Drop Out

I was supposed to have the test of music history today, it's hard to imagine that I can answer due to a lack of study, finally I couldn't even go into the room. I feel guilty about slacking my efforts.

After school is over, I went out to have a dinner with my friend.

Improvisation Technology

"Aesthetic and Performance of Electronic Music" is one of the my favorite classes. Today's topic was "improvisation technology" of William Forsythe.

We watched the CD-ROM which Forsythe made in order to enable his dancers to improvise themselves. Actually I saw it last year in Japan and I was really impressed with it. Forsythe provided a technical knowledge and philosophy that considering choreography as geographical drawing. Although it was 10 years ago that he made CD-ROM, it still has impact on choreography.

Turntablist

Sonology Institute hosted the workshop by Takuro Mizuta today. He showed his performance with turntable and computer. He use Max/MSP on computer for real time sampling so that he can play it like another turntable. It is a new instrument as Joel said.

How to compose

We had a weekly colloquium, a regular meeting of composers in KonCon. Ofir and Andrzej presented their music tonight.

Ofir doesn't write any notes but edits sounds with a computer. By his own account, he recorded some improvising sessions and choped them into fragments, then laid out those materials one by one. Yes, that is also the composition as well as writing notes.

In the other hand, Andrzej uses very specific notations such as doubled harmonics or one-eighth microtonal pitches. His score seems to order players to used to some "contemporary" technics in ensemble. During our discussion, someone mentioned that his music sounds like improvisation piece (despite his strict manner of notating). However you must hear constructions in it, so it's different from a improvisation indeed.

Both of them were really interesting. I thought they had achieved good results in a different way. The important thing is not how to make, but what they want to hear. Still, it's connected to each other as you know.

Notation

I attended a Gilius' seminar for the first time in along while.
Today's topic was Ives's symphony no.4.

In the afternoon, I discussed my idea with Cornelis.
I'm thinking about a notation including directions for body movements.
Although the staff also might be able to work for that,
because of what I want to make is more theatrical,
I'm looking for something different way.

And he taught me that some students had tried to do something similar.
I felt anew that this is really good place for me to study.

Westeinde

I went to the concert by Miwako Fujiwara and her students. It was a charity for homeless people at a church in Westeinde. They also played "The First Noel" which I arranged. It was a warm and cozy concert, and provided a good opportunity for little musicians to play in front of an audience as well.

Dinner with Friends

Chie invited us to the dinner. We ate delicious food talking about hometown cultures, memories of school days, hamsters, education and of course, music. We had a good time drinking till the late hours of the night.

Female Film Directors

I saw some DVDs. One of those was a French movie, "UN DIMANCHE A LA CAMPAGNE" directed by Bertrand Tavernier which I bollowed from my friend. It was so pastoral movie that nice to watch on the fine day as like today.

The other two were TV programs on NHK which my father sent me the other day. The one of them features recent flourish activities of female film directors in Japan. Although people try to reduce a difficulty when women work in social, most of the people in a film studio are man indeed.
In this program Lee Bong-woo, a Japanese film producer, interviews to Mika Ninagawa, Miwa Nishikawa, Sachi Hamano and Naomi Kawase. It was a good program. However, unfortunately I have never seen them movies before. I have to check them!

Shoot off!!

Yota, Kei and I got together at Misaki's house.
There was a Misaki's brother, too.

After midnight, we went out to shoot off a firework.
I knew people in the Netherlands had a big celebration
with much firework, but it was bigger and more exciting than expected.

Many people were taking to the streets to display or watch the fireworks.
Sounds like a thunder of a cannon was heard throughout the town,
it made me feel like I was being in the battlefield.
Of course it was colorful and beautiful unlike war,
we enjoyed with a happy smile.

Best wishes for a happy new year from the foggy Hague. :-)