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Tube of delight!

#1 2010-09-26 16:47:33

Inq
Member
Registered: 2010-07-27
Posts: 24

Tenpuku

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P3VobfCY-0&NR=1
Tenpuku - basicly a tiny version of shakuhachi.
Even with small bore it can be played.
So why everybody's saying undersized flutes cannot be played?

I don't want to insult anyone here - I'm just curious as I know little about flute physics and acoustics.

Last edited by Inq (2010-09-26 16:47:53)

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#2 2010-09-26 18:23:42

Bas Nijenhuis
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From: Groningen, the Netherlands
Registered: 2008-10-30
Posts: 160
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Re: Tenpuku

oh no a gray invasion of them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r41cOQ8H … re=related

Last edited by Bas Nijenhuis (2010-09-26 18:24:01)


Read more about my shakuhachi adventures at:
Bas' Shakuhachi Blog!

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#3 2010-09-26 19:02:24

Tairaku 太楽
Administrator/Performer
From: Tasmania
Registered: 2005-10-07
Posts: 3226
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Re: Tenpuku

Hey guys those are beautiful videos, thanks for posting them. They are not "Off Topic" so I'm moving them to "Recordings".

Tempuku is a shakuhachi variant. As you can see in the first video, the orientation of the utaguchi is inverted, facing inwards. I haven't played or seen one, so how this affects things is a mystery to me, except that it's similar to the Quena. Speaking of quena it's a bummer when the dude plays "El Condor Pasa" but before that it was nice.

I have inquired about getting tenpuku and everyone said, they no longer exist but that is belied by the second video. Funny that there's at least one organized group of tenpuku players.

The old timer in that video who plays solo plays a song that is also found on the King Records CD "A collection of unique musical instruments" so it is probably a standard traditional tenpuku tune.


'Progress means simplifying, not complicating' : Bruno Munari

http://www.myspace.com/tairakubrianritchie

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#4 2010-09-26 19:32:17

Kiku Day
Shakuhachi player, teacher and ethnomusicologist
From: London, UK & Nørre Snede, DK
Registered: 2005-10-07
Posts: 922
Website

Re: Tenpuku

Tenpuku is traditionally only played in Kagoshima prefecture on the island of Kyushu. That might be why people tell you it doesn't exist, Tairaku.
There is a aficionados group in Kagoshima called Tenpuku Dōkōkai today. It must be the group in the video. There are apparently 7 known tenpuku pieces - all short and solo pieces.

Something interesting from Tsukitani Tsuneko's article in Tokita and Hughes' book:

The lowest node's membrane is pierced only by a small hole of about 3 mm. The method of measuring up the instruments is unique. Distances between nodes were calculated with reference to the width of the maker's fingers and fist; fingerhole positioning was based on the circumference of the instrument measured with a string. Needless to say, this led to variation in pitches.


I am a hole in a flute
that the Christ's breath moves through
listen to this music
Hafiz

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#5 2010-09-26 19:47:38

Tairaku 太楽
Administrator/Performer
From: Tasmania
Registered: 2005-10-07
Posts: 3226
Website

Re: Tenpuku

Kiku although tuning is obviously variable, is it supposed to follow the ro,tsu,re,chi, ri pattern of pitches?

I'd like to get one of these, if anybody there in Japan knows how to find me one, please let me know.


'Progress means simplifying, not complicating' : Bruno Munari

http://www.myspace.com/tairakubrianritchie

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#6 2010-09-27 00:14:55

Kiku Day
Shakuhachi player, teacher and ethnomusicologist
From: London, UK & Nørre Snede, DK
Registered: 2005-10-07
Posts: 922
Website

Re: Tenpuku

Gosh, I forgot of the top of my head... smile
It is 5 am, so let me sleep a little more and I will have a think...


I am a hole in a flute
that the Christ's breath moves through
listen to this music
Hafiz

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#7 2010-09-27 00:26:50

Kiku Day
Shakuhachi player, teacher and ethnomusicologist
From: London, UK & Nørre Snede, DK
Registered: 2005-10-07
Posts: 922
Website

Re: Tenpuku

Now I remember, so before I go back to sleep:
Tenpuku is 3 nodes 5 holes like the shakuhachi ancestor miyogiri.
So yes, more or less the same kind of tuning like shakuhachi... but I can't recall if there are notation for tenpuku. Modern notation - I am sure but traditional.... don't know?


I am a hole in a flute
that the Christ's breath moves through
listen to this music
Hafiz

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#8 2010-09-27 03:51:12

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

Re: Tenpuku

Tenpuku certainly exists and is studied and played by a small group in Kagoshima.  I had the opportunity to listen to and speak to one of those people who was performing some of the Tenpuku repertoire here in Kumamoto and the Honmyoji Temple during one of its yearly festivals a few years ago.   He invited me to Kagoshima to learn more about the tenpuku, though I haven't pursued it.  I understand, though that the tenpuku has a written repertoire of only 7 or 9 pieces.  Brian, I'll see if I can dig up the guys card and contact him about acquiring one for you.


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

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#9 2010-09-27 10:37:06

radi0gnome
Member
From: Kingston NY
Registered: 2006-12-29
Posts: 1030
Website

Re: Tenpuku

Tairaku 太楽 wrote:

I haven't played or seen one, so how this affects things is a mystery to me, except that it's similar to the Quena.

I don't see all that much similarity to the quena, except maybe in size and tone. quena image

Tairaku 太楽 wrote:

Speaking of quena it's a bummer when the dude plays "El Condor Pasa" but before that it was nice.

If it wasn't familiar to me, like the Itsuke song he plays before it wasn't familiar to me until a couple years ago, I'd say it all sounded like pretty melodies. Is the disappointment because he's not playing songs idiomatic to Japanese culture? I can sympathize with that viewpoint, but I wonder why I don't have the same disappointment in hearing James Galway's "Japan" albums. For some reason, I don't feel the same "play the music that fits the instrument" mentality that I feel when I hear Western music played on Shakuhachi.

It's a real dilemma, I'm very guilty of playing and working on songs I know (mostly non-Japanese, and understandably, I've had a lot longer to learn the non-Japanese songs). However, when the equivalent comes up in social dance where, say, West Coast Swing dancers will dance West Coast Swing to any 4/4 music instead of the dance that goes along with the rhythm, it's almost blasphemous to me.


"Now birds record new harmonie, And trees do whistle melodies;
Now everything that nature breeds, Doth clad itself in pleasant weeds."
~ Thomas Watson - England's Helicon ca 1580

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#10 2010-09-27 16:28:33

Moran from Planet X
Member
From: Here to There
Registered: 2005-10-11
Posts: 1524
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Re: Tenpuku

radi0gnome wrote:

Tairaku 太楽 wrote:

I haven't played or seen one, so how this affects things is a mystery to me, except that it's similar to the Quena.

I don't see all that much similarity to the quena, except maybe in size and tone.

Tairaku 太楽 wrote:

Speaking of quena it's a bummer when the dude plays "El Condor Pasa" but before that it was nice.

Killjoy. El Condor Pasa is a beautiful melody.

Kakizakai Kaoru said that his interest in vertical flute playing started out with quena. Then he bumped into Yokoyama-sensei and the rest is history. Kakizakai had no idea about who Yokoyama was or his stature. Imagine that.

Learning quena would go along way toward making a powerful embrouchure.


"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I am all out of bubblegum." —Rowdy Piper, They Live!

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#11 2010-09-27 16:52:18

radi0gnome
Member
From: Kingston NY
Registered: 2006-12-29
Posts: 1030
Website

Re: Tenpuku

Moran from Planet X wrote:

Learning quena would go along way toward making a powerful embrouchure.

I could hammer out a few tunes on quena before I started shakuhachi, and while I feel the experience with it (and several other types of flutes) made it a lot easier to get sounds out of the shakuhachi, it didn't help one bit with the meri notes.

Quena is a much easier instrument. It's easier to blow and you have more finger holes to access the notes. Although I believe the idea of starting with something simple and learning it really well before progressing is a good thing, I'm skeptical about the quena's usefulness for embouchure training. It doesn't require any of that tongue technique that we've discovered is the holy grail of shakuhachi.


"Now birds record new harmonie, And trees do whistle melodies;
Now everything that nature breeds, Doth clad itself in pleasant weeds."
~ Thomas Watson - England's Helicon ca 1580

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