Miya Masaoka

Miya Masaoka — musician, composer, sound artist — has created works for koto and electronics, Laser Koto, field recordings, laptop, video and written scores for ensembles, chamber orchestras and mixed choirs. In her pieces she has investigated the sound and movement of insects, as well as the physiological response of plants, the human brain and her own body. Within these varied contexts her performance work investigates the interactive, collaborative aspects of sound, improvisation, nature and society.

1 Pieces for plant

Presented as part of Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Homemade Instrument Day in New York, Pieces for Plants is an interactive sound installation for laptop, synthesizer, and the American semi-tropical climbing Philodendron. Versions of the piece have also been presented in a musical setting in which the plant participates as a member and soloist within an instrumental ensemble.

In the piece, a plant’s real-time responses to its physical environment are translated to sound. Highly sensitive electrodes are attached to the leaves of the plant. Scored movements by a human “plant player” stimulate physiological responses in the plant that are monitored via the electrodes and biofeedback wave analysis. The “plant player’s ” proximity, touch and interactions with the plant are then expressed in sound via midi and synthesizer. During the piece, the plant is brought to a range of physical/psychological states, from calm to agitation.

The audience is encouraged to contemplate questions such as: What is the nature of consciousness? What is our relationship as human beings to our physical environment and to other species — plants and animals? What does it mean to be human?

During the all-day installation of the piece at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, some of the audience members came back again and again throughout the day to interact with the plant and watch others do so as well. The audience members — including children — seemed to have a special attraction to the project. A common response to the piece by audience members was a desire to talk about their relationship and experiences with plants during their lifetime, and things they had noticed which gave them an inkling that plants had extraordinary capabilities and awareness beyond what was normally attributed to plants. The piece evolved into really being about the people, their personal stories with plants, and I realized that I was brushing the surface of a deeper questions — our complex role as humans in a diverse, inter-dependent biological environment, and the potential for communication with plants that has not yet been discovered.

2 What is the Sound of 10 Naked Asian Men?

Live amplification and processing of sounds and signals from the human body. Medical equipment (EKG, EEG, heart monitors) and projected video.

3 Thinking sounds

Thinking Sounds is an interactive composition for pre-recorded brainwaves, live brainwaves of an audience member, computer and eight musicians. The SF Sound Ensemble premiered Thinking Sounds at Yerba Buena Gardens with additional performances at the ODC Theater in San Francisco. Versions of this piece have also been performed at “Beyond Music,” an electronic music series at the Schindler House in Santa Monica, CA.

Thinking Sounds, employs various musical and interpretive strategies to translate the data of brain wave activity into sound. These include:

1. A volunteer from the audience wears the EEG brain helmet. The actual voltage output of the brain is made audible with amplification. This electrical activity is then heard in real time by the audience in a pure unadulterated state, and also processed in a computer.
2. A graphic representation of pre-recorded brainwaves is superimposed upon a musical grand staff to create the pitch relationships and generate a written score. The musicians then “perform” the brainwaves and the expressive, gestural relationships that the waves imply.
3. The brain wave activity is interpreted via midi and mapped to a synthesizer where the waves are expressed in pitch, time and timbral relationships. The musicians then improvise with the midi output of the synthesizer.
4. In the final section, players perform an orchestrated rendition of the differentiated data of beta, theta, alpha, delta and eye movement.

The SF Sound Ensemble members are: Matt Ingalls, clarinet; Hugh Livingston, cello; Tom Swafford, violin; David Birthelle, trumpet; John Shiurba, guitar; John Ingalls, saxophone; and Rakesh Khanna, percussion.

Thinking Sounds is dedicated to David Rosenboom in recognition of his tremendous, intrepid research and creative work in brain wave activity.

4 Article: Koto no tankyu

(Koto explorations)

by Miya Masaoka
Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter, Volume XXV, Number 2, Spring, 1996

I am a kotoist and composer, simultaneously navigating the varied worlds of traditional gagaku music (Japanese court orchestral music), new music, jazz, improvised and electronic music. Classically trained and holding degrees in both Western and Eastern music, I have been informed and inspired by performances with a wide variety of musicians, including Pharoah Sanders, whose music resonates with a sense of spirituality; L. Subramanian, virtuoso Indian violinist; Alvin Curran, avant-garde composer, the Cecil Taylor Orchestra, led by Cecil Taylor, who has spearheaded a deconstructionist concept, Steve Coleman, brilliant saxophonist/composer, Francis Wong and Mark Izu, leaders in Asian American jazz; Henry Kaiser and Fred Frith, guitar improvisers; George Lewis, innovative trombonist/composer/programmer; Roham de Saram of the Arditti String Quartet, who taught me bowing techniques; and my esteemed gagaku teacher, Suenobu Togi.

Over the years I have moved gradually from playing traditional koto, under my first koto teacher, Seiko Shimaoka, to developing my own approach to technique and vocabulary. The transition was at first tenuous, and I often feared that Shimaoka would attend one of my concerts outside of the traditional koto sphere. While she never did so, at one lesson she mentioned any disobedient student could be expelled from the school and have their costly koto certificates revoked if the teacher requested. Feeling vaguely guilty, I immediately apologized for any potential problem I might be creating. Yet, at the next lesson, she spoke proudly of an article she had read about me in the local Japanese newspaper, and, over the years, she has come to support my efforts.

The koto is a Japanese zither-like instrument with an ancient history. Koto is an abbreviation of “kami no nori koto” — the oracles of the gods. It has deep roots in the spiritual practice of Shintoism, and to a lesser extent, Buddhism. In gagaku and Shintoism the instruments are sacred; they are gods embodying spirits, just as trees, stones and air do. To pluck the string of a koto, for example, is to release its spirit/soul, its sound. In studying koto, the student becomes the koto, as the drummer becomes the drum. (“Become the fourteenth bridge,” my teacher used to say.) To lose a sense of self, to become one with the instrument — these ideals are the main ideals.