The desire to imitate

Desire of imitation for Soprano Saxophone and Bass Clarinet (2023)

- Premiere: October 22, 2023, at the Mitsubishi Estate Award Music Category Commemorative Recital (Marunouchi Building Hall). Performance time: Approximately 9 minutes.

Cl. Minori Hayashi, S.Sax. Mikiya Hojo

<Formation>

Bs.Cl., S.S.Sax.

<Program Notes>

This piece was inspired by the theory of mimesis (imitation) proposed by the French philosopher René Girard (1923-2015), which seems to have foreseen the arrival of today's social media age.

Human desires do not arise from within; rather, consciously or unconsciously, we desire what the people we are aware of want.

In other words, the desire for something is merely an imitation of the desires of others (models) who are close to us and who desire the same thing. Girard calls this "a competition of imitative desires," which gives rise to the fierce competition and conflict structures we see today.

The combination of soprano saxophone and bass clarinet was chosen based on auditory factors, including the fact that while they are both reed instruments and have similar timbres (both being B♭ instruments), they have different playable ranges.

The soprano saxophone is given an ascending diatonic scale theme (do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do), and the bass clarinet is given a descending chromatic scale theme (do-ti

The music progresses with themes subtly transforming as each element incorporates (imitates) the defining characteristics of the other.