More than any other musical genre, classical music has been the most resistant to embracing technology, fearing that it might detract from the essence of one of the oldest forms of music.
Last Sunday, at the Cairo Opera House, Japanese duo Kiyonori Sokabe and Kanako Abe broke all rules with their trumpet recital “From Classic to Computer Music.
Sitting in quietude at Opera’s large Main Hall, the audience listened to Abe strumming her Piano and Sokabe slowly blowing his trumpet.
The adaptation of Johann Sebastian Bach “Nun komm’der Heiden Heiland was impressive and, like all of Bach’s work, is moving and caressing, but traditional.
Suddenly, a green screen emerged as the computer connected to the trumpet began creating an amalgam of images and producing peculiar, galactic sounds.
The theme of the show “Between Tradition and Technology explains it all. Computers have been employed by the Japanese duo to use technology and present classical music in a fresh framework of visual and audio context.
Sokabe restricted his trumpet playing to one or two notes, represented on screen by purple dots similar to a pinball game.
Speaking to the audiences, Sokabe stated that Egypt boasts the oldest culture and history in the world while Japan is the technology leader, stressing the need to harmonize technology with history for the sake of humanity.
“I hope I can make my melodies harmonize with your heart, he said. The technological theme of the concert was in full display with “Small Fish Tale, a computer program created by Furukawa Kiyoshi, a music composer specializing in new media and music.
The program consists of 15 different musical notes each exhibited by a distinctive graphic element. The effect of this ‘tale’ is somehow difficult to describe. A sense of mystery and bafflement is evoked, yet it’s also fascinating and attractive, similar to the wonder-like atmosphere of Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation.
“Sinfonia in D by Giuseppe Torelli brought the concert back to its natural state with a jovial arrangement of the famous Italian baroque luminary.
The audiences were quickly dragged back into the fantasy dreamland of Kiyoshi with the third piece of the “Small Fish Tale entitled “Forest. From that point, the transition between the pure classicism and technology-infused presentations became swift. “Fancy, by Regis Campo, was followed by “Melody from “Tale. Nino Rota’s beautiful classical piece “Gelsomina-distanza was unveiled in its raw form, but was quickly fused with and almost entirely diminished by the computer sounds of “Garden.
The sudden, unexpected shift between the wistful melodies of classical music to the fast, urban beats and sounds of electronica brought the entire concept of this experiment full circle. It wasn’t as radical as one might think: The fusion between these two forms was a bit difficult at first, but, and as the concert progressed, it proved to be possible.
Some thought the recital was too extreme, and it wasn’t very popular with loyal classical music fans. Polite, sparse applause was heard at different intervals of the show.
“Ama pola by J.M Lacalle gave way to electronic composition “Factory, producing a series of mechanical sounds that transformed the hall into a setting analogous to a car factory.
The audience was then treated to the Asian version of The Beatles’ “Let it Be, performed on piano and the trumpet. At that moment, rock, classical music and electronic music became one in perhaps the most delightful and heartfelt segment of the concert.
Trumpet player Sokabe changed gear to present the last piece from “Tale entitled “Constellation. The piece induced images of constellations, the word it mimics as the moving dots of the graphic images looked like a group of glowing stars emitting otherworldly sounds.
The show ended with a nod to classical music via a gorgeously sad Asian piece called “Halos written by Akira Nishimura.
Takero Mori, director of the information and culture center at the Japanese embassy, confirmed that this kind of music might indeed be difficult for some to grasp.
“This New Age Classic music is getting popular and can be appreciated only by people who like thoughtful music and art, he said.
Sokabe wished that his music would be enjoyed by every generation.
“The most important aspect of the recital was flexibility, neither stick to tradition nor go to far in technology, said Sokabe.
The one thing his music surely did was raise the curiosity and stir the astonishment of the Opera House audiences, who were left wondering about this exotic experience of Sokabe’s peculiar imagination.
