1997-03-03

Dear Henning Christiansen

How are you? I hope that everything is going well tor you and all of your projects.

From Oct.30th to Nov.2nd KOBE INTERNATIONAL MODERN MUSIC FESTIVAL '97 will be held at Xebec Hall, and for several months I have been composing a music drama, which will require some collaborators, for this festival.

The outline of the piece is as follows:
TITLE : An Incidental Story on the Day of a Solar Eclipse #1 ,#2,#3
ENSEMBLE : Narrator, Piano, Soprano, two Performers and Sound Operator [I am going to ask Christophe Charles]
DURATION : approx. 45 minutes
TEXT: Poems in English written using alliteration that describe various imaginary occurrences on the earth.

In this piece the two performers will play diverse instruments and objects whose names begin with one of the letters included in the title:

A, C, D, E, F, H, I, L, N, 0, P, R, S, T, Y

Likewise, the sound operator will play many kinds of sounds whose names, or the names of their sources or the places they were recorded begin with either one of these fifteen letters. Since the content of the texts implies many different spots around the world, I would like to collect sounds that were actually recorded in various countries (or prefectures, cities, etc) whose names also begin with these letters.

I would like to invite you to collaborate with me on this project. If you are interested, please record the sounds around you on a DAT tape, and send it to me. I am enclosing a list of example sounds for this project. Any length or any number of sounds is OK.

All the sounds I receive will be edited and played by a certain computer program.

Of course we will announce your name as a collaborator in the program, and after the concert I will send you back your tape together with a copy of the audio tape or video tape of the performance as well as the concert program.

I am sending this letter to ten people including you. If you are too busy to participate, I understand. But if you could spare a little time to join us in this project, I would very much appreciate it. The deadline will be June 30th, 1997.

Warmest Regards,

Mieko Shiomi

Sakaguchi 1-24-38 Sakurai
Minoo Osaka 562 Japan
Tel/Fax+81 727 21 3639

Love, Mieko

March 3, 1997

[From this May Fluxus Balance will join in a tour exhibition in
Germany.]

[s. 2]

EXAMPLES OF SOUNDS
sounds / sounds of / sounds at
A : aria, African music, Arabian music / airplane, alarm, ambulance, albatross, accordion / airport, etc
C : chatter, clatter, clamor, cry, crash / car, cricket, cicada, children, cow, chime, cello, contrabass, clarinet, cornet, canary / church, college, cinema, conference, coffeehouse, etc
D : drip, debate / doorbell, duck, drum, dog / dentist, etc
E : echo, etude, electric noise / electric instruments, electric drill, electric machines / embassy, etc
F: flap, flamenco/firecracker, footsteps, fireworks, finch, flamingo, frog, flag, flute / factory, fountain, forest, firm, etc
H: hand clap, howl, howling, hymn, Hungarian music / hen, hurdygurdy, helicopter, horn, hose, harp, harpsichord, hurricane / harbor, horse racing, hospital, etc
I : intermezzo, Indian music, Israeli music, Iranian music / ice, iron, etc
L : laughter, lullaby, Latin music / locomotive / library, laboratory, etc
N : newscast, Nougaku, national anthem, noise, etc
O : overtones, opera / oscillator, organ, oboe, orchestra, etc
P : pulse, prelude, pizzicato, plash / panpipe, pigeon, pebble, parrot, percussion, ping-pong / parlor, park, pool room, play room, post office, etc
R : rain, recitativo, rustle, rock'n'roll / radio / river, restaurant, etc
S : squawk, squeak, squelch, sportscast / saxophone, shou, shakuhachi, sparrow, steam, siren, swing, string, string instruments, shower / street, stream, station, school, seashore, store, swimming pool, etc
T : thunder, tango, time signal, Turkish music, tinkle, thud, tremolo / turkey, train, typewriter, trumpet, trombone, tuba, TV / tower, theater, etc
Y : yodel, yell, yap, yip, yelp / yacht, etc

• Please mark or write the names of the sounds you recorded.