Right on Peter!,
I agree with everything you have said here.
When people bring me their flutes or flutes they are considering buying for
evaluation I always make them sit in a chair with their backs to me and I
play their flute along with any other shakuhachi I have in the same length.
In the most common case, 1.8, that means I play shakuhachi ranging from
beautiful old Kinko flutes to Monty's cast bore, Edo period ji nashi
flutes, PVC flutes, wooden student models, Myoan flutes, and whatever else
happens to be around. I then play the same piece of music on each flute and
ask the listener to react to the sound itself.
Even the least experienced people have no trouble distinguishing between
the different sounds, and generally describe the flutes in terms which
would be expected for a flute of each type. For example old Kinko flute,
smooth, rich. Monty cast bore, bright. Ji nashi, earthy. Plastic flute,
thin. Wooden student flute, dull. They are almost always able to tell by
the sound which flutes are old and which are of recent make. Because they
are not looking at the flutes when they listen they are not bringing
preconceived notions to the evaluation.
On the other hand the feeling one gets from a flute is totally subjective.
Nobody else can tell you how a flute makes you feel, or how it should make
you feel. I enjoy playing PVC flutes on occasion. I keep one in my car for
when I'm stuck in gridlock. But I can play an old jinashi flute for hours
and not get bored. I doubt I'd be able to do that with a PVC flute or even
most good quality modern bamboo flutes. And by the way the jinashi flutes I
have are not out of tune. Why do people buy jinashi flutes that are out of
tune? Anyway no flute is "in" or "out" of tune because flutes don't play
themselves. People play them. A good player can deal with a flute that is
slightly awry or a lousy player can make a hideous sound on a well balanced
instrument. Personally I am bored by flutes that have had the idiosycracies
removed from them by overzealous makers. Let the music be a conversation
between the bamboo and the human. The player should bring out the music
that is latent within the bamboo, not attempt to dominate it and show it
who's the boss. If you spend enough time with a shakuhachi, especially one
that is unique, the instrument will teach you how to play the music. You
just have to listen and react.
Respect the bamboo!!!
Brian
Peter Ross wrote:
> Hi Nelson,
>
> Even though it's your birthday I couldn't disagree with you more. I
> believe that without a doubt the material is of extreme importance. I
> feel that the bore and the mouthpiece affect how strong a flute plays
> and the material affects the tone or voice or soul of the shakuhachi.
> Air is vibrating inside and off of the material. This affects the tone
> we get, just as acoustics vary in a wooden, or a concrete performance
> space. When I perform in a concert hall with hardwood floors and
> ceiling the sound is different than plaster or concrete and I know I'm
> not vibrating the room. The sound waves are bouncing off the material.
> Some material is more or less absorbent than other material. The shape
> of a hall is important but so is the material. Ask any performer.
>
> While I can't back up any of this scientifically, I know shakuhachi made
> of different materials sound different. I hear it. I also don't know
> why I get a sound when I blow into my flute. Couldn't explain it to
> you. But I know how to get that sound and I sure hear differences in
> flutes of different materials.
>
> I've made hundreds of shakuhachi over the last 30 years. Most out of
> bamboo, some on a lathe out of various hardwoods, and more recently
> dozens out of pvc. The wooden flutes not only sound different than
> bamboo, but each wood has a distinctive sound. I used a steel tapered
> reamer so the bores were uniform. Rosewood sounds different than maple
> or ebony etc. & etc. All the maple sound alike, and all the cocobolo
> alike but different than the other woods. Same shape, different
> material.
>
> I've also made hundreds transverse flutes out of bamboo with hardwood
> lip plates. This small amount of wood in the mouthpiece greatly affects
> the tone color of the flute. Ebony is brighter, purple heart is
> mellower etc. Silver flute players put a rosewood head joint on their
> flutes for a sweeter, warmer sound.
>
> The pvc shakuhachi I make play surprisingly strong even without a
> tapered bore. They have a decent tone, but if you play a bamboo flute
> after the pvc in comparison it's different and not as sweet or bamboo
> sounding. I don't think plastic lined or plastic shakuhachi sound like
> "plastic", but they don't sound as dark, sweet or warm as bamboo. They
> have a different voice.
>
> Ji-nashi flutes have the most natural, bamboo sound. Flutes filled
> with plastic, or made out of plastic may play loud but lack the dark ,
> warm tone most professional players like. I think the filler used in
> Japan is somewhat porous and allows a warmer sound to come through, or
> off of, but if there's too much filler of any kind it affects the tone.
> And the tone is so important. Some Americans are into volume over tone
> it seems, but the Japanese players discuss tone color all the time.
> Sure, volume is important, and we all look for a strong playing flute,
> but the voice is of equal or greater importance. Here's an example. If
> you went to a night club and heard a loud singer with a voice you hated,
> would you leave and turn to a friend and say "She had an awful voice but
> at least it was really loud"?
>
> No one, especially a scientist can convince me that I don't hear what I
> hear.
>
> Best regards and Happy Birthday!
>
> Peter
>
> -- Peter Ross
> http://www.cloudhandsmusic.com
> 206-587-7262
> 206-364-2341 FAX
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 03 2003 - 09:09:50 PST