AKA-TOMBO (2018)

for solo violin

Duration: 6'

Premiered: November 6, 2018 @ Certosa di San Martino, Naples, Italy

Etsuko Kimura (violin)

Programme Note:

Aka-tombo (赤とんぼ; red-dragonfly) is a solo violin work based on the Japanese children’s song of the same name, by composer Kôsaku Yomada. The lyrics for the original song are borrowed from famed Japanese-poet Rofū Miki, and paint the image of a young child’s melancholic remembrances of dragonflies in the autumn sunset. In this piece, the violin creates the ephemeral portrait of the dragonfly through shimmering and cascading bursts of harmonics, producing fleeting memory-like silhouettes of Yomada’s original melodies. My goal when writing this work was to capture the nostalgic sentiment that this piece holds for so many people and conjure the image and meaning of the red-dragonfly.

Aka-Tombo was commissioned by violinist, Etsuko Kimura and premiered in Naples, Italy in November of 2018.