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Flutist from the East Volume 1

Flutist from the East Volume 1

"Modern works for shinobue and nohkan"

Nishikawa Kohei
Nami Records - WWCC-7280
1995

Track Title Kanji Length Artist
1  Play Button Satto 颯踏 09'48 Shinobue: Nishikawa Kohei
A work for Japanese flute and Japanese drum. It was performed for the first time in 1975 at the 25th regular concert of Pro Musica Nipponia.

The first movement uses Nohkan to evoke religious images of prayer and dance.
2  Play Button Satto 颯踏 09'52 Shinobue: Nishikawa Kohei
The second movement uses Shinobue to bring about the native feeling of festivals and dances. Percussion instruments were also used in each movement, for a religious effect in the first movement and an ethnic effect in the second movement, to efficiently express the composer's Japanese image.
3  Play Button Hinaburi ひなぶり 10'42 Koto: Yamada Akemi
Shinobue: Nishikawa Kohei
Short piece for flute and 20-string koto (Japanese Harp).

Severio Gazzelloni played flute in the first performance at the 6th Keiko Nosaka Koto recital in 1975.

As the title HINABURI means "rural", the piece opens with a flute solo in pastoral style.
Next, an expression of praising grace is presented by the koto, and little by little it turns into a rhythm of Awa dance, finally continuing into a whole section of improvisation.
The work is deftly completed by a scherzo.
4  Play Button Aoba no Fue 青葉の笛 12'04 Shinobue: Nishikawa Kohei
Extracts from Heike Monogatari
Heike Monogatari was written in the Kamakura period (l3C) and it is one of the representative works of Japanese literature.

It has been a significant source of Japanese traditional music called Katarimono, a form of story-telling through song, usually accompanied by the Biwa (lute). One part of the Heike Monogatari, "AOBA-NO-FUE", was written with the theme of the heartlessness of war. The flute arrangement by Kohei Nishikawa appeals to the character’s sentiment in the story, expressing well the sorrow in the world.
5  Play Button Hekitan No. 1 碧潭 ( へきたん )  第一番 16'55 Koto: Yamada Akemi
Shinobue: Nishikawa Kohei
This work was composed for the 16th regular concert of Kan (a group of composers), and was first performed by Kohei NISHIKAWA (Shinobue) and Teiko Kikuchi (17-strings bass koto).

Accurate, skillful technique is required for the performance of this piece and each part (Shinobue and 17-strings koto) is composed of strongly independent phrases.
Interesting Japanese traditional instruments are prominent when the two parts are combined. As a whole, one hears a quiet tension dominating, but listening closely, the romantic sentiment of the composer progressively becomes more audible.