9/22/2015

15questions|Interview|DaiFujikura|RoomforMovement

INTERVIEWS /ABOUT

Fifteen Questions Interview with

Dai Fujikura
Room for Movement
Part 1.
Name: Dai Fujikura
Nationality: Japanese
Occupation: Composer
Bands/Projects: Various works for chamber, ensemble, piano,
orchestra, voice, video, piano, electronic, Japanese instruments,
concerto, opera.
Labels: Minabel
Musical Recomendations: Jan Bang/ Erik Honore
When did you start composing and what or who were your
early passions and influences?
I remember I started composing when I was something like 8
years old? Or earlier, I dont know. I cant remember myself not
composing. I had a rather strict Japanese style piano teacher,
sitting next to me, and my mother writing down on her little note
book what teacher has said during the lessons. Yes, the whole

Photograph taken by Ai Ueda

Japanesekidlearningthe pianointhe80s which made me

want to rebel even more against everything I was told to do by
teachers or anyone, including playing the notes exactly as they
are in the score. I was studying Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and
some Czerny (which I hated) and Kabalevsky whose music I
remembered disliking so much, I was calling him Bakalevsky
(Baka means idiot in Japanese) when I was 10 years old or so.

I hope to stimulate every sense you can

imagine, like the taste, smell, feeling of
texture if you put that (whatever 'that' is)
against your cheek, or if you eat it.

I started composing because I didnt want to follow what I was

told to do, by my piano teacher or anyone, for that matter. Not
even from the scores which were composed by great masters,
like Beethoven. I wanted to play the way I wanted to. The best
way to do this without getting told off is to just make your own
music from scratch. Then nobody can tell you what to do. Thats
how I started composing music. I remember when I was 10 or
younger, I first studied Beethovens 1st piano sonata. I
immediately stopped practicing and wanted to make my own

Content

piano music, so I did.

Part 1.

To my mother, this was me avoiding practice which I should be

Part 2.

doing, so I did this while my mother was away. My mother is not

a particularly musical person, but she was a member of an
amateur choir, and that choir sung Mahler 8, under Sinopolli! I
have no idea why such an international star conductor came to a
little provincial concert hall. So she went for choir practice and
thats when I composed my piano music. When I heard her
footsteps from the corridor (we lived in small flats made of
concrete, typical Japanese living situation), I quickly switched to
Beethoven piano sonata, to pretend I was practicing.
One strange episode around that time is, for some reason, I was
also introduced to Kurtags Jetekok, which I remember I found
really interesting. If you think about provincial 80s Osaka and
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really interesting. If you think about provincial 80s Osaka and

some piano teacher round the corner having access to this score
and then introducing it to me, it is really amazing.
What do you personally consider to be incisive moments in your
work and/or career?
I dont know ... in my career? Do I even have one? Its hard to say,
as I feel my life has not changed since I was an 8 year old
composing. Everyday I compose, and that is the meaning of
living for me and such a joyful thing to do. Just the musicians
who play my music have got better than when I was 8 years old.
What are currently your main compositional challenges?
I'm working on a full length opera SOLARIS, and the challenges
are many but my main interests and challenges are the big arc,
thinking of the piece on large scale, but also if you look with a
magnifying glass, all the details are functioning really well, to
project the epic form of the tail. Well thats the aim anyway
What do you usually start with when composing?
Hmmmm, I often work in parallel, as I am naturally a multitasking
person. Or it's more like I've got incredibly strong concentration
but only in short bursts. I switch from one to the next very
quickly so it looks like multitasking. While I am working on my
last piece whatever that maybe, I already start researching for
the next piece or project after that. I start Skyping with
musicians for instrumental experimentation, or thinking about
the piece. Sometimes I have a theme, which can be like the
movement of my 2 day old daughters cheek (at the time), or
how the embryo floats in the mothers body and grows, or more
scientific things, like looking through the surface of leaves or
flowers or cells in a microscope, and how that translates into
music.
Sometime I write some fragments of music, it could be 2 beats,
or 2 seconds or less. I always listen to that musical material for
where she wants to take me next. Working on the piece is like
living with, or having a relationship with that piece every day all
the time, and every piece behaves differently. Some dont reveal
themselves so quickly to me and some are quite straight forward
and tell me where we should be heading to next.
How do you see the relationship between timbre and
composition?
They are in one. Absolutely in one. I cant think separately.
What do improvisation and composition mean to you and what,
to you, are their respective merits?
For me, improvisation or working with nonclassical improvisers
(thats what I do, on the side of my contemporary classical
compositions) has always been a great joy, like an artistic
holiday. I wake up everyday, and I get the WAV files coming in
from improvisers, whoever I am collaborating with at the time,
with new materials he/she just recorded. Then I download, I
create new sound by manipulation on my computer, or I play
something on top and then mix, then send it back to him/her. All
this spontaneity is wonderful. Then I begin my contemporary
music composition, which is not spontaneous at all, choosing
note by note, then deleting note by note sometimes
Do you feel it important that an audience is able to deduct the
processes and ideas behind a work purely on the basis of the
music? If so, how do you make them transparent?
I am not sure that is important. I prefer that an audience doesnt
know, I prefer they don't feel the need to find out my process,
that is my business. Composing is all about creating a utopia that
I would like to live in a whole world, not just colour, or scenery,
but I hope to stimulate every sense you can imagine, like the
taste, smell, feeling of texture if you put that (whatever 'that' is)
against your cheek, or if you eat it. Is it squeezie or hard or does
something ooze out when you bite it, etc. etc. All of this I hope
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something ooze out when you bite it, etc. etc. All of this I hope
to stimulate just by hearing the sound I create. Thats the aim
anyway. I make this utopia for myself and hope there are others I
can share it with. I am trying to invite you in, to come and stay
with me for a bit in the world I created.
So process of composition which I have, a sometimes quite
strict system that I use locally, sometimes loosely, but from the
first note to the last note of the work. Over the years, I've
composed small piano pieces from time to time, for my search
for newer composition systems which I could later use for larger
or any instruments.
Its a bit like plugins, I use it when I need it in the course of
composing. Whatever works. In other words, it is just a method
for me to get to where I need to get to, nobody needs to know,
and I never talk to people about it.
The relationship between music and other forms of art
painting, video art and cinema most importantly has become
increasingly important. How do you see this relationship yourself
and in how far, do you feel, does music relate to other senses
than hearing alone?
I also work with video artists, so I think it's wonderful that we do
have this relationship with other forms of art. But it can be
dangerous. I know for sure that listening is the hardest thing to
do for most people visuals always win. Even though on a
manipulative level, it's the sounds and the music that is the
strongest and most dangerous art form. You dont cry because
of the actors acting, you cry because of the music. The pace of
the movie (in cinema) can be utterly changed because of the
soundtrack. There have been cases in Hollywood movies, where
the movie seems too slow, but there is no time to reshoot, so
they simply change the composer and the pace issue is resolved.
Yes, I am a movie buff.
When I collaborate with other artists, like video artists, what I
aim for is that counterpoint of the visual and visual illusion
created by the video artist and the sound of my music in the
listeners heads, to create another illusion altogether. That would
be very nice, as I dont want my music or the video to simply be
accompanying each other.

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Part 2.

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