Composer: Akira Miyoshi
Title: Torse III
Description: Torse III is a marimba solo published in 1975 as part of the book “Marimba Pieces 1.” The piece consists of four short movements; These, Chant, Commentaire, and Synthese; each of which are very unique in its composition and execution. The first movement is made up of many fragmentary gestures which create a very jagged texture. The movement is through-composed and does not revisit any previous thematic material. The second movement is tremelo throughout and, in my opinion, is meant as a palette cleanser between the first and the third. The long arcing phrases as well as the high range of the piece gives a sort of spiritual breadth to the movement. The opening material returns and evaporates to finish the movement. The third movement is a perpetual motion piece that consists of syncopations which keep the listener on edge. Similar to the first movement the movement is jagged, but because of dynamic contrasts rather than gestural motion. The final movement starts with a slow introduction that has several “false starts” into a presto that relax back to a lento feel. Eventually the movement gets into a presto that crashes after a short while. The lento feel returns to close out the piece, this time steady, and without the presto interjections.
Annotated by Greg Simonds