Scope of Senses (2022)

Akari Komura

Scope of Senses

(2022)

for flute and double bass

Scope of Senses (2022)

Composed in collaboration with Anita Chandavarkar and Andrew Crapitto

Instrumentation

Flute

Double Bass

Program note

Sounds can store and evoke memories of places. It is the act of listening that extends across the environment composite of sonic phenomena. Our ears subjectively perceive sonic impressions and develop subjective associations. Conversely, our bodies can store and embody sonic memories. In particular, the bodies of musicians assimilate corporeal memories through sonic expression. Multitudes of physiological and psychological phenomena are rendered to fabricate a microcosmic soundscape through the act of soundmaking.

The piece derives from the intersubjectivity in the listening and soundmaking bodies. There is an intuitive subjectivity in our attention to sound and its embodiment. The piece originates from an idea of reflexive attention to sonic events in the immediate soundscape and reflexive response by re-enacting them in a performative context. In other words, the piece explores the idea of releasing sounds from their original spatial and temporal associations and freeing them up to many sonic possibilities in a performative microcosm of soundscape.

The score invites the players to be observant and attentive with their kinetic motions in playing the instruments. It poses a process-oriented approach to soundmaking where the sonic results are a culmination of body intuition, choreographed movements, and intersubjective perception of listening.

Performance Note

Flute Bass

<x> Listen to the corresponding sound source audio files and imitate specified musical parameters

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kujbWN_YvNnqwFIguW8ZdtzInAgIsU17?usp=share_link

Perform the extremities and in-between spectrums of the specified physical parameters

Breath pressure:

Overblowing > Undertone

Harmonic relation between singing + playing:

Dissonance > Unison (octaves allowed)

Angle of the flute:

⦾ open mouthpiece > ⦿ closed mouthpiece

Bow Pressure: High > Low

Finger pressure: Fully pressed > Lightly touched

Bow placement: molto sul pont. > molto sul tasto

Flute:

COMP

Compartmentalize a 3” - 5” segment of the other player’s ongoing sonic spectrum. Riff on the segment as a rhythmic pattern. Repeat with non-linear variation on specified color spectrum.

Prepare a cylindrical object (e.g. dry erase marker) that can be inserted into the head-joint.

For mm.16~24, use the object to manipulate the pitch to glide down by blowing into the head-joint.

Scope of Senses

Fl. <machinery buzz> <electric hum>

Db. <machinery buzz>

<machinery buzz>

(2022)

Akari Komura (b.1996)

© 2022 Akari Komura

<electric hum> <machinery buzz>

Fl. ca. 30” .

Db. <machinery buzz>

Fl. abruptly merge into silence; take apart head-joint and prepare a cylindrical object