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GORO YAMAGUCHI SHAKUHACHI MUSIC: A BELL RINGING IN THE EMPTY SKY NONESUCH EXPLORER CD BY CLIVE BELL Goro Yamaguchi (1933-99) studied the shakuhachi with his father, Shiro Yamaguchi, during the second world war, and quickly rose to recognition as a leading player. In 1967 he taught for a year at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and while in the US recorded two honkyoku pieces in New York: “Sokaku-Reibo” and “Koku-Reibo”. In 1969 these appeared on an LP in the Nonesuch Explorer Series, titled A Bell Ringing In The Empty Sky (the title taken from a colourful pseudotranslation of “Koku-Reibo”). Now Nonesuch have reissued the album on CD as part of their gradual re-release of the whole Explorer Series. The two tracks remain the same; the sleeve notes are unedited, though a bio of Yamaguchi has been added; but the wonderful monochrome psychedelia of the LP sleeve, in which a crane appears to fly through a geisha’s hair-do, has been replaced by a 1961 photo of a tiny fishing boat on the Inland Sea. It’s probably hard to overstate the impact of Yamaguchi’s original LP in the West. One has to think back to a benighted generation when not only had no one ever heard a shakuhachi, but the idea that Japanese music might have depth to it, that it might have a rigour that could stand alongside European classical performance, was thrillingly new and taboo-busting. Inviting Yamaguchi to teach at Wesleyan was a pioneering move, and A Bell Ringing was the first widely available recording of a completely new music. It took its place alongside Ravi Shankar, Stockhausen and Hawkwind on the shelves of discerning record buyers, and aspiring music-makers and composers marvelled at its qualities. By 1977 a portion of the recording was included on a compilation of “Earth Music” aboard the Voyager II spacecraft. Having conquered hip record stores, Yamaguchi was off to new galaxies. How does Yamaguchi’s record stand up now, forty years on? The first thing you notice is the overall length: at under thirty minutes, this is what we would now term an EP. Nonesuch clearly had no extra material in the vaults to flesh out the CD version. Having said that, Yamaguchi’s versions of these classic pieces are unusually long: “Sokaku” at thirteen minutes and “Koku” at fifteen represent extended explorations. The sleevenotes, despite being written by respected ethnomusicologist and broadcaster Fumio Koizumi, are misleading and, when it comes to scales, hilariously inaccurate. However there is an honourable tradition of album notes getting these things wrong, and if a sleevenote writer starts talking about scales it’s almost guaranteed that what follows will be nonsense. 10
Yamaguchi performs both pieces on a 1.8 shakuhachi. His playing always has poise; it is elegant and cool to the point of chilliness. “Sokaku” (Depicting The Cranes In Their Nest) is largely static, in that Yamaguchi stays in one small pitch area for a long time, but highly ornamented – a picture of young cranes bickering at home and not taking flight. After ten minutes the piece calms down and moves to the lower octave. “Koku” spends more time in this lower octave and is generally slower and more meditative. It’s also a warmer, more human performance, and Yamaguchi’s playing features some lovely, subtle dynamics. Even at the date of its first release, a Western listener might have judged that Yamaguchi’s shakuhachi style was not the only game in town. In 1967 the New York label Lyrichord issued Japanese Masterpieces For The Shakuhachi, an LP of five pieces from anonymous monks at Kyoto temples (this is also available on CD). At the time this may have seemed an inferior record: the performances are rough and unsophisticated, the sleevenotes dodgy as ever (Fuke monks are termed “tootling preachers”), and the vinyl pressing of poor quality. Now things look a little different. Yamaguchi represents a shiny new breed of player, both refining and formalising the old techniques so that the instrument is ready to don bow tie and tails, as it were, and enter the Western concert hall. Lyrichord’s unnamed tootlers, on the other hand, are playing on their home ground. The two monks playing “Koku” are inside the Meianji temple, and their temple bell is incorporated into the track. This music has some function in their daily life, and plenty of meaning as an activity: not a show for an audience but a spiritual exercise. Whereas Yamaguchi’s music floats free in an empty sky, divorced from context. What is it for? It’s for consumption, live or on record, by the new audience, according to Western models of art music. The effect of Yamaguchi’s record on his Western listeners is one thing, but what about its effect on Japan? By 1969 Japan had invested pretty much a century in a massive adoption of Western culture and technology. Beginning with the import of brass bands, new musical ideas had taken root: the importance of playing in tune; formalised and fixed versions of pieces; large groupings of instruments, or orchestras; and concert halls where the audience politely listens in silence. Any of these notions would have astonished our old friend, the tootling Komuso player beneath his basket hat. But by the 1960s Japanese performers of European classical music were receiving international acclaim, Toru Takemitsu was on the point of acceptance as a world class composer, and the figure of the globetrotting concert hall soloist was completely familiar to Japanese audiences. Yamaguchi’s performance, highly polished and beautifully recorded, slots into place as an early step in 11
Page 1 and 2: EUROPEAN SHAKUHACHI SOCIETY Newslet
Page 3 and 4: E.S.S. Summer School 2007 by Adrian
Page 5 and 6: another five years to utilise!). We
Page 7 and 8: At lunchtimes, the trail of cars wo
Page 9: The E.S.S. AGM was held during the
Page 13: A Shakuhachi Adventure in Japan by
Page 16 and 17: In the grounds of Sojiji is the gre
Page 18 and 19: Okuda said he had a 2.5 jinashi nob
Page 20 and 21: Après seulement deux leçons, un a
Page 22 and 23: épouse. Je suis heureux de dire qu
Page 24 and 25: Meine Shakuhachi - Reise begann, al
Page 26 and 27: Ich fand einen ruhigen Platz unter
Page 28 and 29: egannen, Koku zu studieren. Okuda s
Page 30 and 31: monastery, 8 o'clock breakfast, at
Page 32 and 33: gibt, wie ich jetzt weiss, mindeste
Page 34 and 35: Fritz Nagel, Shakuhachi Spieler und
Page 36 and 37: centre. Just as I arrived, two peop
Page 38 and 39: amazing sounds, while Vlastislav wo
Page 40: For me, the Prague Summer School wa

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