Shakuhachi Master - John Singer
29. SHIKA NO TOHNE
(THE DISTANT SOUND OF DEER: A DEPICTION OF THE LATE FALL MOUNTAIN)
This is one of the most famous Kinko Ryu Honkyoku pieces. In addition, the Japanese Ministry of Education decided to use this piece in their musical textbooks.
"Shika No Tohne" describes a scene in deep autumn when the voice of the male deer calls for his female deer mates. And this type of descriptive scene has been used in poetic material since the time of the "Kokin Washu" (an ancient poetry anthology).
"Shika No Tohne" can be played as a solo piece, however, in a duet, the ending of one musical phrase overlaps into the beginning of another. This piece can be divided into five parts. After the introductory phrase of the whole piece, the first part is that which is played with the special "Mura-Iki" technique with the octave rising. Part two takes in part one, moreover, four individually characteristic melodies develop. Emotionally, part two is the climax of the entire piece. In the third section, the previous high feeling is succeeded and then every phrase intensifies. Then, to our surprise, the first melody re-appears abruptly. In part four, the melody proceeds calmly and the fifth part is brief, concluding the whole piece. In this concluding part, it is as if, rather than viewing deer, the focus is changed to that of the scenery deep in the mountains where the leaves on the trees have turned red and yellow. This is felt because the ending of "Shika No Toneh" is so calm.
This piece was transmitted to Kinko by Ikkei-Shi.
John performs this piece on his album Zen Shakuhachi Duets.
Copyright 2001 John Singer. All rights reserved.