“The Fourfold Prison”

Duration: 6min
Composed: 2025
Premiere: Nov. 6, 2025 昭和音楽大学 第3回作曲コンクール

"The Fourfold Prison" was conceived during a period of profound artistic introspection during my compositional studies. I found myself confronting a troubling realization: in contemporary classical music, innovation often appears as a prerequisite for recognition rather than a natural creative impulse. This revelation led to a fundamental questioning of my relationship with music. What once inspired genuine passion had gradually transformed into something obligatory—a professional requirement rather than an authentic expression.

While working reluctantly at the piano, I inadvertently struck four closely spaced notes. The resulting sonority—tense, compressed, suffocating—immediately reflected my internal state. From this chance encounter emerged the structural and metaphorical foundation for this piece. These four notes serve not merely as musical material but as a representation of confinement—a "prison" symbolizing the tension between external expectations and internal artistic truth, between conformity and authentic creative expression.