怪談チクルス
Kaidan Cycle

Date of composition: April 2017
Instrumentation: piano, narrator
Duration: 19.5'

This work had Japanese culture as a source of inspiration.

Kaidan is difficult to translate with the right nuance. It is often translated as ghost stories, or horror stories, but this doesn’t give us the full idea. 怪 (kai) means suspicious, mysterious, or apparition, and is a character often seen in Japanese folklore, such as in the word yokai, which is an umbrella term for all kinds of supernatural creatures. 談 (dan) means to discuss, to talk, and is mostly used when referring to the carrying over of information. Mouth-to-mouth stories, if you will. Kaidan thus has more of a meaning of sharing stories that are about anything mysterious or strange, rather than being restricted to horror stories. Because the element of storytelling is so important in this culture, I have chosen to have the piano enter a dialogue with a narrator, though the piece can be played without a narrator, if the pianist so chooses.

From these traditions, I have chosen a couple stories and the mysterious creatures therein:

I.「スッポンの怨霊」Suppon no Onryo: the vengeful turtle spirits

This story is about Kiroku from Nigata, a successful owner of a turtle restaurant [quite common in the Edo period, 1603-1868]. One night, his body suddenly feels very heavy. He becomes overrun by hundreds of turtles who try to drag him into ice cold water. Kiroku screams. His wife enters the room and the turtles disappear. Everything appears to have been but an illusion, leaving behind a bewildered Kiroku. This continues to happen every night, until Kiroku vows to never take the life of an innocent being ever again.

This story is portrayed by the slow melodies and dark colours, speeding up into a muddy maelstrom, signifying the hundreds of turtles dragging Kiroku into the cold, dark waters.

II.「否哉」Iyaya: “no way!”

From the back, iyaya looks like an attractive, young woman, dressed in beautiful robes, but when anyone tries to get her attention, she turns around, revealing an ugly, twisted face. The name iyaya uses the characters ‘no’ and ‘alas’. Iyaya is not dangerous, she exists solely to mess with people.

Just like the story, this piece starts off soft and pleasant, quite beautiful, like Iyaya's initial appearance. The ending portrays the sudden shock and Iyaya's playful nature.

III. 「狐の嫁入り」Kitsune no Yomeiri: the fox wedding procession

Foxes (kitsune) have been a prominent animal in Japanese folklore since the beginning of time. People believe them to possess magical powers. They are said to be able to transform into people, live for hundreds of years (sometimes growing up to nine tails in the process), and the ability to summon magical fire, ‘fox fire’ 狐火, kitsune-bi (similar to the will-o’-wisp or ignis fatuus). This term is also used as a name for sunshowers. This fox fire gets its name from the old tradition of the wedding procession, where the bride is led to a shrine at night, accompanied by many lanterns and torches. Such a procession can be miles long but is yet ephemeral: any time a human would approach, the lights disappear into the dark.

The story of the fox wedding serves as a more lighthearted breath between the darker pieces. It is, however, the most challenging of the cycle to play: the different articulations, in combination with playful rhythms and changing metres require a great amount of control and ability to provide the right nuances.

IV. 「丑の刻参り」Ushi no koku mairi: shrine visit in the hour of the ox

Ushi no koku mairi is a feared black magic spell. Between 1 and 3 at night, when it is darkest, the border between our world and that of the yōkai weakens. With this spell, spirits can then be summoned into our world, to torture or even kill someone. To do this, a long, complicated ritual must be performed, using a wara ningyō (a kind of straw voodoo doll) that contains DNA of the victim (some hair, a nail, blood, ...). Some even believe the one performing the ritual can gain the power to transform into an oni, a powerful demon.

Ushi no koku mairi's melodic development was a kind of serialist experiment, as it is based on the number Tau (2x pi, i.e. 6.28...): I created a scale with 10 notes to correspond to the numbers 0 through 9. Every digit of Tau thus dictates a specific melody note. The idea of Tau came from the ox (taurus), but also fits the elaborate, detailed steps that must be followed to execute the spell. Compositionally, this created a challenging framework, as some parts of the melody feel completely atonal,but other times, consonant triads appear out of nowhere. This pushed me to be creative with other factors, such as rhythm and harmony, in order to tell this story.