Re: [Shaku] Re: empty blowing discussion

From: Alan Sondheim (sondheim@panix.com)
Date: Tue Mar 30 2004 - 19:08:55 PST


Curious what kind of music you're doing. I play shakuhachi solo, for
recording etc., but it's not traditional at all; I'm self-taught and at
times it sounds more like a bass flute...

- Alan

On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, joel taylor wrote:

> t 05:36 PM 3/27/2004 -0800, joel taylor wrote:
> >Empty blowing should not be without musical value.
>
>
> Karl S wrote:
>
> That's one opinion. You or anyone else has every right to perform that
> way. Or are you referring only to the listener's interpretation, rather
> than the performer's style?
>
> No, I'm referring to the strict performance style.
> The style you seem to detest so much...which i understand by the way.
>
> > The surface musical qualities of this approach are severity, and
> > modesty; but it is also possible for a player to express mystery, depth,
> > reverence, devotion, and other qualities, within the limits of the style.
>
> K:
> Are you saying that the "limits of the [kyosui] style" can include vibrato,
> unwritten ornaments, or changes of dynamic unrelated to the natural end of
> a breath? If so, I disagree but accept your right to that opinion.
>
>
> J: No. I do not mean that. I mean that there is still some room
> within the very strict style we are discussing for the expression of
> some musical qualities.
> Even a tone played with no vibrato, where the dynamic follows the
> natural course of the breath, has dynamic, and I would say musical,
> qualities.
>
> And besides, stillness is also a quality. Movement and stillness are
> part of the same thing.
>
> As far as my personal playing or shakuhachi practice, I am only a
> beginner in honkyoku, and i make no claim to be anything else.
>
> i specialize in electroacoustic improvisation - i'm usally playing in
> a completely contemporary, often atonal, microtone saturated style,
> with other instruments, also played by weird people like myself,
> where multiphonics and other special effects are used all the time,
> because the very essence of the music is often purely timbral or
> textural.
>
> in improvisation, i also occasionally try to be artless, which means
> something similar to but different from the style we're discussing, i
> think.
> again, i don't want to give you the impression i'm any expert on
> anything about japanese classical music or any kind!
>
> this thread started because i found your distate for the [kyosui]
> style a bit grating. you seem to have an axe to grind about it, so i
> thought i'd poke and see if you had something to say about it.
>
> Do you?
>
> I'm really just saying that I don't find that playing Kyorei as I was
> taught it in this single lesson by someone considered to be qualified
> to teach- in other words, with no ornamentation, natural dynamics,
> everything very very constrained, is, or can be, and i think probably
> should be, musical.
>
> Ok?
>
> Stay well,
> Have fun playing shakuhachi!
>
> Joel
>
>
> "You can say whatever you like with a slide trombone, but you have to
> be careful with words." - Louis Armstrong
> --
> Joel Taylor
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>
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