Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa was born in Hiroshima in October 1955. He studied piano and composition in Tokyo and then in Berlin and Freiburg and now spends his time both in Japan, in Nagano, and Germany, in Mainz. It was to a commission from the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt in 2004 that Hosokawa composed Drawing for eight players (flute, oboe, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola and cello). It was premièred on 20th August 2004 by ensemble recherche, Freiburg.
Hosokawa writes about Drawing: ‘I dreamed that I was still in my mother’s womb. At first there was complete peace – the union with the maternal body. Then, the noises made by her heart began to resound harshly and I felt the pressure of a process commencing: birth. To be born: here is something difficult, something that can as well lead to life as to death! In this very real dream, I felt a host of primitive feelings: anguish, pressure, fear, desire and, finally, the joy of being born. I wanted to express them musically, by “drawing” the broad outlines, whence the title.’
