Seven Japanese Sketches (2023)
(for oboe and string quartet)

This piece is a reworking of certain themes that emerge from my recent experience with the opera Die Judith von Shimoda. This way, characters reappear from the fore mentioned, questioning themselves and rethinking themselves, as well as harmonic elements linked to the bonsho bells, the sho instrument or the harmonic and inharmonic spectrum harmonies that define some of the characters.

The figurative staging that this piece possesses brings into dialogue elements from our own musical culture, such as those derived from the harmonic and inharmonic spectrum or the tempered hexachordal fields and, in the case of the oboe, multiphonic materials with sound materials from the bonsho bells, the sho and the melodic twists of old popular songs that served as a symbolic reference for me, and in some cases tangible, for the composition of Die Judith von Shimoda and Seven Japanese Sketches.

In this way, the harmonies that include micro-intervals present in the piece, all have a specific origin related to these sources, although they have been adapted to the quarter tone, in order to make their interpretation more accessible.

For oboists and quartets unfamiliar with such intervals, an alternate tempered intonation version of some of the pieces is included. This serves as a substitute, although in my opinion it loses some of its original color, mysterious and deep at the same time.