Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Maybe a better analogy would be folk music. For example, there are lot's of American folk melodies that have been passed down (many from other countries), and some people write new ones. Most seem destined to fall by the wayside, but ones like Jay Ungar's waltz that made it into the PBS civil war special look like they'll stick.

Somewhat related, I remember my father telling me that the music of his day would live on for a long time and an example was that Lawrence Welk and Mitch Miller was still playing it, while the new popular music of the '60's wouldn't last long because it was nonsense. He was wrong, oldies radio stations are big bucks now and the oldies are mostly from the 60's and 70's. Of course, I'm pretty sure the garbage that's out now, particularly that emo stuff, won't last...

BTW, I thought Phillip Glass' stuff with the small ensembles was the best, my favorite is North Star.

In fear of showing my ignorance or having some member tell me I should try to "get past personal taste"... here's my two cents:

I'm new to the shakuhachi, having bought a half dozen CDs a couple years ago, then another half dozen CDs and a low-end flute a year ago, and finally getting my hands on a pair of mid-ranged flutes. I don't dislike a single track on any of my shakuhachi CDs and for someone as picky as myself, that's saying something. Nevertheless, I certainly find myself drawn to some pieces more than others.

kyoreiflutes wrote:

I'm just wondering how many pieces that are "newer", as in written and recored in the last 40 or so years, will go down as "classic" or "traditional"? What's the difference between something I write and something "someone" wrote 400 years ago, if the intent of the piece is the same? Does the original writer being a so-called "monk" change how you view a piece? Since I'm not a monk, would you take my music as seriously, even if it had all the honkyoku earmarks, and moved you as one of the classic pieces do?

My guess is that with much 'traditional' music, the 'classics' continue through the ages without people really stopping to wonder what made them special and whether they're really worthy of such admiration in the modern age compared to newer works. I feel this is true in any artistic field. I hate to admit it, but I'd definitely be influenced when considering who made the music. The modern age of music, sadly, draws too strong a connection between the musician's style/image and the listener. Instead we ought to perhaps be just listening to the music.

kyoreiflutes wrote:

For instance... some people say they're into western classical music, but they've never heard of Arvo Part, nor do they realize that Philip Glass writes amazing pieces for orchestra. They're stuck in a time of Bach and Mozart for the most part. "Classical Pop". Millions of people all over the world can recognize and hum the opening lines of The 9th Symphony, but ask them how Parts' "Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten" begins. The people that can probably have a show on NPR about it.

Sorry for the sidenote, but since you mentioned Glass, I have to say: Glass came here to Taiwan just last month to do an ensemble retrospective and it was the most moving concert I've ever been to. For those of you unfamiliar with his music, I hope you have the chance to experience it some day. I can only describe it as hypnotic schools of fish flashing by you like waves, then suddenly deciding to go somewhere else. (Don't hate me if you don't like it, though.)

Zakarius

Thanks for the great responses so far, guys. This is one of my long-winded questions that kind of ramble, so it's hard to know if I'm always making sense.

I especially liked Darren's last answer, just going for it. Thanks.

And, yeah, live Glass would be great. He has a Violin Concerto (II, i think) from Akhnaten that blows me away. I think it's one of the tope 3 most beautiful pieces ever, so soft and lightly lyrical. I also like anything he does with Kronos. I saw the rather unfortunate In The Penal Colony some years ago, though, and it was just plain awful. The string sextext was great, but everything else was a wreck. It was hard not to laugh, and I'm a pretty open guy musically.

I wish the Seattle Symphony would do stuff that's not so danged poppy, and try to expose some folks to something really different, you know? It seems like most (americans) don't want to take the time to understand things like how dissonance doesn't have to be painful, and it doesn't all have to be a grand ball with lillies and dancing fairies everywhere. I played some shakuhachi music for a friend once, who quipped, "what is this depressing music?" I proceded to explain how it's medatative and plainative, not depressing, and that calling it depressing is to show that you're not willing to go beyond what pop radio bottle-feeds you. He didn't like that answer much, lol. But he understood what i meant. He listens to a lot of alternative stuff like David Sylvian and Cocteau Twins, though, odd. He, though, like most of my friends, enjoy the shakuhachi a lot more when I'm playing it live for them. And then, of course, they think I'm awesome.

-E

Zakarius wrote:

I'm writing my first piece though I'm REALLY a beginner. I hope to post the score and an .MP3 performance of it here on the forum when it's ready. I'm hoping other amateurs here will do the same.

Cool.  I'm a slow beginner.  I don't quite feel a piece in me yet.  But I'm certain something will eventually bubble up and I'll share it also!

-Darren.

Tairaku wrote:

Alright guys this is a good idea. Ken and I have our hands full, why doesn't somebody volunteer to put up a website or myspace for the Forum composers to exhibit their pieces?

I'd be happy to make a www.geocities.com site to host people's sample notation. The bandwidth limitations might be a source of frustration, so I'd basically make an index of the pieces and link to people's more permanent hosting. I.e. someone would send me two links: 1) the notation hosted on their own site and 2) an .MP3 or other music format of performing it. The notations could also be ranked according to level of difficulty (by the author & community) like: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

Zakarius

MySpace is probably the easiest implementation. 

Perhaps what we need is a stickied and moderated thread in which users' MySpace accounts could be assembled and categorized?  This would eliminate the need for additional web space and requires the forking out of no extra cash.

EDIT:

Also, if the consensus is that an external website is the preferred method, I have the Shakuhachi Search Engine google page already in place that would take little work to modify for this purpose.  There is no storage space to speak of, so the files would need to be stored elsewhere, but categorization could certainly be accomplished through it.

On the other hand, I don't know how much storage space/bandwidth Ken has to spare on his server, or if he would be interested in providing the hosting for such a project, but one could certainly build a page on a seperate account on the already existing server.  If bandwidth/storage space is at a premium how about everyone chipping in and buying a Hard Drive or some bandwidth if this is a viable option?

Last edited by Travis Winegar (2007-05-05 11:18:43)

I do like the idea of having a hosted web page with links to people's mp3s that they store elsewhere. If I'm understanding what you guys are saying.

The only problem I can see with MySpace is that you can't link directly to a specific mp3, just a front page. So people might want to put thier stuff on PutFile or something like that instead, where you're not that concerned about your frontend, since it's kind of "for us". We can make our "frontend", the links page, look nice, but it's not a big deal after. It's more of a different kind of "links" page. We can even subcatergorize it to show different examples of specific pieces, which I always find interesting.

I've also been thinking about composing a piece that we all record via our own PCs and the internet. Do most of us have the ability to record ourselves playing decently, without much noise?

-E