Could you ever imagine J.Coltrane playing folk-songs on his shakuhachi!
Wow!
> From: "Bill O'Connor" <billo44@gaea.ocn.ne.jp>
> Reply-To: Shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu
> Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 13:14:03 +0900
> To: <shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu>
> Subject: [Shaku] RE: Cultural heritage
>
> 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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