Word: samisen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Miki's score uses nine Western instruments plus the koto (a kind of harp), samisen (a Japanese lute) and the tsuzumi drum. The composer manipulates a few simple musical motifs to achieve great emotional resonance as the themes recur; a sensitive, fragile hybrid that combines traditional Japanese elements with contemporary Western compositional practices, it must be heard in the theater to make its effect. Director Colin Graham, who commissioned the work for London's English Music Theater in 1979, staged the sometimes violent action subtly and with formal grace...