Showing posts with label Shakuhachi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shakuhachi. Show all posts

5.1.14

Agua

  
Japan: The Spirit of Water
1999

Tracks:
 
1. Shinrabansyo (All Creation) by Synergy - from Taiko (15021) - 5'23"
2. Zangetsu (Waning Moon) by Masayuki Koga - from Eastwind (17067) - 11'01"
3. Daha (Pounding Wave) by James Ashley Franklin - previously unreleased - 5'21"
4. Haru no Umi (Spring Sea) by Tomoko Sunazaki - from Tegoto (17068) - 7'00"
5. Ise (The Sea of Ise) by James Newton - from Echo Canyon (13012) - 5'39"
6. The Wave by Synergy - from Matsuri (13081) - 6'44"
7. Mountain Stream by Honoka - from Water Spirits (13160) - 6'19"

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Japan: The Spirit of Water is a superb exploration of Japanese tradition—the mastery of Japanese musics and spirit—emphasizing the link between the culture of Japan and the influence, or spirit, of water featuring both traditional and non-traditional techniques.

In the realm of music, or the art of sound (ongaku) as it is termed in Japanese, the fascination with water is something which cuts across stylistic or historical boundaries: new developments proceeding from traditional forms provide new vehicles for the embodiment of, amongst other sentiments, the spirit of water. This embodiment may be explicitly programmatic in nature, the program then often containing elements of the human world as well as the non–human environment. A famous and popular piece of this kind is Haru no Umi (Spring Sea) from the early 20th century. Although originally scored for the common combination of koto and shakuhachi, many arrangements of this piece now exist, including some for western instruments. The image of this piece proved to be so powerful that Haru no Umi has achieved the status of a national heritage heard virtually everywhere in Japan on New Year's Day.

The combination of koto and shakuhachi, in recent times, has become a musical exploration drawing on the traditional style and extending them as reflected in Mountain Stream with its melodic and harmonic structure based on tradition with an improvised musical process which is not traditional.

Japan is also the land of percussion sounds, the taiko. It appears in two of Japan's main dramatic forms, Nô and Kabuki, and is central to festival (matsuri) music as reflected in The Wave. Shinrabansyo (All Creation) combines taiko with shinobue (a Japanese transverse bamboo flute).

Raintree stems from a Japanese composer trained in Western composition. Ise is a piece by a Western composer/performer who has assimilated Japanese influences into his playing of non–Japanese music and instruments.
 
   
  

4.8.11

Shakuhachi and Organ

  
Masters of Zen
Shakuhachi and Organ
Hōzan Yamamoto & Wolfgang Mitterer
1998

Tracks:

1. Encounter - Hozan Yamamoto/Wolfgang Mitterer/Masakazu Yashizawa
2. From A Distant Place - Hozan Yamamoto/Wolfgang Mitterer/Masakazu Yashizawa
3. Classical Feast - Hozan Yamamoto/Wolfgang Mitterer/Masakazu Yashizawa
4. Twilight In The Tirol - Hozan Yamamoto
5. Midnight Cathedral - Hozan Yamamoto/Wolfgang Mitterer
6. Blooming In The Peak - Hozan Yamamoto/Wolfgang Mitterer
7. Buddha's Smile - Hozan Yamamoto
8. Dedicated To The Organ - Hozan Yamamoto/Wolfgang Mitterer
 
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The combination of electronic organ and shakuhachi may seem strange but if we recall that the ancestor of the electronic organ, i.e. pipe organ was an instrument in which air in a pipes is set in vibration, the combination, is not so strange.
 
   
山本 邦山
Hōzan Yamamoto
Born 1937

Shakuhachi

Head of the Hozan-kai Shakuhachi Guild, performer, teacher, composer and pioneer in expanding the possibilities of the shakuhachi, Hozan Yamamoto attended the Seiha Music College graduating in 1962. After formation with Reibo Aoki and Katsuya Yokoyama of the widely acclaimed "Shakuhachi Sanbon Kai" trio in 1966, he electrified the conservative traditional scene by applying his talents to a variety of crossover collaborations beginning with the jazz idiom in 1967. These have led him to work with such world renowned musicians as Ravi Shankar, Jean Pierre Rampal, Tony Scott and Gary Peacock. Through the seventies and eighties to the present he has led the shakuhachi world receiving innumerable honors, including Ministry of Cultural Affairs and Education Ministerial awards for his performances, recordings (numbering in the hundreds) and compositions. He currently serves as lecturer at The Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music.

Designated Living National Treasure in 2002.
 
 
Hōzan Yamamoto (山本 邦山, Yamamoto Hōzan; born October 6, 1937 in Ōtsu, Shiga prefecture) is a Japanese shakuhachi player, composer and lecturer.

wiki

Wolfgang Mitterer (* June 6 1958 in Lienz, East Tyrol) is an Austrian composer and musician (organ, keyboard).

wiki

Don't trust the cover. Don't trust the title. This is not Gheorghe Zamfir & Marcel Cellier- Panflute & Organ (nothing wrong with that) and it is not Jean-Claude Jégat & Louis Yhuel - Bombarde Et Orgue (we are not in Brittany). These are not two Zen Masters... It is electronic organ and shakuhachi plus drum and bass, no not what you think... I guess you have to listen for your good self... : )

22.4.11

Shakuhachi

  
Gorô Yamaguchi
Great Masters of the Shakuhachi Flute

1988

Tracks:

1. Yûgure-No-Kyoku ("the tune of everything")
2. Igusa-Reibo ("rush plant yearning for the bell")
3. Sôkaku-Reibo ("nesting of a crane")
4. Hô-Shô-Su ("young phoenix")

Extra shakuhachi (track #4): Hômei Matsumara
  
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Gorô Yamaguchi  plays some of the most austere pieces in the shakuhachi repertory for this recording. The music generally has something of a plaintive nature, but includes some rather dissonant-sounding passages, including trills. This music generally has associations with Zen.
 
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Gorō Yamaguchi (山口 五郎) February 26, 1933- January 3, 1999, a Japanese shakuhachi (vertical bamboo flute) player, was known for his musicality, phrasing, impeccable technique (and modesty) in solo and ensemble performances. He headed the Chikumeisha shakuhachi guild and became a world-famous Japanese performer and teacher. In 1967-68 he was appointed Artist in Residence at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut (USA).

While at Wesleyan, Nonesuch Explorer Series recorded his "Bell Ringing in an Empty Sky" LP, an influential first recording of shakuhachi in the US. NASA included one honkyoku from that LP, "Tsuru No Sugomori," (Nesting of Cranes) on the Voyager Golden Record which was sent into space. In 1992, the Japanese government designated Yamaguchi a Living National Treasure (Ningen Kokuhô).
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Gorô Yamaguchi is considered one of the greatest Japanese shakuhachi players of the 20th century. From 1992 to his untimely death in January of 1999, at the age of 65, he was designated "National Living Treasure," a unique title given in Japan to artists who attained the highest mastery of their art. This CD, released by Auvidis in 1988, presents a master at the height of his art. What strikes with Goro Yamaguchi is the subtlety of his playing. The music is so meditative, so peaceful, so gentle, so natural, so masterly and effortlessly performed (although this flute is considered one of the hardest to play). Meditative music at is best! ~ Bruno Deschênes
The shakuhachi (尺八, pronounced [ɕakɯhatɕi]) is a Japanese end-blown flute. It is traditionally made of bamboo, but versions now exist in ABS and hardwoods. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of suizen (吹禅, blowing meditation).