Duration: ca. 25 minutes
I. Stars and Sonnets
II. Wind Spirit
III. Sadako
East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO)
Sivan Magen, Harp
A Thousand Cranes (2015) has been a piece I have long wanted to write. Many years ago on a visit to Japan, I encountered the story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who was affected by the radiation of the atomic blast in Hiroshima during World War II. There have been many artistic efforts written in response to that terrible event, most of which have had an understandably intense and dark impulse. The story of Sadako seemed to me to have a different focus- her short life met the unspeakable with the only response that can reflect true good- hope and faith in the future, and a belief in beauty.
After Sadako became sick, she followed an old custom that said that said that if she folded 1000 origami cranes, her deepest wish would come true. In an effort to heal herself, she folded the 1000 cranes, and then when she didn't get better, the story goes that she still believed in the creative gesture so much that she started to fold another 1000 cranes. This hope and belief in a better future, even in response to such a tragedy, is what attracted me to the subject, and it is what underpins the impulse of my piece.
A Thousand Cranes is also in some ways a fulfillment of a promise that I made to my friend, Masakazu Hoshima, who hosted me and many others in Hiroshima, and took us to the memorial museum there, introduced us to a survivor who shared his story with us, and showed us many other facets of life in that remarkable city.
This work was facilitated by the Yellow Barn festival and was originally written for the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) with Sivan Magen on harp and premiered in December of 2015 at the Nasher Museum in Dallas, Texas. It is commissioned by Charles and Jessie Price and dedicated to Nash and Marion.
The piece is approximately 25 minutes long.
—Christopher Theofanidis
Biography