Entwine – finding music within a poem.

Natasza Kurek

Entwine – finding music within a poem. Exploring musical interpretations of Japanese Tanka by Yosano Akiko What can be the contemporary musical expressions of tanka poetry from a standpoint of an improvising jazz vocalist? What are the elements that constitute tanka’s character and can they trigger a vocal inspiration? What could be the place of Japanese poetry within other artistic disciplines? In my research I have explored Japanese aesthetic sensibilities and have tried to find their translations into my own musical experimentation. After initial study of the relevant literature and listening to the existing works of both classical Japanese music and Western contemporary compositions influenced by the Japanese arts, I have proceeded with my own vocal- instrumental Sketches in which I have experimented with improvised and written music. My source material was tanka of an early 20th century poet Yosano Akiko. The improvisations and compositional sketches are based on some specifically chosen elements: the imagery and meaning of the tanka poem, layered Ukiyo-e printing technique, sound associations derived from the paintings, Japanese language sonority, Japanese scales and harmony used in the traditional gagaku ensemble and other inspirations. The final research document contains audio examples of the recordings that led to the final audio-visual presentation and an extensive paper documenting the process of discovery.

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Doubt

Swifter than hail

Lighter than a feather

A vague sorrow

Crossed my mind

“Tangled Hair” Yosano Akiko

Ingredients:

tanka, voice, double bass, shakuhachi flute

This poem started as a vocal improvisation lingering over a double bass motif in 7/4. The rhythmical pattern was intentional from the start as I wished to expose the rhythmicity of the tanka, which is almost always using 5 and 7 beat phrases. That steady, dance-like groove that was created has served as a pulse for two pentatonic motifs. The scales used were the koto practised scales of katakumoijoshi and kataiwatojoshi.

In the melodic improvisation I have played with these scales employing some of the shakuchachi techniques, such as:

- bending the tone down and returning to the original pitch furikiri

-accelerating vibrato yuri

-fast broken cries repeated on one note which normally are performed by a finger movement over the hole of shakuhachi covering it abruptly called ren-on, which I have copied by stopping the air flow on the level of my vocal folds

- extensive air attack muraiki

-the stylistic figure of keeping my tone straight (vibrato being a conscious choice in some other moments) was already established by the previous experiments with the sho translations into voice use.

Swifter Than Hail - song fragment

The sparsity of melodic exchange between myself and the flute was also a choice, since I was looking for withheld emotion as conveyed in the poem, the space of wabi and tense understatement.

Choosing to keep the recording neutral in the use of reverb (all musicians enjoy the same length of reverb and delay), keeping us all at almost the same volume levels and restricting the arrangement to only three monodic instruments gave an unexpected colouring and an atmosphere similar to jazz recordings of the 1960’s. You may think of Krzysztof Komeda ^9.1 , Jeanne Lee ^9.2 or the beforementioned Jack Kerouac with Zoot Sims and their “American Haiku”.

Swifter Than Hail - improvisation fragment

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