"Classical pieces for shakuhachi, koto, shamisen and voice."

Hermann Battenberg
TIA-96
1996

Track	Title	Kanji	Length	Artist
1	Karausu no Aru Fukei	唐臼のある風景	06'30	Shakuhachi: Aoki Shunsuke Shakuhachi: Hermann Battenberg Koto: Makihara Kumiko Koto: Shigeta Emiko Koto: Satō Miyuki
	This piece paints an impression of a village in the Oira prefecture which is famous for its pottery in the so-called Ontayaki-sryle. In the village there is a huge water-powered wheel of red pine wood, about six meters in diameter. This large mortar, made in old Chinese fashion, is used for preparing the clay. The image of this wheel in its tasteful setting is very beautiful, and the sound it makes, kneading the clay all day, is very impressive. These are depicted in the piece.
2	Chidori no Kyoku	千鳥の曲	13'47	Shakuhachi: Aoki Shunsuke Koto: Shigeta Emiko Koto: Satō Miyuki
	This was originally a piece for Kokyu (a 3-stringed instrument found throughout Asia), and was arranged for koto by YOSHIZAWA Kengyo in 1855. It is amongst the most beautiful and most frequently played works of classical koto music. The piece can also be performed by a solo koto (the vocal part is taken by the koto player). The shakuhachi part has no independent function. Both text strophes, which have the form of the classical Japanese poem (waka) with 3 I syllables (5-7-5 + 7-7), are taken from different collections of poetry from the Heian-period (794-1185).
3	Umibe no Aki	海辺の秋	09'55	Koto: Makihara Kumiko
	The text is taken from the "Suma" chapter of the epic story, Genji Monogatari (9th century AD). Prince Genji, exiled to Suma, far from the capital, passes a sleepless night. He feels the wind blowing from the direction of the capital, plucks his koto, and under the influence of the tones it produces, he sings of his longing for his distant loves: "The tones of love's sufferings mingle with the surf; from the direction of my longing blows the wind!" In this work, the traditional form of classical koto pieces, in the middle of which is found a koto solo, flows together with the European form of "recitative and aria". The singing is European in style (in contrast to Chidori); the koto style is, however, largely traditional. At the end of the koto solo, before the line "He plucks his koto", the koto is plucked on the section of the strings which is not normally sounded. The unusual tones thus produced bring to the fore the surprising and deep emotion which Prince Genji experiences through his own koto-playing.
4	San'ya Sugagaki	三谷菅垣	06'36	Shakuhachi: Aoki Shunsuke Shakuhachi: Gotō Yūnosuke
	This piece is one of the traditional honkyoku (central repertoire pieces) of the Kinko-school. During the Edo-period, playing the shakuhachi was a privilege of the Fuke-sect of Buddhist monks; these wandered throughout the land with their faces hidden by a basket, begging for their livelihood with their shakuhachi-playing, and occasionally employing the shakuhachi - their only possession - as a weapon. After the privileges of this sect were cancelled at the start of the Meiji-period (1868-1912), and the sect was even banned for some years, the shakuhachi music of this sect was reformed in the Kinko-school as an art form without religious ties. The school takes its name from Kurosawa Kinko (1710-1771), who collected pieces from the by then extremely divergent traditions of the Fuke-sect, rearranged them, and established a collection of 36 pieces (honkyoku) as the basis of the repertoire. Honkyoku are solo pieces by nature (even though they can be performed by two players together), apparently simple, but very difficult to play.
5	Ko Zarashi	古ざらし	16'18	Shamisen: Satō Miyuki Shamisen: Shigeta Emiko
	This piece belongs to the genre of jiuta, which was and is cultivated mainly in the old capital, Kyoto. It is an arrangement of an older piece from the 17th century and is considered to be historically important, since it represents the earliest form of Tegotomono, in which the vocal sections are separated from one another by virtuosic instrumental interludes. The title means “The Old Bleaching (Piece)". The text illustrates the bleaching of fabric in the Uji River near Kyoto, presenting for the most part a description of the surrounding landscape, the mountains and the waves on the river, in which the moon is reflected. Only at the start and finish does the text touch on the actual activity of bleaching.
6	Autumn Allusion	秋のエンプレム	08'12	Koto: Makihara Kumiko
	This piece is linked with the old tradition of autumn pieces, in whose core stands mono no aware, the deeply moving feelings which the things of nature trigger in human beings. The lively central passage is like a recollection of the summer, flooded with light, and transforms seamlessly into the lonely yet transparent autumn mood. The occasional suggestions of a French impressionist sound world reflect on the one hand a widespread tendency of Japanese postwar composition; on the other hand, the transverse flute, an instrument highly regarded by the French impressionists, may also have a bridging function. This piece was composed for Makihara Kumiko and Pamela Rowe (first performed July 1994 at Union Church Tokyo).
7	Kanki	歓喜	04'23	Shakuhachi: Aoki Shunsuke Shakuhachi: Gotō Yūnosuke Koto: Makihara Kumiko Koto: Satō Miyuki
	The piece, Kanki ("Joy"), is a counterbalance to the predominantly melancholy traditional koto music. In addition to the currently ever more common employment of European instruments in otherwise traditional ensembles (compare, for example, the previous work), the creation of larger ensembles, such as in this piece, is a widespread tendency of contemporary koto composition.