While I enjoy immensely the traditional shakuhachi music and feel it truly
is a healing experience, I also feel that "pop shakuhachi" music like John
Neptune's Take Dake is quite pleasant. While I have trouble listening to
some "techno" music (especially if it is fast paced) or hard rock, I feel
that is a matter of personal taste.... after all, I happen to love
traditional bluegrass music and I know of at least a few people who do not
share my love of Emmylou Harris. ;*) And I'm sure that my love of pygmy
music is an acquired taste as well... ;*)
Brett "Bud" Breitwieser ( bud@zenbud.com <mailto:bud@zenbud.com> )
please visit my zen site at http://zenbud.com
zen hermit mailing list: http://www.coollist.com/group.cgi?l=zenhermit
Impermanence:
"To what shall
I liken the world?
Moonlight, reflected
In dewdrops,
Shaken from a crane's bill."
-Dogen-Zenji
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Miller [mailto:markm@naropa.edu]
> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 1:39 PM
> To: Stav Tapuch
> Cc: shakahuna@yahoo.com; shakuhachi@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Re: tradition
>
>
> Stav,
>
> My turn to rant...
>
> I know what you mean by "traditional" music, but what do you
> mean by the word
> "authentic"?
>
> I think music that honestly reflects and directly communicates
> the experience of
> the musician would have to be called "authentic". Although hip
> hop and rap
> continue to be co-opted by the likes of Time Warner, they began
> as the very
> powerful and original artistic voice of a neglected cultural
> subgroup, made by
> musicians who relied "on their own creative capacities". It is
> (or at least it
> was) very authentic!
>
> While I tend to agree with you about techno, there is creativity
> in that music,
> also. It seems to me that we can't have it both ways. How can
> we expect others
> to be open-minded about honkyoku music while we maintain an
> intolerance of other
> musical forms such as rap or techno?
>
> As shakuhachi players, we should promote an attitude of openness,
> tolerance and
> exploration, thereby making the world safe for all neglected
> forms, including
> our own. We can celebrate the richness of the banquet even if we
> don't partake
> of every dish.
>
> I agree, this has been an interesting thread!
>
> Mark Miller
>
>
>
>
>
> Stav Tapuch wrote:
>
> > What an intresting conversation! It has been a pleasure to read
> all of these
> > perspectives. Of course these themes connect to much larger
> issues beyond
> > that of the shakuhachi and the classical arts in Japan.
> >
> > I am of the opinion that the arts that are popular at a
> particular moment of
> > time are reflctive of the mood and psychological mind set of its host
> > country. I find it fascinating, and deeply disturbing, that
> youth all over
> > the world love techno 'music' - probably the biggest artistic crime the
> > world has ever known. To sit in a bar or cafe with friends I am often
> > forced to endure the endless mindless thump, thump, thumping of techno
> > "music" that is deviod of even the slighest hint of grace and
> beauty. Why,
> > why why would people listen to techno in a world that has
> produced Bach? And
> > when I say techno, you can throw in rap, hip-hop and 98% of its other
> > twisted, ill-begotten kin.
> >
> > And so in Japan the people grow disdainful for their nation's
> most precious
> > cultural fruits, and instead wait in line to buy CDs of N'Sync
> and The Back
> > Street Boys. Very sad. This is the ugly side of globalism - the
> > destruction of non-mass producable culture. When the powers of
> the world
> > mixes us all up, we inevitably sink to the lowest common denominator.
> >
> > And likewise this also connects to the "surgance" of shakuhachi
> in the west
> > - which is not really a rise, but an appearance. In the US- a
> country more
> > characterized by the mass production of culture - including
> fashion, music,
> > literature, art, even speech patterns, expressions and sense of
> humor - than
> > any other country -there is a small minority of people who crave the
> > authentic, and the traditional. People who are moved by a cultural
> > tradition that goes back farther than the previous meeting of
> the marketing
> > execs of Time / Warner / AOL.
> >
> > I read the other day about why John Walker was moved to seek
> out a school to
> > study 'true 'Islam - he claimed that he was searching for something
> > "authentic." There are a lot of Americans who can understand
> that feeling
> > -but who obviously have a more active moral compass - who are finding
> > authenticity by relying on their own creative capacities as
> opposed to just
> > depending on television, mass produced music and block buster video to
> > provide for the cultural and spiritual content of their lives.
> >
> > Sorry for the rant - but these were the associations that this
> conversation
> > brougt up.
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 03 2003 - 09:09:50 PST