Saturday, November 24, 2012

the sound of silence


   *            *                                        *                 *
What we must pay utmost attention to is how to produce a variety of timbre from one note.  What is most important is timbre.  And this I think separates shakuhachi from other music.  It is all about timbre, basically.  -- Shozan Tanabe
Shozan Tanabe playing in the House of Torin (Torin-in) circa 2000 A.D.
 


From the DVD "The Sound of Silence", Shozan Tanabe performs at the House of Torin the music Otonai (sounds of tones) composed by Shozan Tanabe, Kogarashi (tune for shakuhachi Tozan school), Tranquility of the Great One of Truth--Sounds from the Universe, composed by Naoki Nishimura, which according to the composer includes the meaning of universe and the sound of heart, and At Times of Quiet composed by Joji Sawada.
 
Recording Engineers Yasuhiro Nishumura and Kazuta Ishiura.  Recording by Sounds U.  Audio mixer Hiroshi Kasai.  Produced by KBS Kyoto 2000.
Great nuanced recording of shakuhachi tones on this production.
 

envelope spectrum flowers

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Shakuhachi LIFE



Photos by Margaret Bourke-White 1952

Autumn Waterfall Window

An autumn evening;
The hole in the paper-sliding door
Is playing the flute.

                               --Issa