solo shakuhachi (2018)
Premiere performance: August 4, 2018, World Shakuhachi Festival 2018, London
Elizabeth Brown, shakuhachi
duration: 7′
program note
Dialect is inspired by the continual evolution of language. As we learn the solo shakuhachi pieces of Kinko-ryu in order, new phrases appear gradually, and a phrase that’s ‘new’ when you learn a new piece becomes an old, familiar friend in subsequent pieces. This music is also influenced by shamisen ornaments and characteristics. The system of learning the form by playing with your teacher face to face, with the teacher carrying you along through incompletely notated (compared to western notation) pieces, without a lot of explanation, is like general language acquisition – mimicking what you hear, with grammar absorbed through hearing/speaking and familiarity. I’ve slowly developed some of my own shakuhachi phrases and gestures over the years, and hope Dialect shows how they formed.