Yes, perhaps I exaggerated. A close relationship with an excellent player
can be a good substitute for playing the instrument oneself.
I was thinking of how few non-playing composers have written successful
virtuoso guitar and harp music. These, like the shakuhachi, seem to me to
have more challenging technical limitations than violin and clarinet, for
example. In composing for the latter, you hardly need to give a thought to
difficulty - I think of the incredibly difficult 'Freeman Etudes' by John
Cage, but there too, Cage had Paul Zukofsky to consult.
I'm very happy to hear about the Denyer-Yoshikazu collaboration. May it be
fruitful.
> Charles, I do not think it is strictly necessary to be a shakuhachi player
> in order to write well for shakuhachi. Frank Denyer is one such composer.
He
> can't play the shakuhachi, but writes brilliant music for the instrument.
> Yes, his pieces are extremely difficult, but all his music is, not only
the
> ones for shakuhachi. The difficulties are not due to lack of knowledge,
his
> music is just so complex - especially rhythmically. All his ideas can be
> done on a shakuhachi, which shows, of course, the composer's intense
musical
> relationship to one of the best contemporary music players on shakuhachi
> ever, Iwamoto Yoshikazu.
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