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Score title
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Three Fragments of Piya
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Composer
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Akira Nishimura
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Date
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2009
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Instrumentation
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Marimba
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Program note
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This suite consists of three pieces for marimba solo composed from summer to autumn in 2009. This is written for a marimba with five octaves from the lowest C, that is the same range as the cello. The first piece is played with medium hard mallets and the scales are basically written in diatonic. For the second piece, soft mallets are used and the scales are modal. The third piece is played with hard mallets and atonal.
Piya in the title is a Buddhist term for general idea of love. It also means self-love. It is believed that Piya turns from self-love into love for others. There are four categories of the stages of change. Pema is affection and friendship to others. Rati is fondness and attachment to a specific person. Kāma is lust and sexual desire. Tanhā is craving and fixation.
These categories seem extremely prudent and reflect caution and somewhat negative attitude toward love that could cause human bad obsessions such as hatred, jealous, distress and possessive desire. It is indeed the Buddhist view and mentality about love and quite interesting for me. This suite is a kind of divertimento for three of the Buddhist categories of love: Rati (no.1), Kāma (no.2), and Tanhā (no.3).
Akira NISHIMURA
Akira Nishimura
