Hi Folks,
All the best to you all for 2005.
I am taking the digest form of this list so I may have missed some recent
posts, last post I read was from Bruce Jones
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 15:49:50 -0800 (PST)
Interesting discussion RE: minyo and Honkyoku.
I have to respectfully disagree with you Stav on this one point...
" When you play minyo the standard by which the listener perceives and
enjoys or does not enjoy the music is
pretty much universal."
Minyo is part of Japans popular (at least with older people) cultural
heritage.
If you were born and brought up in Japan (perhaps regardless of your
Nationalities) you have been exposed to Minyo music in the background all
the time. TV dramas, radio stations, shopping malls, karaoke with your
Grandma and Great Uncle Whatsisname etc... So people here have internalised
the music in a way that a newcomer to the culture (such as myself) or an
outsider, will have difficulty doing. I'm sure there are thousands of Minyo
pieces which are not mainstream, many regional pieces and the like.... But
as a generalisation, the better known Minyo pieces are surely much better
enjoyed in Japan than outside of it, and what about the words folks! If you
play Minyo to an audience in Japan they will likely start to sing along!
These songs tell a story don't they? 'Donkey bells', 'My dog has three
balls' (Oyorokobi no Inu) [just kidding!].
A fellow non-Japanese Shakuhachi enthusiast tried to study Minyo with a
local teacher but the teacher would only agree to teach him a piece on the
Shakuhachi on condition that he first learned to sing it. The tune played
without the words may be very beautiful and moving, but a listener who also
knows the words is off on some sentimental journey conjured up by the
lyrics. Likely you do the same thing if you hear a BGM Beatles tune without
the words, how about Country and Western music without the words? I guess
that's another debate, music with words and without words...
I would assume that the largest market for recordings of Minyo music
'without the words' is people who want to sing along at home.
But for all I know there are Minyo pieces without words? I'd be happy to be
re-educated, happens all the time.
People in Japan do not have the same kind of exposure to Honkyoku, because
it comes from an extremely esoteric secular sub-culture....
you do sometimes hear sound bites from Honkyoku pieces during TV dramas, but
it doesn't have the same popular following. It isn't part of the folk
culture. You won't find many Honkyoku bars in Tokyo (sadly).
After a performance, if I confide in a Japanese friend that I just
inexcusably massacred a piece of Honkyoku, they will say 'no one would
notice' which they seem to think is a reassuring thing to say. So in this
sense I am agreeing with you Stav.
Anyway I would certainly love to get a few more minyo pieces in my
repertoire, and am grateful to everyone who made suggestions for study
material. Fukuda Rando composed some modern stuff for Shakuhachi which is
also very accessible for an audience in the park, I often find myself
performing Fukuda Rando because people say they like it and I'm vain and
vulnerable!
I speculate that it is hard to play anything really well (never managed it
myself anyway), any instrument, any music... To really excel at anything
takes the same amount of devotion and discipline regardless of how the
performance is perceived by the audience. I'm sure no-one is disagreeing
with this.
For my own part I have never come across anything as hard to play on
Shakuhachi as the Honkyoku.
To sum up the key points which may (conceivably) be worthy of further
discussion are;-
1) What part does cultural heritage play in peoples appreciation of folk
music? Pretty big no?
2) Are the words important?
Please forgive my disjointed ramblings. I sacrificed my after lunch nap to
write them.
Best Regards,
Bill O'Connor.
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