Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Lorka wrote:

Maybe some monk was loitering about and overheard another monk playing and said "hey, wait a minute, that was pretty good, do that one again."  Thus, without intention,  what started as meditation, as a following of the breath, could have been suddenly transformed into a composition.  Then again, I'm probably way off on that one.

Most likely, they were trying to emulate sutra chanting, or shomyo of one kind or another, but it's still a nice thought; 'the controlled accident', how very Zen

lowonthetotem wrote:

"Zen" used as an adjective?  Stewardess, where are the barf bags?

Obviously, you haven't achieved Zen yet...oh delicate flower.

Last edited by edosan (2009-09-22 11:12:14)

Lorka,
Let me answer you in a week's time or so.
There is also the possibility I need a break from other stuff and suddenly feel like writing about composers etc. But it may be a bit optimistic. Just to let you know I am not just ignoring your questions and ideas.

Since time has passed since Lorka posted this, I'd quote his post in full length:

Lorka wrote:

Interesting points Kiku,

You're probably right about the distinction between being able to play, and being able to compose.  Though I get the feeling that the better you are at playing, the more options and possibilities open up (sadly, I do not speak from experience here).   I'm not sure what you meant by "safe and boring" though.  Maybe you could expand on that a bit.  Either way, it got me thinking about the idea of simplicity versus complexity, and how oftentimes what appears to be one, is in fact the other.   

I don't mean to flog the kyorei-horse, but this is a simple, direct piece.  Not particulary flashy.  From a technical point, I'm sure it's not that difficult, yet the simplicity affords it great room for personal expression, tone colour, and that sort of thing.  In short, the piece is kind of safe and boring, in the sense that it is not technically demanding, but it is complex in terms of what you choose to put into it.  The same could be true of any piece.  This tends to blur the line between composition and expression, but that, at least to me, is one of the beautiful things about shakuhachi.  It allows for a complex range of self-expression.   Maybe in the logic of breathing, with one breath following the next, a pattern begins to emerge and without intentional effort something approaching a composition is born.  I get the sense (albeit, an overly romanticized one) that the original shakuhachi pieces emerged in just such a way, as a form of sonic meditation.  Maybe some monk was loitering about and overheard another monk playing and said "hey, wait a minute, that was pretty good, do that one again."  Thus, without intention,  what started as meditation, as a following of the breath, could have been suddenly transformed into a composition.  Then again, I'm probably way off on that one.

Hi again, Lorka.
More or less back to life again... IF there is a life after a PhD. I hope so - at least!

You are right about the fact that a brilliant player should have access to more techniques and exciting deep knowledge about the instrument. However, playing skills and imagination or composition skills do not always follow each other - I think at least.

My experience is that as a player who has gone through a long training process to lean the instrument has embodied certain techniques and it can be very hard to do something else than what we are used to - at least on our own initiative (remember I am talking out of my own experience).
What composers can do - if the collaboration is successful - is not only to compose complex pieces, but also think outside the shakuhachi-player-box.  For example Takahashi Yuji's piece that he wrote for me is extremely bare and minimalistic. It has just as much scope for expression like Kyorei. Shimura Satoshi who premiered the piece in Japan told me he approached it as he would approach... exaxtly Kyorei. I didn't think abot Kyorei as such, but I also thought I'd approach it as a simple honkyoku.
Thus, what I was hoping was to via the medium of the composers to be able to create in collaboration new pieces that goes beyond what I have done before on the shakuhachi, but not particularly in a complexity manner.
I give you an example. The composer Mogens Christensen heard certain types of whistle tones that occurs when playing the shakuhachi as a crisp glass-like sound. He used that sound as a part of the structure of the piece and opposed it to breath sounds. For me the whistle tones - although very different in character of timbre - are sounds created by air hitting other places than the places creating a pitched sound. So I categorised them as windy sounds. I would never have thought of opposing these two sounds against as contrasting.

I am not sure I explain myself clearly enough.... mmmm.... still SO tired. I might give it another go tomorrow. Let me know if you can make sense out of this.

Very clear, Kiku.

I think that's right, composers who don't play the instrument they're writing for often create work that explores new and interesting territory. It is very rare that a shakuhachi player writes anything as interesting and profound as Denyer's "Unnamed," for instance. But it is important to note that by working closely with Iwamoto he had developed a real understanding of the instrument and its possibilities, something that many composers, in their academic ghetto, don't bother with. At the one extreme you have some good shakuhachi players who write trivially from a bag of tricks, at the other you have composers who don't ever perform on ANYTHING and work exclusively from theory rather than the physicality of instruments (and instrumentalists). I am glad you found at least three composers who bridge this gap.

Confirming your observation, I notice that I naturally write much better for instruments I don't play well, and that it's a real struggle to regain "beginners mind" well enough to write something non-trivial for shakuhachi. Usually things that I try to write for shakuhachi end up as pieces for other instruments. After many hours of silence and as much radical rejection as possible of everything I know about shakuhachi, I can sometimes -- very very rarely -- come up with a shakuhachi piece I'm provisionally happy with.

Last edited by nyokai (2009-10-03 07:28:36)

Lorka wrote:

Oh, by the way, do you have a copy of the Takahashi Yuji piece that was composed for you.  It sounds intriguing.  I'm sure others would love to hear it too.  Very curious.

I do have concert recordings, which havenøt been recorded with the best equipments. My plan is to have all the pieces recorded in the near future. I'll let you know, Lorka.