[Shaku] Re: shakuhachi V1 #1116

Interesting question.

To jump to the conclusion, the note should be chi-meri, which corresponds
to the u of the honte.This makes sense as it acts as a leading tone which
resolves down to the re. The koto here does a scrape on d and e flat strings
which also resolves into the re, echoed in the octave above.

The Kawase score notates it as chi, as you pointed out. The Chikumei-sha
score also writes it as chi (without a meri marking), but interestingly, in
the Chikumei-sha notation, the kaete part is also written in small script
alongside the honte, and there it is clearly marked as chi-meri.

It is important to remember that none of the scores we use today are 100%
accurate. The idea was that one learned the piece by oral tradition and the
notation was just a device to remind the player what should have been
already memorized.The meri markings are also notoriously unreliable. If you
look at pre-war Chikuyu-sha notation, there are almost no meri markings--it
was just assumed the player would know when to meri and when not to.

There was also an element of personal interpretation. Sometimes a shakuhachi
player would play meri when the koto player played a kari note, or vice
versa.

The pieces themselves probably also changed over time. Some scholastic
studies suggest that Roku-dan no Shirabe was originally played all kari, For
example, the first dan of Akikaze no Kyoku was written to be played together
with Rokudan, but unless you play all the Rokudan meri notes kari, it just
doesn't work,

Hope this was helpful.

Christopher Yohmei Blasdel

> From: shakuhachi <shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu>
> Reply-To: <shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu>
> Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 09:19:39 -0800
> To: <shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu>
> Subject: shakuhachi V1 #1116
>
> shakuhachi Wed, 28 Feb 2007 Volume 1 : Number 1116
>
> In this issue:
>
> Chidori no Kyoku, kaete question
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:59:54 -0800 (PST)
> From: bjones@weber.ucsd.edu (Bruce Jones)
> To: shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Chidori no Kyoku, kaete question
> Message-ID: <20070228165954.9D6FE10B241@weber.ucsd.edu>
>
> I have a Kawase score for Chidori. On the last page is the kaete for
> the score. The second to last note is Chi-kan (A). On the honte score
> the second to last note (of the tegoto) is U (G#).
>
> A friend has an Ozawa score for Chidori. On it, both notes are G#
> (Chi no meri-kan and U-otsu). Her Ozawa score is from the pre-WWII era,
> and my Kawase score is from the Heisei (current) era.
>
> I think the new Kawase score has mis-printed that last Chi.
>
> Does anyone have an old(er) Kawase score? If so, would you take a
> look at the kaete part and see if that Chi at the end is Chi-meri?
>
> thanks,
>
> bj
>
> -
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of shakuhachi V1 #1116
> **************************
> _____________________________________________
>
> List un/subscription information is at:
> http://communication.ucsd.edu/shaku/listsub.html
>

_____________________________________________

List un/subscription information is at:
 http://communication.ucsd.edu/shaku/listsub.html
Received on Wed Feb 28 16:50 PST 2007