Whew, finally made it here and got my thoughts together somewhat.
Kevin, out of the videos you posted, I was expecting to like the Brahms best, but actually, I gotta say, I really liked the Chaconne. My feelings on the subject have changed a lot, where previously I felt that the tsugaru shamisen was best suited for fast, intense playing, but now I’m not so sure. Let’s see how well I can explain my thoughts…
Maybe it’s just a recording quality thing, but in a lot of the videos I’ve seen on youtube it seems like the tsugaru shamisen has very little sustain. Since there’s a lot of classical musical that’s based on bowed instruments with long, sustained notes, this would make the shamisen seem ill-suited to those kinds of pieces. I’ve thought about getting around that problem with tremolos, something plucked instrument players have be using for centuries. It works pretty well, I think. Anyhoo, most western classical pieces I’ve seen adapted for shamisen tend to be the faster ones, which I guess are similar enough to tsugaru to make the adaptation make sense. When suggesting songs for the new cd, I myself tended to suggest those kinds of pieces. After listening to a lot of these shamisen versions, though, I’ve come to find the scraping noise of the bachi on quick uchi-sukui runs a little harsh and distracting. It would make things less “tsugaru,” but maybe this could be remedied with a softer playing style. Additionally, you run into pitch problems when you are trying to play speedy pieces originally designed for instruments that are usually shorter and/or have more strings (violin), or are just pitch-perfect (piano). Jumping around on the larger shamisen with only three strings makes accuracy more difficult, and this is especially problematic when playing western classical because it places much more importance on pitch accuracy than eastern music. But hey, if you can do it, more power to ya.
Anyway, after thinking and playing around some more, I now feel like actually, no, the shamisen has great sustain, it’s just distributed a little differently. The ichi-no-ito has amazing sustain, especially played open with the sawari. Then, the sawari mixed with the other two strings opens up some great sustain and harmonic possibilities. The ni-no-ito has less sustain but still has a certain deep character, and then the san-no-ito has the least sustain (and yet still seems to get the most play in traditional tsugaru pieces, but then again, those tend to be fast so you don’t notice it as much). I’ve been experimenting with a play style that has a more soulful, lamenting quality to it, and I’ve often ended up with stuff that sounds a lot like oud improvisations. Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK5FJZOi9u4
There’s a lot about the oud playing style that I think suits the shamisen. The way they will often be playing a higher string but occasionally intersperse a single sounding of a lower string definitely works on the shamisen, and then the fretless nature of the instrument allows for a little more flexible in pitch and tone. I’m no expert on the oud, though, so I’m sure there’s a lot I don’t understand.
Anyhoo, back to western classical. Like I said at the start of this post, I was really surprised by how much I liked the Chaconne. It was something I hadn’t heard before, and it really opened my eyes to how powerful the shamisen can be even in silence. In trying to think of speedy, tsugaru-like pieces from the western classical repertoire to adapt, I had completely forgotten about how important silence/space (“ma,” 間) is in traditional Japanese music and the Japanese aesthetic in general. I liked the range of styles shown in the piece, from slower, paced out bits in the start to faster playing later on. I felt like it showed the potential of the shamisen more, whereas other, faster pieces can sometimes seem to me to just be “Oh hey, they’re playing that piece on the shamisen. That’s funny.”
Sooooo… yeeaaaaah… There’s my long ramble. I feel like this conversation would be a lot easier in person…
