Description
Lois V Vierk creates music whose distinctiveness flows from a mixture of the intense analytical disciplines of her composition teacher Leonard Stein, and the gentle admonitions of her Japanese Court Music teacher Suenobu Togi to “just do it.” The influences of Vierk’s long study of Gagaku (the Imperial Court Music of Japan) do not show on the surface. Rather they are heard in knowing that what has happened and what will happen are part of a sure path toward fulfillment. Gagaku unfolds with ceremonious slowness. Time seems to be suspended before the taiko drum sounds its next musical heartbeat. But the drum does sound, and when it does, it divides the music that has just passed and that which is to follow, all part of an elegant musical order.