The International Shakuhachi Society

Home

Schools

Discography

Lineage Charts

Pieces

People

Glossary

Other Sites

Teachers

Governors

For Sale

Member's Area

This is a Modern piece . This piece was composed for shakuhachi by Reimann, Michael in 1988 .

Tears of Heaven, The appears on the following albums:

Album	Shakuhachi	Koto	Shamisen
Voices from Afar - Voices From Within  (Listen)	Blasdel, Christopher Yohmei
There are probably no two instruments more disparate than the piano and shakuhachi. The piano, a product of European rational scientific thought and the industrial revolution, is highly refined and mechanically perfected; the representative instrument of the Western civilization. The shakuhachi is... well, you read the foreword. Both players must respect and compliment the characteristics of each instrument. In relating to the piano, the shakuhachi should never try to imitate a western flute; the shakuhachi's intense, concentrated tonal power is sufficient to hold its own in this duet. Michael Reimann, a pianist/composer from West Germany, composed this piece on commission after having studied the shakuhachi in Japan in 1988. "The Tears of Heaven" was premiered at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland in October, 1989.