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 Miki Minoru in 1976 .

Wa appears on the following albums:

Album	Shakuhachi	Koto	Shamisen
Minoru Miki Selected Works I  (Listen)
This work was written in 1976 especially for the US-Canada tour by the Shudan Nipponia which took place from February 16th to March 19th of this year. Premier performance was given at 16 different places including Carnegie Hall. Performers included: Kohachiro Miyata/shakuhachi, Hirokazu Sugiura/sangen, Ayako Handa/biwa, Kelko Nosaka/20-string koto, Sachiko Miyamoto/17-string bass koto, Minoru Miki/ percussion. Every Japanese syllable has many possible meanings, depending on the context in which the word is used the Chinese characters actually employed. The title, "Wa" likewise is an agglomeration of various meanings associated with this sound. These include: 1. peace, harmony, totality; 2. a circle, a ring, a link, a wheel; 3. as an interjection, Oh! in the sense of one being surprised; 4. Japan. The instruments shakuhachi, shamisen, 20-string koto, percussion (shimedaiko, binzasara, kane etc.) are representative of Japanese traditional instruments. Both the prelude, where the instruments are employed at random, and the rhythmic second half have been written improvisatorially. Furthermore, despite the differences in the "atmosphere" between the two, the style of the joint performance, based on heterophyony is consistent throughout the entire work.