The Sky Was Beyond Description for koto/bass koto – Hyo-shin Na
I began to write music for koto and bass koto in 2003, specifically for Shoko Hikage. Since then I’ve written 27 pieces for these two instruments and they’ve all been premiered and performed subsequently many times by Shoko. When I thought about writing another piece for her, I realized that, since she played my older music that uses the instruments separately with such insight and virtuosity, she could certainly play, or find a way of playing, a new piece that uses both instruments simultaneously. Since the pieces I’d already written had their roots in poems and/or paintings, I wanted to write something that was independent of these sources and found inspiration in the sound of the two instruments themselves – their tunings, comparative ranges and individual voices. HSN