Venerated Patterns - Die internationale Shakuhachi Gesellschaft

Venerated Patterns

"Traditional patterns in the music of China and Japan featuring shakuhachi played by Hyakuda Nyosei Yukio, di and shamisen."

Hyakuda Yukio Nyosei
Lyrichord - LSST 7395

Track	Titel	Kanji	Länge	Künstler
1	Lan Hua Hua	藍花花	03'55
	Because it served as the eastern terminus of the Silk Route on which goods and ideas were exchanged between East and West, the city of Chang-An (present-day Xian, located in northwestern China in Shaanxi province) prospered and became the largest and richest in the world during the Tang dynasty (61S-907 A.D.). By the time the dynasty ended, the province's former glory had faded. During the Mongol invasion in the late thirteenth century and the subsequent Yuan dynasty which lasted until the middle of the fourteenth, northern Shaanxi became one of China's poorest regions. Throughout the country a general decline of culture occurred during Mongol rule with the exception of one particular art form-musical drama. Among the instruments performing in the ensemble accompanying the plays of this time were the three-stringed lute (introduced into China for the first time, and ancestor of the Japanese Shamisen) and the transverse (horizontal) flute, the probable forerunner of the Di. The Di went on to become a mainstay of Chinese music and its repertoire grew to include folk tunes, one of which is this song from northern Shaanxi.
2	Mariam Matrem		06'43
	The fourteenth century was also a significant period in the development of Western music; among the new musical forms which appeared was the canon. This importance is reflected in the introduction and use of the terms Ars Nova and Ars Antiqua which respectively refer to and differentiate the music traditions of fourteenth- and thirteenth-century Europe. The earliest Spanish canons (caca) are compiled in the Llibre Vermeil (Red Book), a fourteenth-century manuscript written and preserved at the monastery of Montserrat near Barcelona. They are included among the ten pieces that pilgrims sang while visiting the monastery; the majority are devoted to the Virgin Mary.
3	Ifu Sashi		13'36	Shakuhachi: Hyakuda Yukio Nyosei
	The phenomenon of music performed by persons travelling for religious reasons also appears in Japan during the Edo period (16031867) in the form of the komuso, wandering Buddhist priests who began playing the Shakuhachi in the seventeenth century as a form of mendicancy. As the repertoire grew over the succeeding centuries, the term honkyoku came to be used for the solo pieces, most of which are Zen-inspired. Ifu Sashi is from Hakata in Kyushu.
4	Kokaji	小鍛冶	03'25
	The Edo period saw the rise of another musical instrument and its respective repertoire-the Shamisen and Nagauta. Nagauta pieces generally alternate between vocal passages accompanied by the Shamisen (and sometimes flute and drums) and instrumental interludes. Two interludes from Kokaji (1821) are performed here. The first creates the eerie atmosphere of the master swordsmith's dwelling in the mountains remote from the rest of the world. The second is not unlike the Anvil Chorus in Verdi's II Trovatore (1853); the rhythm of the hammering of the hot metal which will be made into a sword by the master and his helper is incorporated into the Shamisen accompaniment. The Sham is en tuning for this piece is called honchoshi (the basic tuning from which two others are derived) and although there is no harmony in Japanese music, this interlude (as the majority of the other interludes in the repertoire) is arranged as a duet.
5	Song of Gu Su		05'21
	After a century of Mongol subjugation the Chinese overthrew their conquerors and founded the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). During this period musical drama continued to develop, especially in Gu Su (present-day Suzhou) where Kunqu, a refined form of poetic expression and subtlety of melody reached its zenith. The lead instrument of the Kunqu music ensemble was the Di; in Song of Gu Su the singing style of Kunqu is imitated. Although Kunqu declined during the succeeding Ching dynasty (1644-1912), Jing Xi (referred to today as Peking Opera), which became the leading theatrical form of this period, was never able to break away completely from the traditions established in Kunqu.
6	Tsuru Kame no Kyoku	鶴亀の曲	05'46
	(The Crane and the Tortoise) Di and Shamisen The Nagauta piece Tsurukame (1851) celebrates imperial longevity (the crane and tortoise are symbols of long life) and like many other Nagauta pieces (e.g., Kokaji, Musume Dojoji), it is derived from a play from the Noh theater, the aristocratic drama form which originated and developed during the Muromachi period (13381573). In its entirety, Tsurukame is comprised of eight movements which can be grouped into three major sections corresponding to the jo-ha-kyu (introduction-exposition-denouement) structure found throughout the performing arts of Japan. The Di (playing the vocal line) is accompanied by the Shamisen (in honchoshi tuning) and performed here is the opening movement, a movement from the exposition section (an instrumental duet), and the concluding movement.
7	Korean Folk Music Medley		02'00	Shakuhachi: Hyakuda Yukio Nyosei
	Despite a history of invasions by the Mongols, Chinese, and Japanese, Korean folk music has survived and preserved many of its characteristic features, perhaps most unique being its triple meter rhythm found nowhere else in Asia. The melodies of the two most famous folk songs, Arirang and Doraji (Gathering Bluebell Flowers in the Mountains) are played by the Shakuhachi and Di to a Shamisen accompaniment Imitating the pulsing sensation of the unique triple meter.
8	Aida		02'19	Shakuhachi: Hyakuda Yukio Nyosei
	(Verdi, Evening Nile Temple Chorus) Di, Shakuhachi, Shamsen The chronological span separating us from the musicians of the ancient world, as well as the cultural changes which have taken place over the centuries, complicate the search for authentic sound and performance technique. In spite of these obstacles Verdi composed a score for Aida that evokes the exotic mood and atmosphere of ancient Egypt so convincingly that it has been remarked that If ancient Egyptian music did not sound anything like Aida (as in fact it did not), then it should have. Among the facts known about the music of ancient Egypt is that lutes and flutes were employed. The three Instruments in this recording are constructed from non-synthetic materials (both the DI and Shakuhachl from bamboo, Shamisen strings from silk), and the resulting subdued and subtle tone colors produced may not be so different from anything the ancient Egyptians may have experienced and enjoyed.
9	Echigojishi (nagauta)	越後獅子	57'57
	Among the snatches of Japanese melodies (e.g., the folksong Oedo Nihombashi, the national anthem Kimi Ga Yo) incorporated into the score of Puccini's Madame Butterfly (1904) is this Shamisen accompaniment for voice from a middle section of the Nagauta piece Echigo Jishi (1811). It Is played In a Shamisen tuning called san sagari (lowered third string) and the piece depicts seasonal street entertainers at work in the urban centers of the time. The lion refers to the headgear In the design of a lion's face worn by these migrants who travelled each winter from Echigo (former name of northeastern Japan) when the short growing season there ended. This section of Echigo Jishi is used by Puccini more than once in his opera-in Act I when Goro sings of the approaching crowd of girls from which Butterfly makes her initial onstage entrance, In the same act when she sings of the circumstances which led her to the life of a geisha (professional entertainer), in the ensuring dialogue after Yamadori's entrance in Act II, as well as the opening notes of the Intermezzo between Acts II and III.
10	Musume Dojoji	娘道成寺	05'00
	(Maiden at the Dojo Temple) Di and Shamisen The fury of a woman spurned by her lover Is portrayed in China In the Peking Opera play White Snake, which is based on an earlier Kunqu play of the same name. In Japan, similar plots can be found in the Noh play Doioji, which became the basis of the 1753 Kabuki play Musume Dojoji. On this recording, selected movements are performed with the Di playing the voice part and the Shamisen accompanying in ni agari (raised second string) tuning. An arrangement of the music typically performed at the end of a Kabuki play comprises the final movement.