Nocturne Dance (Carillon Duet)

Nocturnes are typically associated with romanticism and as the name suggests, night time. However, conceptualizing a carillon nocturne invokes macabre and phantasmagorical images for me, due to their common placement in high brick towers.

The carillon in the University of Toronto's Soldiers' Tower is located above a steep winding staircase with a narrow, suspended platform where the playing keyboard is located. This often creates a harrowing atmosphere when I practice at night. In order to capture this mood, I used melodies inspired by Middle Eastern music and Indonesian gamelan, juxtaposed with a tango rhythm in the lower voice, to create an otherworldly sensation.

Nocturne Dance received a "Special Mention" from the jury of Perpignan's Sacred Music Festival composition competition held in January 2019.

Composer bio
Naoko Tsujita is a performer-composer whose diverse career has led her to give concerts in cities in Canada, the US, Europe, and Japan. She completed a diploma in music at the Oita Prefectural College of Arts and Culture in Japan, a Bachelor's Degree in Music in Percussion Performance from Acadia University, and a Master's Degree in Music from the University of Toronto, Canada. As a marimba soloist, she has won top prizes in several competitions, including the South Japan Music Competition and the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition.

Naoko started studying the carillon with Roy Lee in the summer of 2017 and regularly plays on the Soldiers' Tower carillon at the University of Toronto, as well as the carillon in Metropolitan United Church in the same city. She studied composition with Peter Togni and Christos Hatzis, and marimba performance with Beverley Johnston, Aiyun Huang, Mark Adam, and Mika Stoltzman.