Lost in _______IV

“Lost in _____IV” for Horn solo (2021) is a work with the theme of the global lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2020. I composed it after receiving inspiration from an article written by Hironori Naito, a playwright and director, on how to deal with culture during the pandemic (Mainichi Shimbun Kansai evening edition, April 23, 2020). 

“Ryutandan” is a short story written by Kyoka Izumi, an active novelist during the late- Meiji and early-Showa eras. In the story, a young boy is bitten on the face by a mysterious beetle, which leads him to wander into a fantasy world. The beetle has another name, “Michioshie,” and it literally translates to “the one who tells the direction.” 

Mr. Naito mentioned this short story in his article, “We’ve already entered the entrance to a different world. It is uncertain when we got in. ... I never thought that we would have come this far. We are now in the middle of the story.” It left quite an impression on me and it became the inspiration of this work. 

The title “Lost in ______” was chosen because I thought that many people felt like they had lost something and were lost in another world due to the global spread of COVID- 19. We were forced to wander into a “new world” full of anxiety and uncertainty. The blank in the title is meant to be filled in with a word that applies to the listener themselves. 

With the pandemic behind us now, I hope everyone can find a way to make use of what we have learned.