Sound of Distant Deer
" This CD is a collection of songs combining shakuhachi and cello, in solos and duets, both traditional and modern. Nyogetsu plays shakuhachi with cellist Gideon Freudmann. There are four pieces composed for this CD using duets of these two instruments. There are also 3 improvisations between the two performers that they call "Cellohachi"."
Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin
Gadfly Records - Gadfly 506
1998
| Track | Title | Kanji | Length | Artist | |
| 1 | Shika no Tōne (Kinko Ryū) | 鹿の遠音 | 10'50 |
Shakuhachi: Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin | |
| This is perhaps the most famous of all the Honkyoku (Zen Buddhist original music for Shakuhachi). The time is Autumn, it is the mating season, and from two different mountain tops in the ancient city of Nara, a male and female deer are calling to each other. | |||||
| 2 | Slippery Lettuce | 04'46 |
Shakuhachi: Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin | ||
| During the recording session, when we took a dinner break, Ronnie attempted to pour some dressing on his salad. The dressing slid off a big leaf of lettuce and onto the table He said, "that's some slippery lettuce," which inspired Gideon to create this funky, bluesy morsel of aural ruffage. | |||||
| 3 | Psalm of the Phoenix | 10'52 |
Shakuhachi: Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin | ||
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Composed by Edward Smaldone I. The indomitable spirit of the Phoenix is portrayed in a wide-ranging series of scenes that are alternately dramatic, prayerful, ecstatic, bluesy, and Zen influenced. Edward Smaidone (b f956) received the 1993 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is an Assistant Professor at the Aaron Copeland School of Music at Queens College, CUNY. | |||||
| 4 | Cellohachi - Part 1 | 04'04 |
Shakuhachi: Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin | ||
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Composed by Gideon Freudmann & Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin. Gideon and Ronnie intended to play an improvisational number together from the outset. They recorded three short pieces and decided to keep them all as a suite. See if you can hear the nod to the tune "Summertime." | |||||
| 5 | Cellohachi - Part 2 | 03'35 |
Shakuhachi: Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin | ||
| See Cellohachi - Part 1 | |||||
| 6 | Cellohachi - Part 3 | 02'04 |
Shakuhachi: Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin | ||
| See Cellohachi - Part 1 | |||||
| 7 | Ajikan (Itchoken) | 阿字観 | 06'51 |
Shakuhachi: Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin | |
| This honkyoku is supposed to represent the Zen concept of "seeing with the heart”. It is about "seeing the original sound", a special sort of vision that is associated with enlightenment. | |||||
| 8 | Scivias | 07'25 |
Shakuhachi: Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin | ||
| This melody draws on a chant by the 12th century mystic, Hildegard of Bingen, and borrows its title from her "Book of Mysteries". Jeffrey Lependorf (b 1962), best known as a composer of operas, is also a master of the shakuhachi and has composed extensively for the instrument. | |||||
| 9 | Lost Together | 07'03 |
Shakuhachi: Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin | ||
| Composed by new music composer Murray Hidary of New York City. | |||||