Daryl Runswick, who taught me as an undergraduate at Trinity College of
Music, has been a major influence on my work. When I started my studies I
knew no modern music. I entered the college with ambitions to be a film
composer. Daryl opened my mind to the realities of modern music, in the
same way that Laurence Fishburne opened Keanu Reeves' mind to the realities
of life in the "Matrix". However, Daryl did not give me any pills. And we
did not spend our afternoons running over ceilings doing cool karate stunts!
However, despite this obvious failing (I am the only composer of my
generation who cannot run on the ceiling and do karate) he taught me a great
deal, although we disagreed about everything:
He is very much into the idea of "improvisation", I am not. (As he puts it I
am too much of a control freak!) He said the one great thing about
controlled-improvisation is that each performance is different, but it is still the
same piece.
I quite like this idea (of course not the "improvisation" part of it) so I
thought about it a lot. "Spatial separation" maybe the control freak’s way of
producing the above effect; because if you sit in different places in the
Auditorium, the piece will sound different.
I remember I tried this idea with my last orchestral piece, which was
performed in Japan last May. After the concert, two critics were discussing
the piece. One said "I liked it, but I could hear the strings from
the back of the hall, and couldn't hear the harp much"; the other said "I could
only hear the harp!" I like this result very much. Maybe there is a little
reason for this piece to be performed again...
Dai Fujikura (edited by Harry Ross)
