In a message dated 5/7/01 7:47:37 AM Pacific Daylight Time, Marylubran writes:
<< Jinchu No Shakuhachi would be excellent.
"Rampo wrote (along with Fukuda Rando) songs for
a weekly radio broadcast during WWII.
Jinchu no Shakuhachi is about someone playing a shakuhachi in the
middle of an army camp (not a concentration camp) and the nostalgic
longing it (the sound) brings up for the listening soldier's home
town.
In the middle of the piece is a singing part, which is taken from
a then-popular folk song about soldiers missing their fallen
comrades. That song refers to the Manchurian campaign (not one of
Japan's shining hours). Masa's take on it, and one that I agree
with, is that it can be seen as expressing the feelings of soldiers
in any campaign and from any country.
Stripped of it's historical context, it still retains some of the
feeling of longing for someone or something that is no longer
around." This is Bruce Jones ' rendition of Masakazu Yoshizawa's
explanation of the piece.
Mary Lu Brandwein >>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 08 2002 - 09:19:35 PST