I’ve composed a roughly 30 minute solo piece for the hosozao as part of a much larger endeavor. I don’t play music, just write it, so the following is an east west ra recording to gain interest. If you would be interested in playing the piece, let me know and I can send you a pdf of the score. Obviously, things like hajiki, kake-bachi, soto-hazushi etc are not featured in east west ra, but I digress; you can at least tell what the piece generally sounds like. It’s divided into 6 movements, the first 5 are about 4 minutes, the last being roughly 10. Also, constructive criticism is sought. Thanks for your time!
Oh man! Awesome work! I am sorry I am on my way to a rehearsal tonight and can’t listen to more of this at the moment.
Will listen to the rest later tonight!
First nine-ten minutes sound really well structured!
Great sense of drama as well!
Good job!
Sounds almost like there is a little death metal influence at times.
Very intense in certain moments.
Whoo!! I’m still listening but just saying now that the part at 6:00 is really, really cool.
This is very well done.
I imagine it’s fine for tsugaru’s, but I don’t think it’s possible to pick all those notes on hosozao, half of those are actually left hand pizzicato since tremolos are apparently too difficult on hoso, just one of those things where EastWest doesn’t have the articulations recorded.
True, tremelo with the bachi is hard, even for futozao shamisen (Well, I still struggle with it, at least). That said, I think it sounds more dynamic with the left hand pizzicatos. Though I have heard tremelo often on modern shamisen pieces, I’ve rarely heard (maybe never) pizzicatos, so I think it’s special and should definitely be included. Just my opinion. 
anyone know of some (or know some places that I can find) hosozao shamisen players for potential performances? would be cool to hear what this piece actually factually sounds like. Hopefully in a matter of months I’ll have at least some short pieces for the other shamisen types, preferably the gidayu, tsugaru, and sanshin (not sure about chuzao yet as I’ve also got a couple more biwa pieces need writing since I have the gakubiwa piece done).
You should ask Linda Caplan. I’ll bet she knows every professional nagauta player in North America.
Oh! Joseph Monticello is a professional nagauta player in America, I believe. He is a member of Bachido.
I listened to it while working. I must say you must have put a lot of effort into making such a long score! Unfortunately I don’t have the luxury of being concentrated on the song for the whole 30 minutes while doing something else but I was taken away from my concentration and heard parts that I really liked.
It’s really too bad that the sampled shamisen is so mediocre. Is it even a real shamisen? It sounds very synthesized.
I think it’s great that people share their compositions here. The range of traditional pieces is pretty thin so we need more different music.