Program Notes for NOH REFLECTIONS

William P. Malm, in Japanese Music and Musical Instruments, describes Noh theater as a balance between “highly refined abstraction and the dramatic necessity of human emotions.” This idea of contrast and balance was a motivating force behind Noh Reflections, scored for string trio: violin, viola, and cello. I was also attracted to the mosaic-like structure of a Noh play, with its juxtapositions and overlapping of rigidly defined units. Furthermore, the tension between order and plasticity in the music gives an impression of tightly controlled spontaneity.
My first exposure to this unparalleled art form occurred in 1983 in Tokyo. A year later, a Noh performance in New York revitalized my interest, and I began composing the string trio, impelled to capture the sound-sense of Noh. My intention was to create a framework for the trio by exploring the ways that Western string instruments might simulate the sustaining tones and blurring glissandi of the Noh flute, the crisp percussive attacks of the drums, and the variations in vibrato, portamento, and tone projected by the voices.
Noh Reflections most clearly distills the sounds and music of Noh at the beginning of the piece. Contrasting material later overpowers these initial impressions until the very end, when the Noh-inspired material resurfaces. Noh Reflections was awarded the McCollin Prize by the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia in 1986.

---Anne LeBaron