World Shakuhachi Discussion / Go to Live Shakuhachi Chat
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that`s so cool..
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It's obvious that he hadn't had any lessons at that point, he doesn't even know how to hold it. HA HA
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I am new to the forum and would like to introduce myself. My name is Philip De Genova and I live in Rome. I play western style flute - and have lately become close to oriental modes and scales, particularly Japanese, Korean and Chinese. I was drawn to their simplicity and naturalness in the sounds they evoked. I noticed that I began to take on a 'bamboo' sound while playing and have begun listening more and more to Shakuhachi and Daegum. I saw the forum and decided to join. Thank you all for presenting a sense of welcomness to the forum and I am certain that I shall benefit greatly from such an association. PD
Last edited by de_Genova (2006-12-15 11:27:30)
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You are very welcome here.
That is a superb quotation from Maestro Segovia!
eB
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Yes. I loved the Segovia quote because as a musician, I am self taught. I'm laughing right now because I just found out the actual meaning of the word 'incorrigible' - a label that was sometimes applied to me as a youngster. I always thought it meant just plain 'bad kid' -- but it means unteachable. Then I learned recently in theology class that the word 'docile' really means 'teachable.' And of course I always thought it meant 'passive', or worse -- feminine. But I have noticed lately with the flute, that it requires an element of 'docility' or humility in a way similar to that of the student and his master. PD
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I actually bummed out Segovia so much that he left the stage. I was about 15 years old and Segovia was playing in Milwaukee. We didn't have tickets so my friend and I just went to the venue. At the last minute they released unused tickets and we got fifth row center. Unfortunately as we rushed to our seats we entered via the sixth row. We realized our mistake and started climbing over the seats to correct this. At this moment Segovia was walking out on stage. He looked out into the crowd and saw a couple of teenage punks acting like fools and walked right off the stage. He didn't return for about 5 minutes. The rest of the audience were disgusted with us. It was funny.
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Tairaku ... I just today recieved the CD's I spoke of yesterday and I am very happy with them. His reputation follows him. He is surely as good as they say. Now the challenge is to attempt to duplicate that sound in 'silver', so to speak. Of one thing I am sure, I won't even be able to come close to the breath - that wonderful, incredibly mysterious rush of air that seems to come from some other place: like a quiet thunder coming out of the East. Playing along is a great exercise though. Looks like I'm getting ready for something huh?
I enjoyed your Segovia story immensely. PD
Last edited by de_Genova (2006-12-13 14:28:16)
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ciao Philip.
That`s going to help your sound a lot..Shakuhachi is The King of the flutes.
Don`t try to dublicate the sound of shakuhachi...Just relax, try to become one with the sound of shakuhachi. Try a natural approach..you will enjoyed better.
a presto
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Geni.........Yes I agree........Its fascinating too to experience the sounds of a master in this way of sort of playing togetherwith him. I am amazed at the relationships of tuning between the shakuhachi and my flute. I had not too much trouble 'staying with it'. What I most enjoyed was bending the notes along with him. I Think 'staying with' him in this way is going to open me up to whole new range of sound. Thank for your comments .........PD
Last edited by de_Genova (2006-12-13 15:54:20)
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for flute players interested in how some silver flute players adapt the sound and technique of shakuhachi, i would recomend looking at the work of flute players such as Claire Marchand, Robert Dick, Matthias Ziegler and James Newton. And certainly look at the score of Toru Takemitsu's solo flute piece, "Voice". Clair's performances of Takemitsu's 3 solo pieces are truly amazing in the way she can understand and utilize shakuhachi language, in particular, timbra; ideas on silver flute.
phil
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philipgelb ........Thank you for the comments and good suggestions. I will surely get to looking it up right away. Any ideas on how to acquire the score of Toru Takemitsu's "Voice" solo flute piece? I will look up the others on the internet. Thanks again
Last edited by de_Genova (2006-12-14 02:42:47)
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de_Genova wrote:
Any ideas on how to acquire the score of Toru Takemitsu's "Voice" solo flute piece?
It is published by Editions Salabert, Paris.
If you want to try your luck with the Russian servers again, take a look at:
http://muslib.lib.ru/flute/voice.pdf
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rpowers ..................thank you for the information. I will get to it right away.PD
well well whadyno.........I just clicked it and there it was all ready and waiting for me .........Txs again
Last edited by de_Genova (2006-12-14 12:42:04)
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Takemitsu's piece, "voice" is truly spectactular; one of my favorite modern pieces for solo flute! It is quite a monster, technically speaking. Few flute players can pull this piece off due to the "shakuhachi" influence. I think one needs to really have a serious understanding of color and timbre in Japanese music to understand this composition. Interesting that a "free" score is available online as it is published and in print.
He composed 2 other pieces for solo flute incluing the last piece he composed at the end of his life, "air". I was told by someone close to him that he had some ideas for "air II" for solo shakuhachi!! A shame he never composed a solo shakuhachi piece...
phil
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At the risk of seeming somewhat selfish.......is there any possibility that I could get to hear this piece via MP3 or some other format on line courtesy of one of our esteemed forum members? From what I see of the score it would surely be necessary to first hear the piece in order to understand the notation. No sight reading here. While the chart at the end is vey helpful, the notational instructions, and the score itself for that matter, don't really provide me with enough information in terms of locating the sound of the piece.
A cursory reading of the score tells me that this is truly a combined work for Voice, flute and shakuhachi, (which, incidentally, are very 'vocal' instruments in themselves) possibily aiming to bring out the best features of both. I almost have the feeling that to play the piece as intended (i.e., well) I would have to sort of re-design my instrument - my brain even. PD
PS how do we spell check in this comment box...or is that a silly Q
Last edited by de_Genova (2006-12-15 00:47:48)
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de_Genova wrote:
PS how do we spell check in this comment box...or is that a silly Q
Get a browser that can spell check all boxes for you. I would presume that Firefox can do it, although it might not do it by default. For Mac, I presume that Safari does it because Konqueror (which is the same thing mostly) does it. This way you can easily spell check any comment you write, be it on this forum or some other. Much easier, faster and more reliable than relying on the forum doing it for you.
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Thanks A.....I do have Firefox on my C but don't use it much. I will look into it though. PD
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philipgelb wrote:
Takemitsu's piece, "voice" is truly spectactular; one of my favorite modern pieces for solo flute! It is quite a monster, technically speaking. Few flute players can pull this piece off due to the "shakuhachi" influence. I think one needs to really have a serious understanding of color and timbre in Japanese music to understand this composition.
Philip (or anyone), can you suggest a CD that has a performance, well pulled off, of "Voice"?
Thanks!
-Darren.
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dstone ....I was searching for that same thing myself..........PD
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amokrun wrote:
de_Genova wrote:
PS how do we spell check in this comment box...or is that a silly Q
Get a browser that can spell check all boxes for you. I would presume that Firefox can do it, although it might not do it by default. For Mac, I presume that Safari does it because Konqueror (which is the same thing mostly) does it. This way you can easily spell check any comment you write, be it on this forum or some other. Much easier, faster and more reliable than relying on the forum doing it for you.
Firefox has a fairly good spell-checker in it now, but only in the latest version (2.0).
eB
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yea,,.....These little messages on the tail end of our post's really just mean that we (I) can't spell --> Ha ..............."Last edited by de_Genova"
Last edited by de_Genova (2006-12-15 11:25:24)
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my favorite performance of Takemitsu's "Voice" and his other 2 solo flute pieces are on my friend Claire Marchand's first solo CD. Sorry but i am not too keen on the idea of posting files from CDs that are in print.
She teaches flute at Mcgill in Montreal.
No need to redesign your flute to play this. Perhaps you will, as you hinted at, have to redesign your brain as the piece is not a traditional approach to the silver flute at all.
Pieces like "voice" and performances such as Claire's (and James Newton and other wonderful, creative flute players) are what make me question the rationale for and the utility of the shakulute mouthpiece.
Might be easier to go back in history first and start with pieces like Varese' "density 21.5", a piece that changed many people's approach and ideas to the silver flute.
If you are not familiar with modern music for flute nor with shakuhachi, "Voice" will probably be a bit too much to tackle.
I imagine you can find a virtuoso flute player in Italy that is familiar with this kind of music on flute. Surely Severino Gazzeloni must have left some students around
phil
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philipgelb .......yes I went to Ebay and Amazon and found her performance of Voice and just now am ordering it. You mention Severino Gazzeloni -- You know what's really funny. He went to Santa Cecelia Academy (very famous and uppity) just around the corner from me. I pass by almost every day so the other day I went in to ask them if they had any classes in modern music like maybe Jazz and or new approaches to traditional Oriental music. They looked at me sort of askance. I'm smiling. The Italians are usually masters of understatement, but in this case they didn't even answer me -- just stood there staring at me. So I changed the subject to Luigi Boccherini et. al., and they were pleased. PD
PS I just saw your website and Pauline Oliveros' name. Amazing! -- she was a teacher of mine when I studied Visual Arts at UCSD in 1971.......she was great then (remarkably inventive and creative) and has probably mellowed with age. It really is a little world Huh?
and also.....I just ordered the Marchand CD from CD UNIVERSE Thanks for the info and all the help.
Last edited by de_Genova (2006-12-15 12:39:29)
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I doubt that Pauline has 'mellowed' much--she may even be a bit miffed at the concept...
eB
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