Following repetition/recollections, Sawasawa, and Sarasara, Daidai is the fourth work which features the marimba by composer, Dai Fujikura.
This piece is scored for solo marimba and 3 percussionists. It is a classic representation of Fujikura’s colourful sound world, featuring hauntingly beautiful harmony, virtuosic yet elegant dances which reminds one of the sounds of nature, and space which allows the resonance of the instruments to capture the audience.
Especially notable is his use for percussion in this work. He gave the general direction of skins, metal, and woods, for the percussion parts, but left the choices of exact instruments to the players. In his words, ‘Instrument choices should also correlate with descriptions in the score; for instance, “sounds like insects walking on a hard surface, a small, super light, thin sound” should employ instruments which suit that direction.’ The use of percussion in this piece blends with and accents the colors of the marimba is a very delicate and effective way.
This piece is dedicated to marimbist, Eriko Daimo. The title draws from Dai Fujikura and Eriko Daimo. Today’s performance is the world premiere of this composition, featuring Eriko Daimo on solo marimba, as well as Gene Koshinski, Casey Cangelosi, and Pius Cheung on percussion.
programme note by Pius Cheung
Special note from Dai:
I was delighted to receive this project from my dear friend and collaborator Eriko Daimo and Pius Cheung. Something I have learnt about percussionists; they are special species. They don’t want just to receive the score and play the notes on the page. They love searching for sound, they want to look for, and invent the instruments to produce the sound. They have the magic power to turn everything into their percussion instruments. For us non-percussionists, we may look like we are just banging something or behaving badly at the dinner table, but when the percussionists do it, whatever the objects can turn into instruments as if they were meant to perform in the concert.
I wanted to make sure the piece has a room for the percussionists. The room where they can use their special powers.
Dai Fujikura