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#1 2008-02-06 17:17:38

amokrun
Member
From: Finland
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 413

What do people play in Hanami?

There is a flower shop not too far from where I live. Apart from selling all sorts of flowers they also have a section for bonsai as well as a rather large Japanese-style garden. The place is truly wonderful and it is often really relaxing to go there just for a short walk.

It's roughly a month or so until Hanami, the cherry tree party. They have several cherry trees there and although I doubt they'll run any huge parties or the like, odds are that some people will come over just to watch the event. I figured that if my schedule works out, I want to offer to play in that event in case they don't yet have any other plans. It's a long shot but I figured that only way to succeed is to try.

Because of this I'd like to come up with a couple of pieces that could work in such an event. Sakura is an obvious choice and it can be expanded quite a bit so that it won't be over too quickly if people are coming and going. Other than that I can't really think of any other choices that would obviously fit the mood. I know a handful of pieces that match the general feel of Sakura as well as some which should go nicely with the theme of the party.

Are there any pieces other than Sakura which are commonly played and/or sung during these kinds of events? I have enough time to work on a couple of pieces if they aren't exceedingly difficult. Longer pieces are preferable in case I end up staying there for a while. If there aren't any pieces that are directly related, can you think of any pieces that would fit into such event? Since it's an exotic event to begin with, I'd like to stick to pieces that originate from Japan instead of playing something western even if it fits the mood.

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#2 2008-02-06 19:11:59

Jeff Cairns
teacher, performer,promoter of shakuhachi
From: Kumamoto, Japan
Registered: 2005-10-10
Posts: 517
Website

Re: What do people play in Hanami?

Amokrun, do you have access to a koto or shamisen player or both.  That would be the usual set up in a hanami if there was indeed traditional music played.  Of course, that would open you up to many more possibilities.


shakuhachi flute
I step out into the wind
with holes in my bones

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#3 2008-02-07 02:58:54

amokrun
Member
From: Finland
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 413

Re: What do people play in Hanami?

Jeff Cairns wrote:

Amokrun, do you have access to a koto or shamisen player or both.  That would be the usual set up in a hanami if there was indeed traditional music played.  Of course, that would open you up to many more possibilities.

Unfortunately not. Even if I could locate people here in Finland who play those instruments, I'm not entirely sure that anyone would be up to dragging themselves over to somewhere and playing for yet undetermined periods of time for absolutely no compensation. It would certainly be nice if that was possible but given how rare any of this is around here, I'm really not getting my hopes up. The only way I could see anyone playing without compensation to begin with is if they were still in the early days of their training. People who have invested years in their instrument have a tendency to avoid working for nothing, after all, professionals in any area generally do not work for free.

I'll have to see what I can dig up. I know some people who play koto, so odds are that they might know some other people who have only recently started and would be interested in getting to try things out. As far as shamisen goes, I haven't really heard of any people here who play it. I've heard plenty of people say "oh, it would be really nice to learn to play this" but that's usually all it amounts to. Getting into foreign instruments is a bit difficult given the lack of qualified teachers and makers.

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