Brian, You are right this is interesting, did you meant to say tsu meri-
Fb flat , i think. In my first discovery and impressions when i heard
Honkyoku, i thought of not Japanese at all.. i thought of this modern-
complex intregrate sound, how profound. This is Great Art, that stands the
test of time. theo
> From: Brian Ritchie <britchie@wi.rr.com>
> Reply-To: Shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu
> Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 08:27:10 -0500
> To: shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu
> Subject: [Shaku] Re: Do Westerners Have a Shakuhachi Accent?
>
> Thanks Brian,
>
> This is the most interesting and provocative question posed on this
> list for some time. I guess Japanese players and listeners would be
> most qualified to answer the question, but they might be too polite!
>
> A lot of western shakuhachi players prefer to play the meri notes in
> line with western tuning i.e. tsu meri=E flat rather than between Eb
> and D, which is more in line with Japanese thinking. I'm not referring
> to players who are not skilled enough to play the microtone, but even
> players who could play either way but still play the western pitch.
>
> Of course if you're playing a melody which originated in vocal music
> with lyrics, not knowing the language or the lyrics will usually affect
> the performance.
>
> The next logical question might be, "If westerners play with an
> "accent" is that an undesirable quality?" Should we be trying to sound
> Japanese all the time? Jazz has been dealing with this issue for
> almost 100 years. Jazz started out as a black art form, therefore
> should white players try to sound black? Of course jazz in America is a
> much more recent and quickly evolving form than traditional Japanese
> music is, so maybe the answer is different in each case. Maybe not.
>
> BR
>
> On Jun 30, 2004, at 2:49 AM, shakuhachi wrote:
>
>> Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 19:00:35 -0400
>> From: "Brian Miller" <ramasita@peoplepc.com>
>> To: <Shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu>
>> Subject: Do Westerners Have a Shakuhachi Accent?
>> Message-ID: <000c01c45e2c$e6627280$305179a5@lanc.thmulti.com>
>>
>> When I listen to shak recordings made by various performers, it seems
>> that the Japanese players sounds more traditionally Japanese than
>> Western performers. Even those Westerners who have studied in Japan
>> with
>> Japanese
>> teachers seem to speak a subtle, but different sound language. Is
>> this
>> my
>> imagination, or does it simply demonstrate my lack of sensitivity? I
>> know that unless learned at a very young age, most second language
>> speakers have an accent - no matter how long they have been speaking
>> their second language. If I recall correctly, this has to do, in part,
>> because the speaking organs (mouth, throat, muscles, ligiments, etc.)
>> are shaped by the unique pronounciations of a particular language. By
>> the age of 6 or 7 these
>> organs are already pretty much molded. Could it be that the Japanese
>> language translates in an indirect way into the sounds blown with the
>> shakuhachi via the physical characterists of the native speaker?
>>
>> Am I way off based, or have other's speculates similarly?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Brian
>
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