Harvey Sollberger

flute, guitar, harp, piano, percussion

Composer notes from Arabesque album:

In November of 1986, I spent three weeks participating in the Interlink Festival in Tokyo.
It was my only visit to Japan, and memories of Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka where I
performed and enjoyed such warm hospitality remain vivid today.
Upon returning home Yuki Miura, representing the Japan Society in New York
City, contacted me with regard to their commissioning a work that would in some
sense reflect on or be a response to my Japanese experience. After some thought,
I agreed and composed “original substance/manifests/traces I” for solo flute, guitar,
harp, piano, and three percussionists in late 1986 and early 1987. The work’s premiere
took place later in 1987 at the Japan Society where I led the ensemble and performed
the flute part.

So what memories or impressions formed the basis for my response? The first
preceded my visit to Japan: The music of Watazumi Doso (1911-1992), a student of
Rinzai Zen who attained the title of Roshi. His style of performing on the endblown
Japanese bamboo flute opened my ears to many expressive and technical possibilities
that I worked to adapt to and explore on the Western flute, and I had revered and
been inspired by him since the early 1970s. The second grew out of my visit to
Miyajima Island (“shrine island”) across the Japanese inland sea from Hiroshima.
Miyajima consists of a vast complex of Buddhist and Shinto shrines in a great forest,
and its atmosphere of peace and contemplation so close to the Hiroshima Peace
Memorial and Park impressed me greatly. “original substance/manifests/traces I”
grew out of both of these sources. Its title derives from the phrase honji suijaku that
refers to the historic grafting of Buddhism — with its Indian and Chinese origins
— onto Japan’s own native religions; and that, in turn, fostered the concept of a
respectful cross-cultural fusion that guided me in my work.

The recording on Arabesque is of a live performance by the Indiana University New Music
Ensemble, which I led in the 1980s.

This item is listed as part of ACA's complete archival holdings, and may be available on request.