This work was commissioned by Nobuaki Fukukawa. It is very rare for an individual person to commission a large scale work like this concerto and I think it is a wonderful thing. I previously wrote a work for him for solo horn called "Poyopoyo" for which we experimented together to find a sound which is the antithesis of the stereotypical horn sound.

I looked for sensitive, quiet, soft, and poetic sounds to represent poyopoyo. In Japanese the word "poyopoyo" describes something soft and squidgy, with a velvety texture - like the cheek of a four month old baby, which is how old my daughter was when I wrote this work. Over online video conferencing we settled on using a bass trombone harmon mute or a specially made harmon mute for horn to achieve the desired affect. The player can open or close the mute with his hand to make the "wah-wah effect, and throughout this piece the speed of this wah-wah effect varies to represent poyopoyo.

Based on those experiences, I also made this concerto closely working with Nobuaki over skype, and meeting him in person, spending hours of experimenting to find unusual horn sounds. I think I do this because I generally dislike the typical sound of a classical "Horn Concerto" which often sounds macho and noisy. Like before, I wanted to do something totally opposite to that.

Part 1 of this concerto is like a "Poyopoyo" concerto. The orchestra sounds like the wah-wah mute on horn. Next I composed a cadenza part of the concerto, which is very new for me as well as for Nobuaki. The sound is nothing at all like a normal horn, nor of European classical music (nor Japanese). We have no idea what it is, but when I found it when we were playing around with Nobuaki with his horn in our friend's apartment, we looked at each other, and I immediately jumped up and down with a joy, and started composing on the spot. He tried it and it sounded wonderful to me. I hope you will wait to hear what it is!

The cadenza part has became an individual piece called "yurayura", a little sister piece to this Concerto.

Dai Fujikura


この作品は福川 伸陽くん個人からの委嘱作品。個人が協奏曲を委嘱するってとても珍しい事だし、凄いことだと思う。そういうことが起きた僕は、とってもラッキーだと思う。
今回は、今のところ完成している第１部の世界初演。
以前に、「ぽよぽよ」というホルンソロの作品を彼のために書いた。それも福川 伸陽くんの個人委嘱だ。その作品は福川くんと長い間スカイプでやりとりして出来上がった不思議なホルンの曲。「ぽよぽよ」は世界中のいろんなホルン奏者によって演奏されているし、録音も３つのレーベルリリースされている。日本、イギリス、ドイツのレーベル。

今回は、それらの経験を元にしながらも、日本にいる福川くんとロンドンにいる僕とでスカイプでやりとりしながら協奏曲の一部を作っていった。
福川くんに色々な注文をしたり、ホルンの色々なことを試してもらったりして、新しい奏法や音をホルンから見つけ出す、という感じのコラボレーション。
僕は元来、《ホルン協奏曲》といった古典的なものは好きではない。
マッチョで、うるさく、カッコ良いといえばそうかもしれないが、どちらかと言うと、ウザい笑。
ホルンがフォルテでカッコよく吹くのに加え、それが調性音楽となると、仮病を使ってでも聴きに行きたくない。

なので、今回は全くホルンっぽくない、爽やかで、ぽよぽよ、さわさわ、ぱらぱら、した感じのホルン協奏曲を目指した。

ホルンが主人公で、そこから生まれてくる森、そこに降る雨、その中の森を主人公が、特に目的もなくのんびりと歩き、その周りから発見などがあるかもしれない、というような感じだと思う。

今回の第１部がどんな響きをするか、を知った上で第２部を書き、完成させようと思う。

藤倉大