Name: Miharu Ogura
Nationality: Japanese
Occupation: Pianist,. composer
Current Release: Miharu Ogura's Ogura Plays Ogura is out via Thanatosis.
Recommendations: Hunchback, a novel by Saou Ichikawa; Compartment No. 6, a movie by Juho Kuosmanen

If you enjoyed this Miharu Ogura interview and would like to stay up to date with her work and music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, and twitter.  



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

The impulse to create something comes to me as naturally as breathing. Perhaps there is something in me that cannot be sustained unless I write something down.

In practical terms, my interests are often thoughts about music and musical material itself. They come to me in the scenes I experience as a performer, or in more everyday situations like jogging. Sometimes they are sound patterns I hear in a dream, or ideas that suddenly come to me while I am slumbering, and I get up and write them down immediately, because if I went back to sleep they would be gone.

I myself am very cautious about bringing in other art forms. There are things that can only be expressed in that art form, and bringing them into music is not easy, and I think it has to be very thoughtful.

Recently, I have been working on the ancient Japanese word "nu" and it is an interesting task to consider the various possibilities of putting it into music. I have already composed “nu.I”, a piece for three voices and three instruments that brings the stretched sense of time of "nu" down to the consonant level. I am now creating a string trio based on a different aspect that "nu" has.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

Ideally, I should be able to see all the way to the end when I write the first motif. But in reality, I often let the music go.

I think of several possibilities for development and plan how to arrange them in time as I write.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

There is a sense in which the quality of a composition depends on the preparation of thought before the actual writing begins.

From the musical aspect, such as reading literature for instrumental research, studying existing works, and experimenting with different sound combinations with performers, to the more casual drawing of tree diagrams on the desk and thinking about ideas during travel time, the accumulation of such activities leads to the act of writing the first motif.

For example, I spent three months in "preparation" before beginning to write the first note of one of my most recent pieces, "Exosomes," for trombone and percussion.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

It is best for me to start writing as soon as you get up in the morning by not eating breakfast and not washing your face.

What do you start with? And, to quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

Both. Sometimes it flashes, sometimes it is invented in my own performance, etc. Even when it flashes, it does not come out of the blue; most of the time it is underpinned by previous preparation.

So in that sense it is probably more correct to say that it is discovered during the process.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I prefer to follow where the music leads. The important thing is to listen carefully to what you hear within yourself.

However, there are some pieces where I strictly followed a rule, such as "Kan" for three pianos and "Issetsu" for flute and electronics, and I don't dislike their structure.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

Often. It is natural, spontenous for these ideas to come up, and we should not ignore the sounds that come from within. However, I am careful not to adopt them unnecessarily, but to judge whether they make logical sense in the context of the overall process.

Sometimes ignoring those ideas in favor of structural development works better in the end. Like "Zerfließen..." for clarinet and accordion, where I tried to ignore my musical will and listen to what the music needs for its development.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

I used to feel that performance was an outward emission of one's energy, while creation was a kind of “self-injury”, a digging of one's energy inward. You can experiment with my cello concerto "Pierrot's Eyes" from that period.

While this feeling remains today, I think it also involves an outward release of energy.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

Usually, after I write through a piece the first time, I make some corrections when I write it the second time to make a final version. I tend to trust what I hear when I write the second time. I actively incorporate the opinions of the performers and make improvements for the first performance.

After the first performance, I do not revise unnecessarily. Even if there are parts I am not happy with, it is because that is who I am and I may appreciate it in a few years. I can tell you about my experience when my piano concerto "Feu improvisé" was premiered. I was not very happy with the second rehearsal, so I revised some parts. But afterwards, I wondered if those corrections were really necessary.

I have a deadline, so at some point I have to take responsibility for the work, whether I am happy with it or not.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

What I feel is a deeper sense of fulfillment than emptiness, and in those moments I am happy to be a musician.

For example, the mono-opera "CALL" is one of the works in which I felt from the bottom of my heart that I was able to write what I wanted to write when I put down the brush.

Of course, sometimes I feel emptiness after finishing a big piece of writing or a big project, but I also enjoy the time I spend thinking about what I will do next.

Music is a language, but like any language, it can lead to misunderstandings. In which way has your own work – or perhaps the work of artists you like or admire - been misunderstood? How do you deal with this?

Even when I feel that my work has been misunderstood, I try to accept it because I believe that it can also be taken as one of the interpretations. I believe that such misunderstanding is an essential part of the process of the work's independence and growth after the child, the work, has left my hands.

Maybe it's a different story, but it's a great pleasure to hear different interpretations of my solo piano piece "Sillage de lignes" and I'm really grateful that the piece is performed by different pianists in different places.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Very interesting question. I think creativity is about listening to the voice within and acting with will. I think cooking, making up, and even cleaning can be CREATIVITY.

Why I create something through music and not other forms is because music could pump out the best of who I am, even unconsciously.