SAJ-49

Yoshi Wada

Since 1979, I have built several bagpipe and reed instruments; and have written compositions for them. The musical instruments and the compositions went through changes over the years.

I began this project in the fall of 1983 after I have arrived in Berlin. I had a studio at Künstlerhaus Bethanien to practice music. Marilyn and I practiced the bagpipe together in the space. The acoustics of the room was rich and dense. When we began playing the bagpipe, it was quite loud and we physically felt the strong bounce back of the sound from the walls. I noticed this phenomena had to do with the combinational tones, --- it strongly happens when the intervall is in tune. But it was difficult to tell where it was happening, either in my inner ear or in the outside air. While we were playing, we developed the composition and the technique of the bagpipe by staying close to these phenomena. It was possible to create the special timbral structure by moving around in the space while playing.

After this sound experience, I wanted to extend the search in the meticulous variations of the timbre and to build up the sound spectrum in constant transformations to its maximum density. I found the possibility of using the organ pipes to be able to produce variational complexed sonority combined with the bagpipe instruments.

I ran around to a few churches in Berlin to hear the acoustics and the pipe organ. It was an experience for me to get into building the pipe organ from scratch. I somehow managed to build a five octave range homemade organ for this ensemble composition. We got a small ensemble together in a short time and practiced at Künstlerhaus Bethanien's studio.

I appreciate very much the support from DAAD, specially Helga Retzer who is no longer with us unfortunately, Jost Gebers who gave me the right advice for this recording and the friends who Made this project possible.

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