Little Tokoyo

Incidental Music

for brass quintet and piano

duration app. 16 min.

Program Notes:

Little Tokoyo was written as incidental music for the film/show of the same name. The project was undertaken by the composer, Maria Creyts, and Spencer Musser for the UMKC/KCAI ArtSounds concert series. The work was premiered on Oct. 13th, 2009.

The work is inspired by the story, The Dream of Akinosuke, a Japanese folktale translated and made famous by Lafcadio Hearns. The story involves a farmer falling asleep and dreaming of a wonderful land. The dream last twenty-four years, but upon awaking the dreamer finds he has only been asleep a few minutes. After telling his friends of the marvelous dream they uncover an ant colony nearby which carries a strong semblance to the dream world of Akinosuke.

The music for Little Tokoyo was written to invoke a feeling of surreal-dreaming. Unlike traditional concert music, this piece was not initially intended to stand on its own. The work is intrinsically linked to the drama and the visual world created by Creyts and Musser. Themes and motives do not develop as much as create connections between various events, and the restricted use of certain instruments at certain times is akin to the sudden use of color in The Wizard of Oz. You are being taken to a world that is not your own, and I wanted the music to reflect that. Enjoy.

-Ryan Jesperson
9/17/2009

 

Little Tokoyo was premiered on Oct. 13th, 2009 as part of UMKC/KCAI ArtSounds.

Little Tokoyo Performance

Fall, 2012: Joseph Abad will premiere a new Saxophone Sonata.

Fall, 2012: Jordan Jacobson will perform fragments and memories in CT.

Spring-Summer, 2012: Jeux pour Jumeaux will be performed in San Francisco, CA.

Spring, 2012: Bobby Watson and the UMKC Big Band will premiere Rhapsody for Dean Moriarty in Kansas City, MO.

Spring, 2012: Ashly Evans will premiere Birdsongs in Houston, TX.

Spring, 2012: BA(da)SS will be performed by Ryan Ford in West Hartford, CT.

Spring, 2012: Jordan Jacobson will perform fragments and memories in CT.

Spring, 2012: Not Death, but Love will be premiered by Ineo Saxophone Quartet.

Spring, 2012: David Tayloe will perform A Page Out of Zen in CT.

May, 2012: The Invisible, Magic, Soccer Phone will be premiered in Middlefield, CT.

April, 2012: The UMKC Opera Dept. will perform portions of Songs from Behind the Curtain.

April, 2012: David Tayloe will premiere A Page Out of Zen in NY.

Feb. 17th, 2012: The 016 Ensemble will be perform Romanza for Alto Saxophone and Violin in Manchester, CT.

Dec. 3rd, 2011: Ryan defends his dessertation, Songs from Behind the Curtain at UMKC.

July 17th, 21st, 24th, 2011: Music Faculty from the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival will perform ...and those seven dwarfs in a series of concerts in Western Maine.

June 16th, 17th, 23rd, 24th, 2011:Orphée Redux will be performed by Rhymes With Opera on their East Coast Tour (NYC, Baltimore, Hartford, Boston).

June 12th, 2011:Selection from Songs from Behind the Curtain will be performed at the John Duffy Composers Institute in Norfolk, VA.

May 13th, 2011: The Ineo Quartet will perform the 1st movement of Not Death, but Love on their Fischoff Competition program in South Bend, Indiana.

March 19th, 2011: The Ineo Saxophone Quartet will perform ...and love is fire... from Not Death, but Love at the NASA conference in West Point, NY.

Feb. 25th, 2011: I. Jest will be premiered by Robert Olson and the UMKC Orchestra in Kansas City, MO.

Feb. 14th, 2011: Hebdomas Squatinae will be performed at the Nebraska at Kearney New Music Festival.

EVENT HISTORY