Chinkon 鎮魂– Mark Isaacs
CHINKON for solo bass koto is named after the Japanese word meaning to ”calm the spirits”.
It was commissioned in 2006 for a project called In Repose and performed in Townsville cemetery.
I intended the piece as a requiem for the Japanese people who were buried in the cemetery. At the same time the piece had an additional personal significance for me as a memorial for my own grandfather who passed away during the writing of the piece. The piece – which both soothes and urges – forms a kind of inner recitation that offers supplication to the spirits of the dead. – Mark Isaacs –