Satie on the Beach

浜辺のサティ

Title Satie on the Beach 浜辺のサティ
Year 2001
Composer Takashi Koto
Instrument/s koto, shakuhachi
Commission Written for: Afternoon of Shakuhachi and Koto Music #6
First Performance (date, performers, venue) May 20, 2001, Marco Lienhard, Ryuko Mizutani, Afternoon of Shakuhachi and Koto Music #6, , Saint Paul’s Church, Brookline, Massachusetts
Contact for Sheets the composer
Contact Info https://www.facebook.com/takashi.koto.10/
Notes Satie on the Beach (浜辺のサティ) is a strange combination: Japanese traditional instruments and Erik Satie, my favorite French composer. My original idea for this piece was in the form of an opera with Satie represented in the title role. I pictured his beer-barrel body measuring the sandy hill and rocks, or talking to the birds on the beach (the title is a parody of Phillip Glass’s “Einstein on the Beach). Ordinarily, what interests me most in writing music is ‘structure’ made of sounds and silences resulting in a ‘contour’ composition. However, in this piece I have chosen, instead, to musically depict a visual scene. Eventually, I would like to develop the ideas in the piece into a full-length opera.
[Koto]