Eleanor Tomlinson BMus4 Recorder 2 || Hymn - Ryōhei Hirose

Hymn
Ryōhei Hirose (1930-2008)
Hirose studied composition at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, later becoming a professor of music at the Kyoto City University of Arts. He has composed a range of instrumental, choral and electronic pieces, many of which are for traditional Japanese instruments. Hirose’s interest in Japanese music began after he scored a composition for Japanese instruments to accompany a 1963 drama by Yoshie Harta, after which he was commissioned to write pieces for various Japanese instruments. He is best known for his compositions involving the shakuhachi, a Japanese flute made from bamboo. The shakuhachi is an instrument that requires the player to have a great degree of skill in order to create a range of different tone colours and dynamics. Hirose intends the recorder to recreate this sound world through the piece, by using a variety of tone colours and extended techniques.
Hymn is divided into many sections, each of which having a different character. The first section is melodic, featuring the intervals of a major second and perfect fourth. The second section has a more aggressive tone including a range of extended techniques such as multiphonics in contrast to the third section, which involves the voice and recorder creating a melody that represents a hymn. The end sections are again aggressive in character, although the piece closes with a softer end, reminiscent of the beginning.
Hymn was originally written for the alto recorder, however the only published version today is for the flute. The score used in today’s performance is the composers’ original manuscript score, as this has different sections to the published edition, which better fits the range and tonal colours of the recorder.
Performed on a Mollenhauer Modern Alto