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Aki no Kyoku (Modern)

秋の曲

[Genre]Modern
[Also Known As]Autumn Fantasy
[Composed]Miki Minoru - Shakuhachi - 1980

Aki no Kyoku (Modern) appears on the following albums

Album Artist
Play ButtonArt of Bamboo, The Shakuhachi : Sugawara Kuniyoshi
Koto : Miyakoshi Keiko
This lyrical work was composed by Minoru Miki for shakuhachi and twenty-string koto. It is divided into two parts, "Prologue" and "Autumn Fantasy." The koto part requires technical proficiency, and the tremolos in "Prologue" and the flowing melody in "Autumn Fantasy" give it a romantic and melancholic autumn feeling. The fast shakuhachl passages, wide tonal range, and heights of the twenty-string koto composition and create a piece which flows non-stop.

Art of the Koto - Volume III Koto : Mitsuhashi Kifu
Koto : Yoshimura Nanae
Miki’s Aki-no-kyoku (Autumn Fantasy) of 1980 was chosen for its fresh approach toward melody for the nijugen and shakuhachi, and its exploration of the limits of virtuosity on the former.

Five Pieces for Shakuhachi Chikurai Shakuhachi : Mitsuhashi Kifu
Minoru Miki (1930- ) studied composition at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, he composed many works for chorus and for drama, but his most remarkable contributions are some compositions for Japanese traditional instruments. He is one of the founding members of the Pro Musica Nipponia (Japanese Music Group), and has been Music Director of this group for some time. The twenty-string koto was invented by him and the koto player Keiko Nosaka.

The style of Miki's compositions show two tendencies. The first is represented by Kurudando, which expresses the feelings of the laboring classes. The second tendency appears in Tatsuta and Saho, for twenty-strings koto; these two pieces deeply express Japanese nature. Autumn Fantasy shows this second tendency. The koto player on this disk, Nanae Yoshimura, wrote this about Autumn Fantasy in the brochure of her 1982 recital- "This piece consists of two parts, the Prologue and Autumn Fantasy. When I play the former, I imagine a quiet sunny afternoon; while I play the latter, I imagine an autumn evening in which the dark red sun is setting rapidly."

The tremolo in the first part and flowing theme in the second one are both charming. In Miki's early period he emphasized a certain roughness in his use of Japanese traditional instruments, but in Autumn Fantasy he gives them a fresh lyricism.
Play ButtonTamafuri - New Aspect for Japanese Instrument Shakuhachi Shakuhachi : Mitsuhashi Kifu