WINN MUSIC

Synopsis for the Color the Sea

Coming of age in the 1930s and 40s, Sam, a Kibei, feels the pull of his native homeland, the lure of the ancient martial arts training that has shaped his character, and the mother and siblings he left back home in Japan. But his adolescence in Hawaii and young adulthood in California have also given him a taste for American life, most notably in the personification of Keiko, a Japanese girl whose honesty and innocent love astound him.

Sam and Keiko's relationship is torn apart when she and her family are sent to Japan and he is drafted into the US. Army. Sam struggles to maintain his sense of identity and soon follows Keiko to the Japan where the witness Hiroshima and other tragic events of the times. Can he be a samurai warrior and an American patriot at the same time? Does he have the courage to fight a war and return with a heart still open to love?

Composer's Notes

The idea of using an Asian theme for a music project has really been in progress for over five years. In 2002 shortly after I completed “A.I.: Supertoys Last All Summer Long”, I had several projects in mind and a Japanese/American story was defiantly on the top list-do projects but I decided to postpone until I found the proper subject matter to work with. At the moment I didn’t realize it would be 5 years later before I would actually start working on it. After completing my previous album “Metamorpho” I knew then the time was ripe to start working on my Japanese project. From mid December to about mid January 2007 I researched various novels and stories. First I had the idea of a ancient Japanese fairy tale but none really inspired me musically. I even had a serious thought of doing the famous “The Tale of Genji, the 11th century Japanese classic but decided it was too complex to deal with. After considering one or two other ones I finally found John Hamamura’s 2006 novel “Color of the Sea”. His chapter titles immediately intrigued me. Merely reading about the book and seeing John’s chapter titles was enough to inspire me to do a score. The Process was challenging of course but the subject matter was just what I was looking for. I knew early on the score would call for rich orchestral colors with various violin and cello solos throughout. Again, John’s chapter titles really stirred my musical imagination to give it its epic, diverse and expansive length of nearly 80 minutes.