I composed Sazae-san syndrome for the musical duo Transient Canvas on behalf of the Ohio University graduate composition major of the fall of 2020. The work was stimulated by the phenomenon “Sazae-san syndrome” in Japan or Blue Monday in the English-speaking countries. Sazae-san is longest running television animation show which debuted at 1969 and still running till this day. This show airs every Sunday morning, so the syndrome refers to the depression feeling due the return to work after the weekend. I was first introduced to this concept while I was talking with my Japanese friends about my experience part-time job during my undergraduate study.
This work was arranged for duo of Bass Clarinet and Marimba. The compositional tools were built by a blending method of the set theory, circle of fifths and polytonality. The piece divided into tableaus where they are assigned to specific musical gestures, meters, rhythmic structures. These tableaus are representing the mental stages of a working day.
Duration ca. 10 minutes

Sazae-san Syndrome (2020)

sumbioun

My tribute to Tetsuo Shima (島鉄雄) is a member of a biker gang who is the main antagonist of the manga and anime AKIRA by Katsuhiro Otomo. 

Cover by elclon : http://elclon.deviantart.com/art/Akira-Anime-Vector-272966663

Silver Raven Feet - Tetsuo Shima

An interpretation of first movement in my music for six percussionists 'Emergence (The Humanization Journey Of A Star Goddess).
Music notation influenced by Makrokosmos of the American composer George Crumb.

Emergence(A piano interpretation by Michael Atallah)

Emergence (The Humanization Journey Of A Star Goddess) is music piece for six percussion instruments , tenor saxophone , koto , and soprano voice. 

Members: 
Aya Nishina
Liam Gingell
Rio Fujita
Daisuke Yasuda
Pauline Therese AREJOLA
Sam Sernavski

Emergence(A rehearsal at iCLA)

Strings Micropolyphony in F Pelog (Excerpt)

A Graphical Notation that visualize  a segment of  Karlheinz Stockhausen's Kruzwellen "Shortwave" .(A guitar interpretation by Karl Heding).

Analyse für Graphische Notation Von Stockhausens Kurzwellen (Dolmetschen durch Karl Heding)

I collected a few sound clips from Pina Bausch performance WALZER(1982) and couple of interviews with Pina asking about her future.
The sound clips were manipulated with the narrative in a sense to add more stress on the context of the monologue in WALZER, as for the interviews were send to the background to add a layer of Pina’s consciousness. 
The music in the background is inspired by  Adagio in G minor by the Baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni. Rearranged for a Piano (originally for strings and organ) and treated with sound effects which run hand in hand with the climax of Pina’s monologue. Together with a synthesizer, added to capture the rhythmic portions in the music piece as well as textures resonating with the monologue correspondingly.
In WALZER Bausch used the hysterical woman to comment on the objectification of women, as well as the dying standards of what it means to be a "lady”. She is also pointing out that a dancer who knows ballet has the free will to do otherwise with her body. Because Bausch was a classically trained ballerina and could not have pushed the envelope without mastering the classical framework.
Bausch conveys emotions more severely than dance alone can. Her signature gowns on female performers gives a vintage air to her aesthetic, and the absurdities going on in WALZER forces the audience to look at the performance through post-modern eyes.
The fight between the Classic and Post modern, the old and the new also resonate in the choices within the music; Baroque and Electronics.

IT IS LIKE ANOTHER DOOR OPENING

A workshop at iCLA (Yamanashi Gakuin University, Japan)with Prof. Kris Ang Cheng Ho (United International College, Zhuhai, China) on composing and performing with graphic notation, homemade instruments, and mobile devices.

-After her first listen to the piece, she said "It reminds of the grey walls of the college" !

Music350 Spring2018 05July Performance2

The piece is a piano study where there are three voices separated by register playing  a somehow similar material on different keys which all are producing a tritonal effect. 
The tempo and rhythm are by far the most important elements in the piece even the melody is simply a vehicle to fill out the time structures, as are chords formed out of simultaneous-sounding voices. The chords are in the functional harmonic sense of the nineteenth century harmony in each voice. 
When it is played combined it becomes a sound mass which adds either a spatial or timbral identity to a voice increases the listener's ability to follow it over the course of the others.  
The listener will decide whether to follow one voice (and its representative visualisation in the vectorscope reading) or consider the whole as one construction. 
Since this piece is for a monotimbral voices (three pianos), it would be better to be played in multichannel audio system  to experience its spatiality .
Watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sqFn94c79mc

Sam Sernavski

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