New York shakuhachi players and Japanese music enthusiasts were fortunate
to have heard Teruhisa Fukuda this week, both in performance and in a
workshop setting. As part of Music From Japan's annual festival, Mr. Fukuda
performed a solo recital on Sunday afternoon, and was featured as a soloist
in a Saturday evening concert of music by Maki Ishii. On Monday evening he
gave a master class for 8 shakuhachi players and a dozen auditors. Mr.
Fukuda's reputation as an excellent player of contemporary music preceded
him and was easily confirmed by those who heard the concert.
Mr. Fukuda opened his program on Sunday afternoon with a performance of
Azuma no Kyoku, which he played while strolling through the audience with
two small wind chimes dangling from the end of his instrument. This was
followed by a performance of Shin Kyorei. Makoto Moroi's wonderful "Five
Pieces Chikurai" was given an inspired,thoughtful, and highly skilled
performance. The first half closed with Kinea Seiho's very excellent piece
"Meikyo," was also heard at the "Living Treasures of Japan" concert in
Denver this summer during the World Shakuhachi conference. Mr. Fukuda was
accompanied on the shamisen by Shihou Kineya.
Atskui Sumi's "Fish on Horizon," also with shamisen, was heard next. Mr.
Sumi has apparently written many pieces for Fukuda, and in this
performance, the glove fit the hand beatifully. His music is replete with
special playing techniques for shakuhachi and Mr. Fukuda's extraordinary
technique anmd commitment to this style was a pleasure to hear. Clearly
his use of a seven hole shakuhachi for this concert was helpful in
negotiating the many difficult chromatic passages. Both this work, and the
final piece on the program, Kaneta Choji's "Shiki-soku-ze-ku II" for solo
shakuhachi, received their US premieres at this performance.
On Monday evening, Mr. Fukuda presented a spirited and highly enjoyable
master class. The composer Atsuki Sumi was also there and spoke about one
of his solo shakuhachi pieces "Chi-No", which the participants began to
learn. Mr. Fukuda prepared a small workbook that had several charts for
atari and oshi fingerings, and meri, yuri and nayashi head positions. He
had also transcribed Azuma no Kyoku, Shirabe and Tsuru no Sugamori using a
notation system which bears mention. As first glance the notation appeared
to be Tozan school, but using Kinko school characters. This seemed to be a
clever system - allowing Kinko players to easily read the ryhthmic notation
of the Tozan school. Mr. Fukuda explained that the Tozan system was
superior to Kinko in its ability to indicate precise rhythms. Certainly
this is an advantage for modern music, with its demanding rhythmic
complexities, but one might argue that such precision may not be in
character with the spirit of homkyoku.
Participants and audience alike should give high praise to Music From Japan
for once again arranging an excellent program, and for the opportunity to
hear and to work with Teruhisa Fukuda.
James Nyoraku Schlefer
www.sparklingbeatnik.com/nyoraku
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