A concert of musical reflections of
a fascinating land and culture
featured
Philip Gelb, acclaimed soloist on the
enchanting Shakuhachi, an ancient bamboo flute.
Bruce Ghent's TAIKU - Poets of Taiko, an exciting and dramatic Taiko drum ensemble.
----------------------Performed Sunday, November 5, 2006 -- 8pm
Hofmann Theatre
Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek CA
PROGRAM
(Click on Titles or Composers for notes)
Impressions of Japan ............................................. James Barnes
1. Dawn in Joetsu
2. The Great Buddah at Nara
Tanabata (The Seventh Night of July) ....................... Itaru Sakai
Jimbo san'ya................................................................. Traditional
Philip Gelb, Shakuhachi soloist
Figuration for Shakuhachi ..................... Tetsunosuke Kushida
Philip Gelb, Shakuhachi soloist
and The Contra Costa Wind Symphony
Autumn in Heian-Kyo ............................... Tetsunosuke Kushida
Momiji (The Colors of Autumn) ........................ Arr. Bruce Ghent
In Memory of Robin Wadsworth
1. Shiratsuyu (White Dew)
2. Mobo/Moga (1920's slang for Modern Boy/Modern Girl)
3. Hatsu Arashi (First Storm)
TAIKU - Poets of Taiko
Bruce Ghent, Director, Sarah Bush, Monina Sen, Karen Elliot
and Philip Gelb, Shakuhachi
Les trois notes du Japon .................................. Toshio Mashima
1. La danse des grues (Tancho cranes mating dance)
2. La riviere enneigee (Pensive scenes of winter)
3. Le fete du feu (Nebuta festival)
Program Notes
Impressions of Japan - James Barnes
1. Dawn in Joetsu
2. The Great Buddha at Nara
Following are from the composer’s notes:
“IMPRESSlONS OF JAPAN is a tone poem in expressing my personal portrayal of what I have seen and experienced during my recent visits to Japan.
“I. Joetsu Asahi (Dawn in Joetsu) In the small town of Joetsu on the Sea of Japan , we watch as the early morning stars give way to a very beautiful sunrise. The very short notes that begin this piece are intended to depict the tiny beams of light from the starry sky that precede those first rays of sunlight breaking over the surrounding hills.
“2. Todaiji (The Great Buddha at Nara ) In this beautiful little city south of Kyoto stands the world's largest Buddha. No one can visit Todaiji without being impressed with its enormity and by the incredible influence that Buddhism has had on Japan for a thousand years.
Completed in August 1992, this work was commissioned by the Saitama Sakae High School Band of Ohmiya, Japan. It received its premiere performance in Tokyo in January 1993.
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Tanabata (The Seventh Night of July) - Itaru Sakai
In Japan, July the seventh is known as “Tanabata”. There is a legend that a young couple live separated by the Milky Way. Yet on this night, only once a year, they are allowed to meet. Festivals are held throughout Japan to celebrate their reunion. In this work, composer Itaru Sakai musically expresses this romantic legend linked to the mid-summer night sky. In the middle of the piece the voices of the man and the woman are represented by alto saxophone and euphonium solos.
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“Jimbo san’ya” popular title is simply "San'ya" (Three Valleys) and is played with many regional variations. There was once a komuso (literally "priest of nothingness", a mendicant shakuhachi player), Jimbo Masanosuke (1841-1914), who was so renowned for his playing of "San'ya" that his version was crowned with his name and called “Jimbo San'ya".
The shakuhachi is a testament to the elegance of traditional Japanese culture. Made from the root of the bamboo, its aesthetic is organic and simple. Hidden inside this rustic form, however, is a bore that is carefully crafted with the utmost precision. This instrument produces a sound that is said to replicate the full range of natural life on earth.
The shakuhachi is an end-blown flute tuned to a pentatonic (5-note) scale. The mouthpiece consists of an oblique blowing edge whose design is unique in that it enables the player to control the pitch produced by changing the angle at which the flute is being blown. This, in turn, produces a delicate change of intonation – a swelling or bending of notes characteristic of the traditional music. Alterations in embouchure, intensity of blowing and cross fingerings allow the player to create a wide variety of subtle and incredible sounds. The timbre of the instrument is mellow in its low tones, although it is equally capable of producing loud, penetrating and breathy tones in its middle and upper registers. Little can be said of the sound of the shakuhachi without first hearing its hauntingly beautiful ring.
Traditional Japanese music played on this instrument reflects the many voices of nature. Gentle and warm, the summer rain. Frayed and gusty, the autumn breeze through the bamboos. Shrill and honking, the cry of a wild duck, winter on its tail. Quiet and sweet, a mountain lake fed by early spring runoff.
This traditional bamboo flute has been popularized in the West through film and TV music.
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Figuration for Shakuhachi - Tetsunosuke Kushida
A concerto-like work for Shakuhachi and Band that combines ancient Japanese folk material into an exciting one movement modem concerto. This is one of the few works for band to feature this unique instrument.
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Autumn In Heian-Kyo - Tetsunosuke Kushida
This is a fantasy-like work with the image autumn in Kyoto, where the composer resides. Among the many eras of Kyoto, which was the capital of Japan for as long as 1000 years, this piece meditates on the Heian era which began at the end of the 8 th century.
The work uses Japanese traditional percussion instruments such as Shimedaiko, Mokusho and Kagura-Suzu, which emphasizes the varied emotion of the piece.
This work was composed in 1995 for the Uster International Music Festival in Switzerland. It was first performed in the same year at the festival by the Baden Württemberg Wind Ensemble under Hibiki Minowa.
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Literally, taiko means "fat drum."
The exact history of Japanese Taiko remains shrouded in speculation. The oldest physical evidence of taiko in Japan is a haniwa clay figure of a drummer that dates from the sixth or seventh century. However, since the first instruments in any society tend to be percussion instruments, it is likely that taiko has been used in Japan for well over 2000 years.
Taiko was used as a battlefield instrument to both scare the enemy and issue commands. According to picture scrolls and painted screens of the 1500s, one soldier would carry the taiko lashed to a backpack-like frame, while two other soldiers would beat the drum on each side.
In addition to the martial aspect, taiko have always been used in the most refined cultural settings. Gagaku music was introduced to Japan in the Nara period (697-794) along with Buddhism, and was quickly adopted as the imperial court music. Gagaku is the oldest continually played court music in the world, and it is still being performed.
The rumbling power of the taiko has also been long been associated with the gods. Taiko are the only instruments to be found in both Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines.
As Japanese immigrated to North America a century ago, they brought taiko with them.
Taiko are now part of the universal musical language, drawing our world closer together.
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LES TROIS NOTES DU JAPON - Toshio Mashima
I. La danse des grues (Tancho cranes' mating dance)
2. La riviere enneigee (Pensive scenes of winter)
3. Le fete du feu (Nebuta festival)
This spectacular suite, written for the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, offers three visions of Japanese environment and life that, while Eastern in motivation, are resoundingly modem wind orchestra in style. Brilliant flourishes of the Tancho cranes' mating dance, pensive scenes of winter, and the forceful urgency of the Nebuta festival's taiko drumbeats are backdrops to this lush and demanding display of technique and emotion.
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Composer Bios
Itaru Sakai
Mr. Sakai was born in Osaka, Japan in 1970. At the age of four he started taking piano lessons. Two years later, he wrote his first piece for the piano. In his high school band he played the flute. It was then that he composed his first piece for wind orchestra, “Tananba” or The Seventh Night of July. In 1990 he entered the Osaka College of Music and studied composition under Hideki Chihara and Kunihiko Tanaka. He graduated at the top of his class in 1994 and continued to earn a master’s degree in music two years later. In 1997 he was chosen to be a staff composer for the 52nd national Sports Festival. He continues to produce works for wind orchestra each year.
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Bruce "Mui" Ghent (Taiko Artist/Composer/Choreographer)
Bruce "Mui" Ghent earned a degree in Modern Dance/Choreography from CalArts
in 1990 and went on to perform with notable dance and theater companies such
as Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co. and Berkeley Repertory Theater.
He
began his study of Taiko (Japanese Drumming) under Grandmaster Seiichi
Tanaka in 1993, where as a principal member of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo,
he toured internationally and performed with some of the great masters of
Traditional Japanese Folk Music. In 1999, Bruce created and directed Somei
Yoshino Taiko Ensemble, a professional touring Taiko ensemble, and
performed with the group until 2004.
Currently, he serves as resident Taiko Instructor/Composer at Dance Mission for GRRRL Brigade, and Dance Brigade for whom his work was nominated for a 2000-2001 Isadora Duncan Award. He also holds the position of Program Director for Olympic Gold Medalist-Herb Perez's Gold Medal Martial Arts Center in Foster City, CA.
Toshio Mashima
Mr. Mashima
was born in 1949 in Tsuruoka City, on the island of Honshu, Japan. He started school as an Engineering major but switched to music at Kanagawa University. He studied composition and arrangement with Bin Kaneda and jazz theory there with Makoto Uchibori. After graduating in 1971, Mashima worked as a trombonist, playing in both Jazz and Pop bands. He went on to become an assistant of Naohiro Iwai, developing his skills as a composer for wind orchestras.
His own works are now distributed worldwide. Mashima has also written chamber music and several Big Band Jazz pieces. Lately, he has composed for both TV series and films. He is active as an Instructor at the Sobi of Institute of Education as well as a Special Instructor at the Yamaha Music School.