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Yearnings

憧憬

[Genre]Modern
[Composed]Christopher Yohmei Blasdel - Shakuhachi - 1986

Yearnings appears on the following albums

Album Artist
Play ButtonVoices from Afar - Voices From Within Shakuhachi : Christopher Yohmei Blasdel
We always yearn for what we can't quite reach; that object of desire which, like the glinting pools of phantom water remaining forever distant on the highway's horizon or the special friend always dreamed about but not yet encountered, lies just beyond the veil of our perceptions; on the border between the material and non-material. Guided by such yearnings, we pursue our desires, as if lost in a misty haze, until we find a way which leads us on.

"Yearnings" is a solo meditation in two parts. The first section is in free rhythm reminiscent of a shakuhachi honkyoku solo piece; wandering, uncertain. Out of this section develops the more structured second part, in which the interval of the perfect fifth becomes the main experience; the base for a simple yet elegant melodic motif. This motif, which appeared in my music one day and inspired the piece, leads into an abstract cycle of fifths and ends in a series of harmonics in which the tonic, fifth, and octave sound simultaneously.