Takashi Yoshimatsu - Pleiades Dances (Kyoko Tabe)

Information

Composer: Takashi Yoshimatsu

• Pleiades Dances I-V

Kyoko Tabe, piano

Date: 1996

Label: DENON

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Review

The Pleiades Dances are a series of solo piano pieces written by contemporary Japanese composer Takashi Yoshimatsu. They are, in the words of the composer, "a newly conceived set of preludes for the modern piano which takes its material from the seven colours of the rainbow, the seven pitches of church modes, and seven metrical units ranging from three to nine beats." Each set of Pleiades Dances contains 7 movements, which "are not placed in the order in which they appear in the work for any specific structural or contextual reasons, nor should too much be read into the curious titles [he gave] them." Yoshimatsu, in the preface to these works, encourages free interpretation of these pieces "including tempo, dynamics and frequency of repetition." Each set, however, seems internally dependent, so that within one set of 7, the order can be freely arranged, but the character of each set differs noticeably between each set.

Especially prominent in the Pleiades Dances are the composer's use of changing meter and unconventional time signatures. Though not always accented in the same way, the meters include 8/8, 6/8, 10/8, 5/8, 7/8, 9/16, 13/8, 1/4, 5/4, 6/4, as well as the more ubiquitous 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 time signatures. Some compositions are written in entirely one meter (such as Arabesque in Twilight, which is in 5/8), or consistently alternate between two meters (such as Dance toward West: 8/8 and 6/8; and Dance toward East: 6/8 and 5/8), but the majority change between at least 3 different meters. Some of the compositions Pleiades Dances also use modal harmony. The Lydian mode and Mixolydian mode both figure prominently into these works. Slightly Bright Waltz, for example, has a prominently Lydian melodic figure (even though the V7-I relationship of the key of Db is still maintained with a Gb, and Gb is not devoid from the piece). The Mixolydian cadence of v-I can be found in Memory of Prelude and Scene of Rondo.

-- Timothy Walden

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Takashi Yoshimatsu (born 18 March 1953 in Tokyo) is a Japanese composer. He studied at the Department of Technology of Keio University and taught himself composition, although he has studied under Teizo Matsumura for a short while. Yoshimatsu made his debut as a composer with Threnody to Toki in 1981. Since then, he has composed six symphonies, twelve concertos, a number of sonatas, and various shorter pieces for ensembles of various sizes, including for Japanese traditional instruments. Since 1998, Yoshimatsu has been composer-in-residence of Chandos Records and has published several albums under this label.

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Kyoko Tabe (born 26 March 1967 in Muroran, Hokkaido) is a Japanese pianist. In 1984 she won first place at the 53rd Japan Music Competition, becoming the youngest person to do so. She went on to study at Tokyo University of the Arts and the Universität der Künste Berlin. Since 1990, Tabe has been active in Japan, giving recitals all over the country and performing with major orchestras. She is also very active in recording, with more than 20 albums for such labels as DENON and Chandos. She has served as a professor at the Ueno Gakuen University, and is currently teaching at the Toho Gakuen School of Music.

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