Sarah Cahilll, pianist performs composer's work "Patterns of Plants" Sunday, September 14, Berkeley

 

Sarah and Mamoru Fujieda viewing Bess's work at BAM opening, September 12, 2014

The charming pianist, daughter of James Cahill, and the composer Mamoru Fujieda

 

 

The Japanese composer Mamoru Fujieda has written an extraordinary set of pieces called "Patterns of Plants" (1996-2004).He hooked up an apparatus called a Plantron to read the bio-electric fluctuations of various plants, to try and understand their "voices".  Then he transformed the sonic data into the melodical  patterns of these beautiful pieces which are dedicated to Lou Harrison.   Sarah had been performing all over the country (Freer Gallery, Spoleto Festival USA, Lincoln Center) for about four years when the composer wrote to her.  He invited her to the first Pacific Crossings Festival in Tokyo in the summer of 2004 to play his own music along with Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros and others.  Then a month later, he presented another concert in the Tokyo Summer Festival, in which she played an hour of Patterns of Plants in the Jiyugakuen Myonichikan, a small school in Tokyo designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Mamoru's plans for the concert was inspired by Pauline Oliveros' concept of Deep Listening.  He asked me to breathe between pieces, to feel the collective breathing of the audience, to be aware of the total experience - the music the piano's tuning, the audience, the chirps of crickets outside, the building's architecture, how the crickets stopped singing at sundown(halfway through the concert), the silences between pieces.  For the concert, we used his old German upright, tuned in Weckmeister no. 3.  He asked a local artist to design an installation of light and shadow which enhanced the geometric patterns of Wright's design.   See Sarah's site to download a sample and order the DVD.