[DOWNLOAD] Cricket Chorus - Clarinet Quartet

In Japan, you can hear the voices of various insects from summer to autumn. At the end of a hot day, in the cool night air, the chirping sound "rin-rin" is heartwarming and nostalgic.

In Japanese history, before the Middle Ages, "crickets" seemed to refer to all singing insects, including cicadas. Today, in non-academic daily conversation, camel crickets, prosopog japonica and eobiana engelhardti are included even though they are not crickets. When I listen to the small world with insects, I realize that there is another world, and I feel an illusion.

The opening begins with a rhythm that imitates the insect sounds. Some regular rhythms express insects singing with different time axes, and they feel like an ensemble complicatedly entwined. And when the ensemble stops ringing, a cold night breeze blows, which reminds us that autumn has arrived. However, on this night, the heat still remains, and we will be led to a profoundly mysterious insect world. Ideally, the two "wind bells" in the work should sound like a Nanbu-furin from Iwate prefecture.

Commissioned by Albion Clarinet Varier.

(Yuichi Abe)