Marty Regan: Forest Whispers . . . Selected Works for Japanese Instruments, Vol. 1 (review)

The traditional music of Japan (hogaku) has long been of interest to composers, performers, and scholars from other countries. In the United States, this interest was stimulated first by the presence of musicians within the Japanese immigrant community, and later by the establishment of Japanese music studies at several universities. Since the mid-twentieth century a number of American composers have been drawn to Japanese music, a notable early and influential example being Henry Cowell, whose “The Universal Flute” for solo shakuhachi (1946) and “Koto Concerto I” (1961) were extraordinary works in their time.

In the years after World War II, Japanese composers who had trained in Western composition turned their ears to traditional music and started to work with and challenge hogaku artists in new directions. Subsequently, composers and performers from other countries have, in growing numbers, pursued serious study of Japanese music and have forged fascinating encounters with musicians in Japan. Indeed since the latter twentieth century, a remarkable transformation has been taking place, as instruments like the shakuhachi and koto that were typically associated with a particular place and time are increasingly part of the contemporary global music community. Forest Whispers . . . Selected Works for Japanese Instruments, Vol. 1, a 2009 recording on the Navona label featuring works by American composer Marty Regan, is a telling example of this exciting new musical landscape.

Mr. Regan, an Assistant Professor of Music at Texas A&M University, studied at the Tokyo College of Music and has maintained strong associations with a circle of talented composers and performers in Japan. His study of and deep respect for the music are evident in this fine recording of five pieces from his large repertoire of works for Japanese instruments, spanning the period from 2001 to 2008. These works are sensitive to the idiomatic character of the instruments, generally utilize a pitch collection characteristic of Edo period hogaku, and reveal an aesthetic that one cannot help but describe as romantic, even nostalgic—like much of Japanese music itself. In this recording the composer is collaborating with a group of wonderful music artists representing different generations of hogaku performers, who bring the music to life with sincerity and skill.

The first track on the recording, “Song-Poem of the Eastern Clouds,” composed in 2001, is an early work that set the composer on a path to explore a Japanese aesthetic within a personal framework. Scored for shakuhachi and 21-string koto, the piece is strongly influenced by shakuhachi honkyoku and tries to capture that tradition’s time sense, one built on breath cycles rather than on a metered pulse. In the digital program booklet accompanying the recording, the composer describes his efforts to create a “proportional notation” system of “rhythmic indeterminancy” appropriate to shakuhachi music. This understated work begins with alternating solo parts for the two instruments that nicely reflect their innate qualities and that basically adhere to the scale structure of the traditional music, as do the ensemble sections which follow. Seizan Sakata on shakuhachi and Reiko Kimura on koto seem to enjoy the freedom to express a musical sensibility they know so well within a contemporary setting. In terms of both compositional structure and musical character the work is somewhat reminiscent of Teizo Matsumura’s influential 1969 composition, “Shikyoku (Poem) 1.”

“Song-Poem” and the final piece on the CD, “Forest Whispers,” form complementary bookends for the recording as a whole. Forest Whispers is a more recent work from 2008 that updates the composer’s ongoing search for a distillation of Japanese music aesthetics, and for a notation system that can more accurately reflect the nuances of the style. This work, scored for shakuhachi and cello, benefits from fine performances by Mr. Sakata and by cellist Asako Hisatake. The work again opens with a shakuhachi solo, this time with tonal material that veers slightly away from the traditional. The cello solo which follows echoes the shakuhachi in melody, phrasing, and...