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Rita Ueda: Someone Out There is Praying for Peace (Let Us Not Be the Reason) on CD

The poetic dimension of the three pieces in this album is certainly the listening experience. The two

scores that "compose" the music (two because the first and third pieces use the same one) are nothing

more than a framework: a very limited number of directions given to the musicians and the conductor,

mostly consisting of short melodic or harmonic fragments positioned in boxes (what is called

Rahmen-Notation in German) that extend for the entire duration of a section.

To bring a piece to life, each performer must perceive what the others are playing, in a relationship

of independence-dependence. This is because the composer expressly requests that each musician

performs any melodic fragment, whenever they wish, however they wish, and in whatever order they

wish, thus in a context of absolute autonomy. At the same time, this fragment is performed alongside

other fragments played by other musicians, and it relates to them, creating an interconnectedness

among the parts involved. This is most likely the attitude that Rita Ueda invites us to adopt, directing

our attention and perception towards it. A choice of sharing also suggested by the meeting of three

different musical cultures, represented in these pieces by the solo instruments, each coming from a

different musical tradition, alongside the traditional Western orchestra: the Persian tar, the Chinese

guzheng, and the Japanese sho.