Search in Gray II (1978)

Basic Information
Japanese サーチ・イン・グレイ II (灰色の彷徨 II)
German Search in Gray II
Opus 037
Year 1978
Category Solo
Duration 14 min.
Instruments perc, tape
Score information

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About this Work

Maki Ishii, 1978

This piece was written for the percussionist Sumire Yoshihara, using a wide range of different percussion instruments such as wooden instruments, metal instruments, membraphones, marimbaphone and the like. These instruments are arranged in a circle around the soloist. The soloist is then performing on the respective instruments counterclockwise describing a circle. Thus the performing technique of the soloist - here Sumire Yoshihara - determines the tempo of the performance, the timing of the circular movement. In other words, the movements of the soloist play an important role for determining the musical time of the composition.

The most important musical elements are a pentatonic theme developed from 4 tones and a chromatic theme developed out of 6 tones. During the whole piece these two motives or themes arte repeated and developed and finally appear in a modified rhythm (polyrhythm) to slowly fade away.

Maki Ishii (year?)

This composition was written for Sumire Yoshihara and was premiered by her on October 24, 1978 at the SWF Concert in Freiburg, West Germany.

Sumire Yoshihara's delicate sense of sonority combined with her virtuouso technique are the important elements that form the acoustic world of this composition. Her quick reflexes, sudden circular movements in performance determine the durations and rhythms of the music.

The tetra-tonic structure forms the nucleus of the composition with the chromatic scale appearing alternately and simultaneously with the six note scale to produce a new musical form.