Wednesday, November 16, 2011

飛躍 (Hiyaku-to leap forward)


This is the first section of one of the koto pieces I have recently studied.  My part was the second part, I could not find a recording of both parts played together, which is unfortunate because it is stunningly beautiful.

Here is the first page of music.  Each measure is a "box."  There are thirteen strings, each assigned a kanji character.  The first ten are simple numbered one through ten.  The last three strings are "toh, ee and kin."  I am not sure why...  The strings kanji are as follows from lowest to highest-ichi to kin.

一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九, 十、斗、為、巾。

My part, the second (which is what I am playing the video),  is the part on the left.  The music is read top to bottom, right to left.  I have added further explanations of some of the notations in blue. 


Since this piece is several pages long, I just recorded the first and last sections.  Here is the ending:


There are also many, many ways to tune the koto.  This piece has a more "major" sound to it whereas Sakura sounds "minor." 

More to come!
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