KINKAKU-JI
Composer: Daniel Berg
Instrument: Flauto Alto and Vibraphone with Gong
Level: Intermediate
Published: 2020
Price: €20.00
Item details
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Description +
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KINKAKU-JI
Meditation for Flauto Alto and Vibraphone with gong
In the late 1990s I visited Japan. Something that made a strong impression on me was the Japanese gardens who breathed meditation and inner peace.
The original Japanese religion, Shinto, is based on the worship of nature spirits and therefore everything in a Japanese garden - plants, rocks and water – has a spiritual meaning and represent something beyond their physical shape.
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Instrumentation +
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Flauto Alto and Vibraphone with Gong
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About the composer +
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Daniel Berg is a Swedish composer, musician, and professor in classical percussion at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and at the Academy of music and drama in Gothenburg.
In his passion to promote the marimba as a solo- and chamber music instrument, Daniel has worked intimately with a number of composers who have written original music for the instrument. This includes more than 300 world premier for solo and chamber works. Daniel Berg is a marimba artist of Bergerault and Elite Mallets.
As a composer Daniel has written a lot for solo marimba like Mistral (for Michael Burritt), Phoenix (for Robert van Sice) and Yán Jiâng (for the Taiwan World Percussion Competition). His music for percussion ensemble have been appreciated and often performed like Kroumata (for sextet) and Arctic Nights (for quintet) - all published by Edition Svitzer.
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Reviews +
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Review (Percussive Notes, February 2025)
Daniel Berg’s “Kinkaku-Ji” is a six-minute duet for alto flute and vibraphone with gong. The piece is at an overall Adagio tempo with very subtle tempo changes throughout. The opening section is very special with the presence of long gong notes accompanying an air tone melody on the alto flute. The middle section involves a “trading” of melodic roles. The alto flute plays the melody while the vibraphone accompanies with chords, followed by a reversal of roles where the vibraphone takes control of the melody while the alto flute accompanies. A musical “climax” happens with very rhythmically dense interplays between the two parts with the presence of polyrhythms and cross-rhythms. Following this, the piece circles back to previous material, closing with the opening theme of the gong and the air tone melody.
It is worth noting that you will need a motor for the vibraphone and a way to change the speed of the motor as you are playing. Overall, “Kinkaku-Ji” is a good introduction for percussionists who are looking for a piece to play with a non-percussionist, especially if they are looking for aesthetics found in the music of composers like George Crumb or Tōru Takemitsu. While there are moments of virtuosity, this piece will be enticing for younger players with solid fundamentals in search of new, out-of-the-box repertoire for their recitals.
—Tim Feerst
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Credits +
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Enamel painting (front cover): Bengt Berglund
Front Cover: Ronni Kot Wenzell
Photo (Daniel Berg): Jon Liinason
Translation (English): Robert Oetomo
Translation (Japanese): Satoko Berger Fujimoto
Printed in Copenhagen,
Denmark Copyright © Edition SVITZER
www.editionsvitzer.com
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