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Oh No Shima

青の島

[Genre]Modern
[Composed]Koto - 1989

Oh No Shima appears on the following albums

Album Artist
Play ButtonVoices Phantasma - Flame Koto : Yoshimura Nanae
OH-NO-SHIMA is the word which meaning is quite similar to the word, NIRAIKANAI, spoken in Okinawa Islands.

Pelog mode which seems to have its origin in India and Ryukyu mode, what a wonderful common term they are! The species of mode came up to North from South in six thousand years ago, still remain mysteries. Why didn't this mode invade Japan proper, north of the Amami Islands..?

In this work, Ryukyu mode is a kernel, various executions with 20 strings-koto such as tremolo by finger without a pick, pizzicato with pp in the same way, changing a pitch simply by pushing and releasing or poking, and so on. They are used freely and produce a sound space with warmth and energy, which have something in common with MINAMI-NO-OH by their subtle interval, timbre, rhythmic lag between two Kotos. In the aspects two kotos intimately finishes. I hope to own jointly a feeling as like a yearning for south which we all have.

(Nanae Yoshimura, Yoko Naito commissioned work. First performance: Jun. 23, 1989)

- Tokuhide Niimi