UNACCOMPANIED FLUTE REPERTOIRE INFLUENCED

BY THE JAPANESE SHAKUHACHI: AN EXAMINATION OF THREE

REPRESENTATIVE TWENTIETH-CENTURY WORKS

by

Constance L. Kelley

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A DISSERTATION

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Presented to the Faculty of
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The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska

In Partial fulfillment of Requirements

For the Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts

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Under the Supervision of Dr. John R. Bailey

Lincoln, Nebraska

May, 2008
 UMI Number: 3297806

Copyright 2008 by
Kelley, Constance L.

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All rights reserved.

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UMI Microform 3297806

Copyright 2008 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

ProQuest Information and Learning Company

300 North Zeeb Road
P.O. Box 1346
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 UNACCOMPANIED FLUTE REPERTOIRE INFLUENCED
BY THE JAPANESE SHAKUHACHI: AN EXAMINATION OF THREE
REPRESENTATIVE TWENTIETH-CENTURY WORKS
Constance Louise Kelley, D.M.A.

University of Nebraska, 2008

Advisor: Dr. John R. Bailey

The Japanese bamboo vertical flute, known as the shakuhachi, has captured the

attention and interest of many outside of Japan since World War II. With the rising

interest in the shakuhachi has come a new trend in composition, that of unaccompanied

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repertoire for the Western silver flute influenced by the Japanese shakuhachi. Composers

have found inspiration in traditional shakuhachi repertoire, ideology, performance

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practice, or familiar shakuhachi gestures and sounds. In order to fully appreciate these
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influences, this investigation provides a brief history of the shakuhachi and an

introduction into aspects of Japanese musical culture and basic shakuhachi performance

techniques. This information is then applied to three pieces from the modern flute
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repertoire selected for their diversity in notational systems and shakuhachi techniques

and gestures represented, as well as their international span: Frank Michael’s

Shakuhachi, Shirish Korde’s Tenderness of Cranes, and Kazuo Fukushima’s Shun-san.

A formal and tonal analysis, as is relevant to such works, is also applied. It is hoped that

the knowledge and understanding gained from this discussion will permit a more

informed performance of unaccompanied repertoire for the modern flute influenced by

the Japanese shakuhachi.

 CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

ILLUSTRATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

CHAPTERS

1. INRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2. THE SHAKUHACHI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
History (5)
Musical Culture (9)
Characteristic Performance Techniques (10)
Japanese Modal Practice (14)

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3. SHAKUHACHI by FRANK MICHAEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Composer Biography (16) IE
Notational Considerations (16)
Shakuhachi Gestures (19)
Meri-kari
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Nayashi
Muraiki
Formal and Tonal Analysis (23)

4. TENDERNESS OF CRANES by SHIRISH KORDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

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Composer Biography (27)

About Tenderness of Cranes (28)
Notational Considerations (29)
Shakuhachi Gestures (30)
Muraiki
The Breath and Vibrato
Nayashi
Meri-kari
Sutebyoshi
Ornaments: Tamane, Trills, and Tremolos
Formal and Tonal Analysis (41)
Source Material (47)

5. SHUN-SAN by KAZUO FUKUSHIMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Composer Biography (50)
About Shun-san (51)
Notational Considerations (52)
Shakuhachi Gestures (53)
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Meri-kari , Nayashi, Solane

Ornamentation
Karakara
Tamane
Sutebyoshi
Grace Note
Signs and Symbols (65)
Miscellaneous (71)
Formal and Tonal Analysis (73)

6. CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During the slow and often interrupted evolution of this document I have

accumulated many depts. First, I want to thank my advisor Dr. John R. Bailey for his

unending support, inspiration, and patience throughout my doctoral program. From him I

have learned to see music differently, more thoroughly, and to be inquisitive and seek

answers. It is through him that I was first exposed to the shakuhachi when Yoshio

Kurahashi appeared as a guest artist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln during my

first year as a graduate student. My appreciation also goes out to the members of my

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graduate committee, especially Dr. Peter Lefferts and Dr. William McMullen, who have

been there with support and guidance, attended each of my performances with such
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enthusiasm, and served as my reading committee.
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I am and will be forever grateful to composers Shirish Korde and Frank Michael

for their interest and willingness to work with me on this project, their prompt responses,

and for their contribution to the modern flute repertoire. Additionally, publishers of the
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compositions included in this document were helpful in crossing any language barrier

and/or acted as spokesperson for the composers of the selected works. I am indebted to

Tsutomu Kawashima of Muramatsu and Ulrike Osterhage and Saskia Barber, both

Zimmermann representatives, who endured and answered my many emails. Thank you,

too, to the host of others too numerous to mention who have assisted my research.

Finally, to my husband, all my family, friends, and colleagues – thank you for the

endless love and support you have given me throughout my life.

 ILLUSTRATIONS

Table Page

1. Unaccompanied Flute Repertoire Influenced by the Japanese Shakuhachi . . . . . . 4

2. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes, analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

3. Shakuhachi characteristics and techniques used in repertoire of Michael, Korde,

and Fukushima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Example

1. Sutebyoshi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2. Nayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

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3. Min′yō scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
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4. Miyako Bushi scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

5. Michael, Shakuhachi Op. 38, Nr. 5, beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

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6. Michael’s accidentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

7a. Michael, Shakuhachi Op. 38, Nr. 5, Nayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

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7b. Michael, Shakuhachi Op. 38, Nr. 5, Nayashi in standard Western notation . . . . 22

8a. Michael, Shakuhachi Op. 38, Nr. 5, Nayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

8b. Michael, Shakuhachi Op. 38, Nr. 5, Nayashi in standard Western notation . . . . . 22

9. Michael, Shakuhachi Op. 38, Nr. 5, Muraiki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

10. Michael, Shakuhachi Op. 38, Nr. 5, A section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

11. Michael, Shakuhachi Op. 38, Nr. 5, decorative figure at the close of the B section . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

12. Michael, Shakuhachi Op. 38, Nr. 5, A′ section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

13. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section IV, proportional notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

14. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section I, Muraiki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

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15a. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section II, Nayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

15b. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section II, Nayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

15c. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section VI, Nayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

16. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section II, Meri-kari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

17. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section IV, Meri-kari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

18. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section II, Sutebyoshi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

19. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section I, Tamane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

20. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section Vb, Tremolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

21. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section Vb, Tremolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

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22. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes, Min′yō scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
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23. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section VI, melodic material from Section II . . . . . 45

24a. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section IV, third gesture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

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24b. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section VI, third gesture, edited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

25. Korde, Tenderness of Cranes Section VI, final gesture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

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26. Fukushima, Shun-san, notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

27. Fukushima, Shun-san, opening phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

28. Fukushima, Shun-san, second musical event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

29. Fukushima, Shun-san, third musical event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

30. Fukushima, Shun-san, mid-point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

31. Fukushima, Shun-san, Nayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

32. Fukushima, Shun-san, Nayashi with Meri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

33. Fukushima, Shun-san, Karakara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

34. Fukushima, Shun-san, Karakara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

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35a. Fukushima, Shun-san fourth system, Karakara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

35b. Fukushima, Shun-san eithth system, Karakara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

36. Fukushima, Shun-san, Tamane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

37a. Fukushima, Shun-san, Sutebyoshi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

37b. Fukushima, Shun-san, Sutebyoshi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

38. Fukushima, Shun-san, Grace Note Ornamentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

39. Fukushima, Shun-san, Key excerpt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

40. Fukushima, Shun-san, Sound Amalgam #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

41. Fukushima, Shun-san, Sound Amalgam #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

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42. Fukushima, Shun-san, Sound Amalgam #3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
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43a. Fukushima, Shun-san end of ninth system, Sound Amalgam #4a . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

43b. Fukushima, Shun-san end of tenth system, Sound Amalgam #4b . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

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44. Fukushima, Shun-san eleventh system, final Sound Amalgam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

45. Fukushima, Shun-san, Tremolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

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46. Fukushima, Shun-san, Whistle Tone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

47. Fukushima, Shun-san, end of introductory material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

48. Fukushima, Shun-san, end of the third and fourth systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

49. Fukushima, Shun-san, beginning of the ninth and tenth systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

 GLOSSARY

Bushi – Persons born samurai.

Fuke – A late seventeenth/early eighteenth century Japanese religious community

organized by unemployed samurai.

Gaikyoku – Outside pieces; secular repertoire for the sankyoku trio.

Hachi – A Japanese measurement for one-eighth of a shaku.

Hitoyogiri – One-node cutting; single section cut [of bamboo]. A sixteenth century
ancestor to the shakuhachi.
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Honkyoku – Basic pieces; original pieces collected from mid-eighteenth century komusō
temples.

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Karakara – A characteristic shakuhachi performance technique; similar to the
korokoro technique, this tremolo is performed by rapidly tapping the first hole.
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Kari – A characteristic shakuhachi performance technique which raises a pitch by
altering the blowing angle and/or tightening the embouchure muscles.
Additionally, pitch may be altered with the use of cross-fingerings or partially
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covering finger holes. Kari is often spoken of in conjunction with meri.

Katakana – The Japanese shakuhachi music notation.

Kasaiki – A characteristic shakuhachi performance technique that begins as a semi-

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explosive attack which sustains a breathy tone.

Kinko – Kurosawa Kinko (1710-1771), an important pioneer of the shakuhachi.

Responsible for compiling, arranging, and composing honkyoku.

Komosō – Traveling beggar-priests from the sixteenth century identified by the rice-straw
mat and instrument (hitoyogiri) they carried.

Komusō – Japanese traveling priests from the eighteenth century identified by the baskets
worn over their heads; priests of emptiness and nothingness.

Korokoro – A characteristic shakuhachi performance technique; a tremolo executed by

quickly opening and closing the first two finger holes by alternating the
corresponding fingers.

Koto – A thirteen-stringed plucked zither.

Ma – Space, silence.
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Meri – A characteristic shakuhachi performance technique which lowers pitch by altering

the blowing angle and/or loosening the embouchure muscles. Additionally, pitch
may be altered with the use of cross-fingerings or partially covering finger holes.
Meri is often spoken of in conjunction with kari.

Meri-kari – A characteristic shakuhachi performance technique of lowering or raising the

pitch.

Min′yō – The “folk song” scale; a pentatonic scale produced by uncovering the holes on
the shakuhachi one at a time from the bottom up.

Miyako Bushi – The “urban melodies” scale; a scale used in traditional shakuhachi
repertoire that requires the use of meri.

Muraiki – A characteristic shakuhachi performance technique produced by an extremely

explosive charge of air blown into the instrument, creating a sound of part wind
and part tone.

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Nayashi – A characteristic shakuhachi performance technique which gradually raises a
pitch by a half-step without changing the fingering but rather by altering the
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blowing angle.

Ryū – A style or way; school.

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Samurai – Knights of feudal Japan; an aristocratic warrior from twelfth century Japan.

Sankyoku – A secular chamber ensemble that consisted of the koto, the shamisen, and the
shakuhachi.
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Shaku – In Japan in the eighth century, a measurement equivalent to about 44

centimeters. The twenty-first century measurement equivalent is 30.3 centimeters.

Shakuhachi – A Japanese bamboo flute.

Shamisen - A three-stringed plucked lute.

Shibui – Austerity, plainness.

Shinkyoku – New style pieces.

Solane – A characteristic shakuhachi performance technique of a light, airy tone without

the violent intensity of muraiki.

Sutebyoshi – A characteristic shakuhachi performance technique of repeating a single

tone in a rhythmic fashion by use of finger tapping which begins slowly and
accelerates to a very rapid speed. The tapping ends abruptly with a single strong
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tap on the main tone which is then sustained.

Tamane – A characteristic shakuhachi performance technique that is a trill-like effect

produced by allowing the tongue to flutter; much like the flutter-tonguing
technique used by western instruments.

Tozan – Nakao Tozan (1876-1956), an influential teacher of the shakuhachi and

composer of shakuhachi repertoire, particularly sankyoku gaikyoku.

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The Japanese bamboo vertical flute, known as the shakuhachi, has captured the

attention and interest of many outside of Japan since World War II. Musicians of all

sorts, non-musicians, ethnomusicologists, and others have been drawn to the beauty,

artistry, history, and music of the instrument and its performers. Evidence of this

mounting interest is seen through the number of shakuhachi societies that have been

established, the international festivals held to celebrate the instrument, and the annual

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summer camps that have appeared recently. The very first shakuhachi society, The
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International Shakuhachi Society, was founded nearly twenty years ago in England,

1988. Since then, regional shakuhachi societies have shot-up around the world in
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Australia, British Columbia, the Netherlands, and throughout the United States, which

further indicates the growing patronage for the instrument. In addition, Bissei-Cho,
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Japan hosted the first World Shakuhachi Festival in 1994, which was followed four years

later by the second World Shakuhachi Festival held in Boulder, Colorado. And now,

preparations have begun for the fifth international shakuhachi convention to be held in

Sydney, Australia in 2008. In the United States in 1998, The Shakuhachi Summer Camp

of the Rockies established its annual appearance and soon after, in 2001, The East Coast

Shakuhachi Camp followed suit.

The shakuhachi has also enjoyed recognition among members of the international

flute community. Though the shakuhachi does not share its genealogy with the

transverse flute, it has been welcomed among flutists with its contributions to the 2005
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National Flute Association Convention activities and related articles appearing in recent

editions of The Flutist Quarterly journal and Flute Talk magazine. Additionally,

advertisements for the shakuhachi have begun appearing regularly in The Flutist

Quarterly, 1 and in The Flute Network (a non-profit organization newsletter).

Experimentation has even begun with physically combining the shakuhachi with the

modern flute, which has resulted in an instrument called the shakulute. 2

The interest in the shakuhachi is far reaching in scope. People are seeking an

historical knowledge of the shakuhachi, the skill for crafting new instruments,

shakuhachi teachers, and new compositions and recordings that include the shakuhachi.

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There has also been a wave of new compositions written for the transverse flute that are
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in some way influenced by the shakuhachi. Composers such as Elizabeth Brown, Kazuo

Fukushima, Shirish Korde, Wil Offermans, and Toru Takemitsu have used traditional
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shakuhachi repertoire, ideology, performance practice, or familiar shakuhachi gestures as

points of departure in creating contemporary compositions for the Western flute. In order
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to replicate, or at least approximate, the shakuhachi sounds and gestures in their

compositions for solo flute, each composer devised their own system of notation, as a

standard set of notation for such gestures is not available. For instance, Frank Michael

uses a combination of traditional music notation and proportional notation together with

his own fingering system in his solo flute composition entitled Shakuhachi. Similarly,

Shirish Korde uses a mix of traditional music notation with proportional notation in his

1
Monty H. Levenson, “Tai Hei Shakuhachi: Japanese Bamboo Flutes,” The Flutist Quarterly 31, no. 3
(Spring 2006): 77. The first appearance of an advertisement for the shakuhachi in a flute related
publication.
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Ibid. The Tai Hei Shakuhachi company is a maker of the shakulute, a shakuhachi headjoint for the silver
flute which fits the standard C or B foot, alto, and wood flutes, thus turning the transverse flute into a
vertically played instrument.
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composition Tenderness of Cranes. Korde’s notation differs from Michael’s in the

symbology he uses to replicate traditional shakuhachi gestures, whereas Michael

accomplishes the same thing through the use of alternate fingerings. A third and very

distinctive notation is found in Kazuo Fukushima’s piece, Shun-san. While the balance

of traditional notation to proportional notation is fairly even in both the Michael and

Korde compositions mentioned, Fukushima utilizes a much greater quantity of

proportional notation. In addition, Fukushima incorporates an interesting system of

graphics he acquired from reading Bruno Bartolozzi’s monograph, New Sounds for

Woodwind.

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While there is not an abundance of repertoire for unaccompanied flute written
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with the influence of the Japanese shakuhachi, the impact of the instrument on the

repertoire is noticeable nonetheless. Table 1, below, demonstrates a forty year span in

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which the shakuhachi has made an impression upon solo flute music and the distance it

has traveled among composers. Shakuhachi influences in modern flute repertoire have
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been expressed by composers of Asian, German, Dutch, Indian, and American descent.
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Table 1. Unaccompanied Flute Repertoire Influenced by the Japanese Shakuhachi

Date Composer Title Publisher
1967 Fukushima, Kazuo Shun-san Muramatsu
1971 Takemitsu, Toru Voice Schott
1973 Gaber, Harley Kokû American
Composers
Alliance
1989 Takemitsu, Toru Itinerant Schott
1990 Michael, Frank Shakuhachi Op. 38, No. 5 Zimmerman
1992 Korde, Shirish Tenderness of Cranes Neuma
1999 Brown, Elizabeth Trillium Quetzal Music
1999 Offermans, Wil For the Contemporary Flutist: 12 Zimmerman
studies for the flute with
explanation; Honami; and
Tsuru-no-Sugomori

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To enable the deciphering of the non-traditional notation briefly described above,

as well as that found in the other works listed in Table 1, the performer should have a
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certain level of knowledge about Japanese musical culture and shakuhachi gestures.

Until now, a study integrating shakuhachi techniques with unaccompanied flute

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repertoire influenced by the shakuhachi to this extent has not been available. To

facilitate analyzing the shakuhachi gestures found in the unaccompanied flute repertoire,

the tradition and performance practice of the shakuhachi will be explored first. This

information will then be applied to analyzing and deciphering the unique languages and

notation used, and the characteristic shakuhachi techniques or gestures intended, in the

following compositions: Frank Michael’s Shakuhachi Op. 38, No. 5; Shirish Korde’s

Tenderness of Cranes; and Kazuo Fukushima’s Shun-san. A formal and tonal analysis

for each piece as can be applied to such non-traditional twentieth-century works will be

included.
 CHAPTER 2

THE SHAKUHACHI

History

The advent of the shakuhachi to Japan occurred in the eighth century as an

imported member of the court orchestra from China. This instrument had six finger

holes, five on the front and one on the back for the thumb. Its tube was straight from end

to end and it ranged in length from about 44 centimeters for the standard sized instrument

with a lowest pitch near f ′ to 34 centimeters with a lowest pitch near a′. The Japanese

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name for this import came from the standard length of the instrument; 44 centimeters was
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about 1 shaku plus 8 tenths of another, hachi, that when put together formed the name for

the instrument, shakuhachi. When the holes of the early shakuhachi were opened in
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succession, the result was a close approximation of a Western European major scale,

which was in line with Chinese modal practice. 3 Eight of these early instruments survive

today in a museum in Japan. 4

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Documentation of the shakuhachi in manuscript or pictorial form is very lean

from around the time it was dropped from the Japanese court orchestra in the tenth

century. Eventually, the shakuhachi died out of use, as well, and was never successfully

revived. 5 However, an instrument of similar construct to the early shakuhachi appeared

in literature and in use near the beginning of the sixteenth century, ultimately known as

3
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., s.v. “Japan,” 832.
4
Ibid. They are preserved in the Shōsōin, the eighth century imperial repository in Nara, Japan. A detailed
description of these flutes and their measurements can be found in the book Shōsōin no Gakki (Musical
Instruments in the Shōsōin), Shōsōin Office ed., Nihon Keizai Shimbun Sha, Tokyo, 1967.
5
William Malm, Traditional Japanese Music and Musical Instruments, The New Edition (New York:
Kodansha International Ltd., 2000), 167.
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the hitoyogiri. In the early to mid-sixteenth century, the hitoyogiri was associated mostly

with high ranking members of Japanese society such as Buddhist priests, bushi (persons

of samurai birth), and groups called komosō. The komosō were wandering beggar-priests

who were identified by their meager baggage, a straw mat and an instrument, a

hitoyogiri. 6

Hitoyogiri literally translates as ‘one-node cutting’, meaning there was only one

bamboo node in the whole length of the instrument. According to Riley Lee, “[s]ources

before the mid-17th century such as Taigenshô [a 1512 authoritative music encyclopedia]

W
and Tanteki hiden fu (短笛秘伝譜, Secretly transmitted scores for the short flute), written in

1608 and attributed to Ômori Sôkun (大森宗勲, 1570-1625) do not use the term hitoyogiri,
IE
even though the instruments being discussed are clearly made with a single node.” 7

Instead, the terms shakuhachi or ‘short flute’ are used for this one node version of the
EV

instrument. The term hitoyogiri no shakuhachi was first used among academia to

represent the one-node instrument in “Shichiku shoshinshû (糸竹初心集, Collection [of

PR

pieces] for Beginners for Strings and Bamboo), a teach-yourself book for hitoyogiri,

shamisen and koto written in 1664 by Nakamura Sôsan (中村宗三).” 8 The hitoyogiri had

only five very small finger holes, four on the front and one on the back for the thumb, and

a range of about an 11th due to its short length. Therefore, the challenges faced when

playing this instrument involved an extreme difficulty in altering pitches and their quality

6
Ibid.
7
Riley K. Lee, “Yearning for the Bell: A Study of Transmission in the Shakuhachi Honkyoku Tradition,”
(Ph.D. Thesis, University of Sydney, 1993); available from
http://www.rileylee.net/Thesis14Mar06%20Folder/chp3.html (18 of 56).
8
Ibid. The Sôsan book is the oldest Japanese publication of printed Japanese musical scores that includes
two kinds of repertoire: 1. vocal accompaniments and instrumental chamber ensemble pieces that include
the hitoyogiri, and 2. solo pieces for the hitoyogiri.
 7

with either the shakuhachi performance technique meri-kari, or by venting (partially

uncovering) finger holes.

By the late seventeenth century a new religious community known as the Fuke

sect was organized by unemployed samurai who followed the Zen doctrine, which “aims

at enlightenment by direct intuition through meditation.” 9 The instrument of choice

among this community was the shakuhachi which, in contrast to the hitoyogiri, was

longer, had a much thicker wall, a flared bottom end, and in time it became known as the

fuke-shakuhachi. The shape and structure of the new fuke-shakuhachi was a consequence

of using the strong root end of the bamboo. In addition, these developments are believed

W
to be the result of the instrument’s use as a defensive weapon by these former samurai

priests.
IE
At that point in Japanese history, country-wide travel was restricted. The ex-
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samurai turned to “the cover of religious asceticism to gain a government-approved

monopoly on the use of the shakuhachi in begging for alms, in exchange, apparently, for

serving as government spies.” 10 They were known as komusō (successors of the komosō
PR

from the sixteenth century), priests of emptiness and nothingness, and traveled freely,

wearing basket-like headgear that hid their faces to symbolize emptiness and their

removal from the vanity of the world. Though the hitoyogiri was still in use throughout

the seventeenth century, a solo repertoire developed simultaneously for the fuke-

shakuhachi, which was used mainly in meditation and by the wandering komusō.

Eventually the hitoyogiri was replaced by the fuke-shakuhachi by the end of the

9
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1985), s.v. “Zen.”
10
Grove, s.v. “Japan,” 833.