Secret Leaves originally comes from the solo bassoon part of my orchestra work Secret Forest. The bassoon has always been a special instrument for me. In Secret Forest, the bassoonist plays from the centre of the auditorium throughout the piece because the bassoonist is the central character, naturally.
I pictured the bassoonist walking into an imaginary forest. The forest has a smell you never experienced. It rains on the leaves, but you don’t get wet. The forest has a somewhat new kind of colour that glows.
Developing the stand alone solo bassoon piece from the existing orchestra work was a lot harder than I thought. It took me many attempts to get the flow of the piece right to my ear. I hope you see what the bassoonist sees, the secret leaves of the secret forest.
Dai Fujikura