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Train to Okinawa

Train to Okinawa

Riley Kōho Lee
Riley Lee - RLPGCD01
2000

Track Title Kanji Length Artist
1  Play Button Romchay 05'58 Shakuhachi: Riley Kōho Lee
After many hours of playing sparse, meditative music together, it was time for something 'rich, romantic and cello-like'. Half an hour later, Peter had composed a theme which, with an improvised part on the shakuhachi floating above it, forms the opening and closing sections of this piece. The middle section, based loosely on the theme, is an entirely improvised duet variation, reminiscent of European baroque counterpoint.
2  Play Button Requiem Six Twenty 05'35 Shakuhachi: Riley Kōho Lee
The lush, cavernous acoustic quality of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Perth orchestral studio, '620' made it a pleasure to record this music there. The building, however, is soon to be bulldozed as the ABC moves to smaller premises, due to Government cost-cutting. This piece was named as a reminder of almost 40 years of musical and technical excellence associated with this studio.

The shakuhachi part is Riley's arrangement of the piece "Tamuke" (offering, or prayer) from the Zen Buddhist repertoire. It is traditionally performed as a prayer for the safe passage of one who has recently departed from this life. Peter composed the cello part.
3  Play Button Train to Okinawa 07'25 Shakuhachi: Riley Kōho Lee
The melody of "Train to Okinawa" uses a five-note scale commonly heard in traditional Okinawan music. The islands of Okinawa once formed an independent country with its own culture, including language, music and dance. It is impossible to return to those times, just as it is impossible to catch a train to Okinawa, even a train as slow as this one.
4  Play Button Yinjarrah 06'52 Shakuhachi: Riley Kōho Lee
'Yin' is the name given to the Japanese scale used in the piece, and 'jarrah' is one of the best known native forest trees in south-western Australia, where these recordings were made.
5  Play Button Portrait 14'49 Shakuhachi: Riley Kōho Lee
Not a portrait of Dorian Grayling, but rather, a spontaneous piece in the dorian mode. Over a single-note drone on the cello, the theme slowly unfolds with extensive, freely improvised variations, including a celtic excursion.
6  Play Button Iberia 07'03 Shakuhachi: Riley Kōho Lee
Using a scale commonly heard in flamenco, this piece is based on El Sueno (The Dream), by Andy Rigby and Riley Lee for harp and shakuhachi on the CD "Nalu". Peter composed a pizzicato accompaniment to Riley's new arrangement of the melodic line.
7  Play Button Lullaby 03'53 Shakuhachi: Riley Kōho Lee
Riley composed the shakuhachi part a number of years ago and refined it while working with Peter, who created the cello part. It is a simple melody which a mother might create on the spot, almost unconsciously, humming her baby to sleep.