are Spectral (for Kazuo Ohno) (2012), fallen fragments(2015), fallings (2016),Stravaig (2017), and Descnats 1 (2020). Over these five pieces, I havebeen exploring the limits of what the shō and u can do. Working at the borders of instrumental
and conventional limitations, I have been experimenting in order to discover where perceived
limits are actual and hard (ie, immutable facts based in the physicality of the instruments), andwhere those limits are merely conventional and in reality quite porous (and thus able to betranscended).

In this paper, by reexamining this decade-long process of collaboration and experimentation, I
will show how my approach has changed/is changing through growing familiarity with theinstrument (which I do not yet play myself), with its tradition, and with Ishikawa-san as aperformer. I will share some of my conceptual approaches to composition and how they
informed my approach to writing for the shō and u, and I will also introduce some of thepractical results of these experiments – things that the instruments can and cannot do.
_________________
Dary Jamieson

Daryl Jamieson (MMus GSMD PhD Ebor) was born in 1980 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He trained in
Canada, the UK, and Japan, and currently splits his time between Fukuoka (in the west of Japan) and Zushi(in the east). His artistic practice is rooted in his practical and theoretical studies of Nō theatre, Japanesetraditional instruments, and the New York School lineage of composition. He is interested in interculturalart, collaborative creation, and rooting art in the political and social environment in which we live. He
founded the intercultural music theatre company atelier jaku in 2013 in order to provide a platform forpresenting his own works and those of like-minded composers. He is an assistant professor at Kyushu
University in Fukuoka, Japan. He is published by Da Vinci Editions in Osaka, and the Canadian MusicCentre.
Jamieson’s work focuses on the perception of time and space. Preoccupations with musical time and thepsychogeography of historic locations are heavily influenced by his study and practice of Nō theatre andkoto, as well as his study of Japanese poetry and art. His most substantial work to date is a trilogy ofmusical theatre pieces exploring the transience of matter and sound (each about 45 minutes in length)
called the Vanitas Series, which received the 2018 Toshi Ichiyanagi Contemporary Prize. In his citation,Ichiyanagi called the Vanitas Series ‘an epic musical work of extraordinarily elegance and contemporary
topical perspective’. This series consists of a chamber opera (Matsumushi, 2014), an instrumental musicalritual (fallings [2016] for shō, viola, and cello), and a sung meditation on Kamo no Chōmei’s Hōjōki (Isnowhere free of bad tidings? [2017] for shakuhachi, 2 kotos, biwa, and Japanese percussion). […]http://daryljamieson.com/________

François-Xavier Féron (STMS - CNRS, Ircam, Sorbonne Université, Ministère de laculture) : Fallings pour shō (et u), alto et violoncelle de Daryl Jamieson : l’expressiond’une pensée interculturelle(French)
Fallings (2016) est le deuxième volet d’une trilogie intitulée Vanitas Series (2014-2017) quirévèle pleinement l’approche interculturelle du compositeur canadien Daryl Jamieson et son
tropisme pour la culture traditionnelle japonaise. Dans cette œuvre, deux instruments à cordeoccidentaux – l’alto et le violoncelle – dialoguent avec l’orgue à bouche japonais – le shō ou le uqui se situe une octave plus bas. Au cours de cette communication, nous reviendrons toutd’abord brièvement sur le parcours de Jamieson qui vit au Japon depuis maintenant plus dequinze ans. Nous nous intéresserons alors à la genèse et à la dramaturgie de la trilogie, avant denous plonger pleinement dans l’analyse de Fallings en révélant ses sources d’inspiration et enmontrant comment est explorée l’idée d’effondrement à l’intérieur d’une forme cyclique.

(English)
Fallings (2016) is the second part of a trilogy entitled Vanitas Series (2014-2017) that reveals theintercultural approach and the tropism for traditional Japanese culture developed by theCanadian composer Daryl Jamieson. In this work, two Western string instruments – the viola andthe cello – dialogue with the Japanese mouth organ – the shō or u which is an octave lower.
During this communication I will first look at briefly the background of Jamieson who is lived inJapan for over fifteen years now. I will then look at the genesis and dramaturgy of the trilogy,
before focusing on the analysis of Fallings: I will reveal the sources of inspiration and will show
how the idea of collapse is explored within a cyclical form.
François-Xavier Féron
François-Xavier FERON est titulaire d’un master en acoustique musicale et d’un doctorat enmusicologie (Sorbonne Université). Il a enseigné à l’université de Nantes et a successivement
été chercheur postdoctoral au sein du Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media andTechnology (CIRMMT, Montréal) dont il est actuellement membre collaborateur et au sein del’Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (Ircam, Paris). En 2013, il intègre leCNRS en tant que chargé de recherche et rejoint le Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche enInformatique et le Studio de Création et Recherche en Informatique et Musiques Expérimentales(Labri-SCRIME, Université de Bordeaux). Depuis mai 2018, il est chercheur au sein de l’équipe
Analyse de Pratiques Musicales de l’Ircam. Ses recherches se concentrent sur les pratiquesmusicales aux XXe et XXIe siècles et sont d’essence interdisciplinaire, se rattachant nonseulement à la musicologie mais aussi à l’acoustique, à la psychoacoustique ou aux performancestudies. Il s’intéresse aux processus de création artistique, au travail d’interprétation (desmusiques mixte et acousmatique), à l’analyse des œuvres musicales mais aussi des phénomènes
sonores tels que les illusions auditives ou les figures de spatialisation. Parmi les compositeursqui sont au cœur de ses recherches figurent, entre autres, Gérard Grisey, Giacinto Scelsi, Stefano
Gervasoni, Helmut Lachenmann, Jesper Nordin ou John Zorn.
________

Co-organisation: Ircam et Tout Pour la Musique Contemporaine
Partnerships: IReMus, CNRS, DRAC Ile-de-France and SACEM