Concerto for banjo and shamisen

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#1

Hello Bachido,

I just joined this site around 20 minutes ago, and not sure where to introduce myself so this is an intro/self-plug.

Where to start…

Background: I’m American, but grew up in Japan (Fukuoka mostly and some Kobe) before returning to the U.S. for College. I now live in Hawaii and am weeks away from getting my PhD in Music Composition.

Instrument Background: I play classical guitar, and also play banjo, ukulele, and bass guitar adequately. I have a pipa as well, but for the life of me, the “backstroke” plucking with fake nails is annoying, and I frequently just offend all of China by putting on the banjo picks and forward pluck the strings. My knowledge of shamisen is through watching mostly, application to my plucked-string background, and one semester of playing the sanshin in an Okinawan ensemble class.

Dissertation: My PhD dissertation is/was a concerto for banjo, shamisen and orchestra. Basically it’s a semi “world music tour” that blends music of the banjo, shamisen, and orchestra with various regions/music.

Here’s a link to an excerpt of the “Bluegrass Section” of the concerto. There are also sections based on Tsugaru and nagauta (as well as Dixieland, Irish, Chinese, West African, and Persian). Key word is “based on.” As in “not trying to reproduce it.”

It’s a massive endeavor, and I’m not entirely sure how practical it is for the shamisen. I know I’ve scared Kevin Kmetz off with it ;-). On paper, it passed through the dissertation defense committee, but as any composer knows, theory and application are very different. Revisions are inevitable. My biggest concern is the “upstroke” and whether it can be played smoothly (like 16th notes at 120 BPM, but not constantly, like the “tun taka tun tun” in the bluegrass example).

And finally: Today my cheap, used chuzao shamisen I bought on eBay arrived, and I’m getting to know it. Once I play through my dissertation piece and figure out exactly how impossible it is, the revisions will start.

Anyhoo, I’m exciting to start playing with my new toy!

よろしくお願いします！

~Wesley

#2

Hi Wesley,
Since I am first in, welcome to the forum!
I enjoyed the excerpt of the piece, and the shamisen part didn’t seem too hard on first listen.
About your concern: 16ths at 120 bpm are pretty easy to execute. There is a four-part action - downstroke, left hand finger pluck, upstroke, left hand finger pluck (atari-hajiki-sukui-hajiki) - that is a key technique in Tsugaru shamisen playing.

I think that you getting a shamisen is a great idea if you want to compose for it - it’s an idiomatic instrument, so the more you know about how to play it the better.
There have been some discussions here lately about going beyond the way the shamisen is typically played today, but to do that as a composer, you need to find someone who can (and wants to) play what you’ve written.
It seems to me that being both a composer and a player is the most likely way to push the instrument in directions that are new but also ‘musical’, but very few people have both the creativity and the playing chops to do this. Kevin Kmetz is one of the rare exceptions I’ve come across who has developed both of these skills.

I’d be interested in hearing more of this piece. Is the shamisen part written in western notation? If so, switching it to some form of shamisen tablature might be your first step in convincing someone to learn it.

#3

Hi Wesley. Welcome to Bachido! :slight_smile:

I agree with Gerry. The upstrokes should be pretty easy to execute, even at that speed. I only wonder if the notes can be kept sharp and clean at that speed. I think there would be an inevitable sliding sound as the finger slides down the sao. But if well rehearsed, that could probably be avoided.

When I hear this, all I can think of is Mike Penny. :wink: I bet he could totally pull this off.

Congratulations on your shamisen arriving! I hope many ideas emerge from learning it. :slight_smile:

Kyle

#4

I wrote Mike Penny, and he said he’d take a look at it, but I think I scared him off, too! It’s a MASSIVE undertaking for both the banjo and shamisen player. At this point it’s all theoretical, but if some performance is EVER possible, I think it just might take something like a year of preparation for the soloists.

I think the other thing is I could put in more stuff once I figure out what’s possible, like techniques that work really well.

Thanks for the welcomings!

#5

Hi Wesley - really enjoyed your “teaser”, hope you do get it performed some day! (BTW, if everyone’s getting scared off by the size of this work, maybe you could find several shamisen players and have them each play a portion of the piece in “relay”. [smile] Just a thought…)

#6

Hi, Wesley. Have you ever heard of Nami Kineie? She’s a nagauta player who does this sort of east/west concerto piece on her Rhapsody album. I don’t know her personally and I don’t believe she lives in the States. But she does have a YouTube channel and other social media stuff. Just thought I’d throw that name out there since she’s done this kind of work.

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