Echoes from the Sea was commissioned by Daniel Ramjattan and supported by a generous grant from the Ontario Arts Council. 
This composition is inspired by two completely contrasting musical traditions that began in the late Edo period in the Nagasaki and Amakusa area of southwest Japan, where I was born and raised. The piece consists of three movements, elapsing around ten minutes. The first movement, Island Whisper, contains elements of O Gloriosa Domina, one of the hidden Christian chants passed down over 400 years despite the Tokugawa shogunate’s violent ban on Christianity in the early 17th century. Based on a hymn brought by missionaries from the Iberian Peninsula (as well as the guitar itself) during the 16th century, it appears in this work with a spiritual, reflective character filled with mourning and fear of persecution. In contrast, the second movement, Island Wind, is based on Ushibuka Haiya dance song, which has a unique phrasing with the exhilarating rhythm of the southern region of Kyushu known as “Rokucho.” This dance has been passed down since the Edo period and was designated as an Intangible Folk Cultural property of Ushibuka City (currently part of Amakusa City) in 1992. The third movement, Raging Waves, blends these two contrasting musical traditions together in a violent opposition with one another. The piece is written for a seven-string guitar, though it can easily be played on a six-string, in the tuning (C)DADGAD with a capo on the second fret, making the guitar sound reminiscent of the Japanese koto. During times of genocide and persecution, it is always possible for individuals to live ordinary lives while others in their communities experience unspeakable horrors. In this way, it is entirely possible that a person could perform the Haiya dance in public and secretly attend church services as a hidden Christian, despite risking imprisonment and execution. The piece asks what happens to a person when joyful celebration and brutal oppression exist together in the same society, and the third movement represents this fragmented, unstable attempt to reconcile them.