Friday, October 22, 2010

What's in a name?

It seems that koto player Izumi Fujikawa, shamisen Yumiko Minoda and I have formed something of a performance trio with the intention of spreading the sankyoku word.  We will likely be leaning more heavily on modern music than traditional as can be heard in our second performance together on November 20th at Kumamoto Castle in Kumamoto City, Japan.  We'll be doing two pieces by American composer Marty Regan called Shinonome no uta which appeared as the first track on my CD Silent Letters, Secret Pens that I did together with Izumi, and Dragon Eyes that we perfomed in October.  The third piece is an adaptation of a koto solo piece that is quite frenetic.  The koto part has been written, but the shakuhachi and shamisen parts will be largely improvised.  I'll have more on that later.
That all being said and good, our trio still needs a name.  I'm open to any suggestions you might have.

4 comments:

  1. Nothing with bamboo, moon or wind in it. I love the word 'sankyoku' and would have suggested just translating it except I think it just means 'music for three'. Maybe something like Kumamoto Sankyoku Project?

    Looking forward to recordings!

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  2. Thank you for the suggestion Alex. The only problem with the word sankyoku is that it has meaning here in Japan in the traditional music world and we would constantly have to justify it. I appreciate your input though.

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  3. You want your torio's name? In English or in Japanese? How about "Wakana" in Kanji? "Wa" means harmoney, peaceful, and contains the meaning of Japan. "Kana" means play instruments. Well..I don't come up with a nice name. I want to listen your performance!

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  4. Hi Yuko,
    Thank you for your suggestion. I like the name Wakana, but my shakuhachi 'kai' is named Wakanakai, so maybe it's too close to that. You are welcome to try again though.

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