Hello Peter, et al
What Kakizakai via Yokoyama via Watazumi plays and what Yamaguchi
played are different pieces, performed within a different stylistic
framework, using different techniques. There is nothing mysterious or
profound about this.
What works in one context doesn't necessarily work in another. To
compare the above in a discussion of vibrato, at least amongst us
shakuhachi people, is like comparing the proverbial apples with the
oranges. This has, as far as I can see, little to do with absolute
values in art or anything else, really.
"Honnin no Kyoku", on the other hand, may very well have a great deal
to do with absolute values in art.
I hope that you play the Watazumi/Yokoyama/Kakizakai pieces as best as
you can, whether in front of an audience or on your own. I also hope
that you may eventually have the confidence and conviction in your own
playing to follow or to ignore your teachers' advice as you see fit,
whether that means putting in or leaving out vibrato/yuri.
Did you know that there is an old 'SP' (75rpm) recording of San'an, on
which Watazumi is using an exaggerated amount of vibrato throughout the
entire piece - every phrase! - created with a kind of komi-buki
technique? I've not heard it; Yokoyama told me about it once upon a
time.
Here is question for us all:
If, at at lesson with Kakizakai, we (heaven forbid!) used vibrato while
playing a Watazumi/Yokoyama piece, AND we played it as well as or
better than Watazumi or Yokoyama could have played it, what do you
think Kakizakai's reaction would be?
This is not about using as our musical authority, our own taste or our
desire to express our inner selves. How does one define 'better' than
Watazumi or Yokoyama? If you could play like that, then Kakizakai would
know immediately.
Here are two more questions:
How many of us know who Watazumi's teacher was? Other than perhaps, a
passing curiosity, how many of us care?
Best regards, Riley
> Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 10:32:46 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Peter H <voxsonorus@yahoo.com>
> To: Shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu
> Subject: RE: on vibrato
> Message-ID: <20030818173246.35032.qmail@web21206.mail.yahoo.com>
>
>
> This touches on the age-old question of whether there are any absolute
> values in art, or whether it's all "de gustibus non es disputandum"
> (since we're throwing in foreign language quotes ;-)). Yes, one hears
> this phrase "honnin no kyoku," but I'm sure that if I played, say,
> Honshirabe at my next lesson with either of my Dokyoku teachers, and
> used lots of yuri (vibrato, I prefer the Japanese term as vibrato is so
> general and yuri is unique to shakuhachi), that I'd either be stopped
> right away and told to not use it, or else told so after I'd finished.
> That's authority. We have to ask, what is the value of that
> authority--how to balance that with our own taste or desire to express
> our inner selves.
> I like your description of Goro sensei's playing, but I'm also told to
> do certain things when playing Dokyoku for an audience, and I'm sure
> all of us will play a piece differently depending on many things,
> including whether we're alone at home or playing for others. But I
> would never use yuri because I'm playing for others and not use it
> because I'm playing the piece as suizen. For me it goes deeper than
> that.
> My piano teacher was a student of a student of Max Reger's, who was
> considered an expert on Bach (he's the one who said "Bach is Anfang und
> Ende aller Musik"), and he invoked that lineage when convincing me that
> I should not use the sustain pedal at all when playing Bach. Later,
> when I heard Andre Watts in concert and he used a lot of pedal in a
> Bach piece, I thought it ruined the piece. Had I been initiated into a
> deeper understanding of Bach, or just brainwashed into intolerance?
> (BTW I was also told that in Bach's day, the thumbs were not
> used--imagine playing about 95% of his keyboard music without using the
> thumbs! But since this doesn't affect the end result, I wasn't required
> to do that).
>
> Peter
>
>
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