Percussion Axiom TV: Episode #54: "Keiko's Legacy..."

[M7sus4]

explain the piece, I think that if you played it we'd know that you'd build intention and release and go toward the moment and release, great, good job, great, keep playing

[tburritt1971]

Thanks so much for the encouragement!

[LonStetz]

It's amazing how much ignorance there is in the percussion and music community regarding this music, how to interpret it and why people perform this music in a certain style with certain mallets (two tone, canary concerto malletechs, stevens two tone mallets etc.)...These compositions especially Mirage are some of the greatest works ever written for Marimba...This is a great post and it really put a smile on my face...Thank you.

[LonStetz]

Thank you!

[thesearchableable]

Historically, pieces that are revered, remembered, and written about are the ones that innovated and moved music in a new direction. This is why we're not still talking about Louis Gottschalk but Varese is taught in virtually every music history class in the country that touches on the 20the century.

Almost all Japanese marimba music is typically important only to percussionists and lies outside what's considered historically important music. Emotional content has nothing to do with it.

[whereitruns]

Great point thesearchableable! Why doesn't anyone here seem to understand this?

[juanperc]

@thesearchableable Emotional content has nothing to do with it?? what japanese pieces do you play to say that? Japanese music ( as all good music) is full of emotion.

[whereitruns]

So are we saying that PATV is encouraging its listeners to champion historically irrelevant music?

[whereitruns]

It seems like you are saying that it's not possible to write about music in terms of its 'emotional content'.

[WildcatDrummer8]

Also, if you reply, I'm not going to reply back. I'm not going to reply back.. I'm not going to argue with you. Just wanted to share my opinion.

Sincerely,

Colby

[WildcatDrummer8]

A professional who makes these videos for PATV for the sole purpose of his love of teaching and spreading his love of percussion to people of all ages and lifestyles. I take a look at YOUR youtube account to see that you created the account for the sole purpose of critiquing professionals, YET, you lack a single video to show your playing level, or a single sentence to describe your education background.

[frontensemble077]

I couldn't have said it better! Dr. Burritt is providing such a great resource to percussionists everywhere and we appreciate it.

[whereitruns]

"to people of all ages and lifestyles"---what do you mean by this?

[whereitruns]

What does someone's 'playing level' have to do with it? Are more advanced players somehow better people than less advanced players?

[WildcatDrummer8]

I think I'll jump in on this one also... I guess you could call me a "lurker" since I usually watch the videos and love them, but tend to not comment because I'm too shy to throw myself out there. However, to "whereitruns" and "thesearchleable," your comments have compelled me to jump in on this one... Whether you agree or disagree with Dr. Burritt, the manner in which you flaunt your opinion is rude and offensive. Who are you to address a professional in such a manner?

[whereitruns]

Is this the same professional that needed a crib sheet to remember the titles/composers/dates of the important pieces in the marimba repertoire? If this music is in fact so important, shouldn't this level of information be something that one just knows? I'm not trying to be disrespectful here, I'm just asking a question.

[whereitruns]

The only reason I mentioned it was because he doesn't usually use crib sheets. It seemed to be an anomaly to me. How am I criticizing PATV? Should PATV simply be a bunch of people who agree about everything? Thoughts?

[whereitruns]

It's amazing to me how upset you are. I thought PATV was about having vigorous conversations about percussion music. I provide some historical context for the show's topic, and I'm accused of being 'confrontational' and 'pretentious'. Are all percussionists this close-minded?

[whereitruns]

Interesting, because you suggested that Sueyoshi was not conservative 'in a historical context or otherwise'. I just provided some context for Japanese music in the 60s. The marimba is absent from this history.

[whereitruns]

Let's not forget too, especially in a PATV video titled 'Keiko's Legacy', that she played a critical role in the movement to 'standardize' percussion instruments (in this case the marimba). Her work with the Yamaha corporation in 1963 was done explicitly to remove the 'inconsistencies and lack of focus' in folk percussion instruments. The irony is deep here, because some 40 years we see PATV promoting its own line of signature mallets.

[whereitruns]

If one examines the history of Japanese music between 1962 (Conversation) and 1971 (Mirage) with a particular eye for what was genuinely radical, one is struck by the fact that Miyoshi and Sueyoshi played non-existent roles in those developments (i.e., the Group Ongaku, the concerts at the Sogestu Art Center, the composers Toshio Ichiyanagi and Yasunao Tone, Cage and Tudor's visits to Japan, the New Direction Ensemble, the work of Yoko Ono, etc.).

[whereitruns]

If you're still convinced that a work like Mirage is not a conservative work by a patently mainstream contemporary composer, I'd point you toward the book 'Radicals and Realists in the Japanese Noverbal Arts' by Thomas Havens and chapter 9 ("Screaming against the Sky") of 'Sound Commitments: Avant-Garde Music and the Sixties' by Robert Adlington.

[chriswilson]

I think this is a fantastic video. A lot of extremely good points, and a very educated background on composition.

I'd probably say my favorite composition is Tanaka's Two Movements for Marimba. I think it's very Stravinsky-an in nature. I love the horizontal direction it has, and I especially love how aggressive it becomes after the choral.

[thesearchableable]

This bias against atonal (it's "hard to understand", etc.) and experimental music is very confusing to me when, as percussionists, our entire repertoire was composed in the 20th and 21st century.

While the majority of Japanese marimba music is technically "atonal", I'd hardly consider it "challenging" or "hard to understand". I don't like to pander and assume my audience knows nothing.

To answer the question: I prefer Maki Ishii's marimba music because his music is not regressive.

[tburritt1971]

Agreed! I offered this episode in part to ENCOURAGE our younger listeners to investigate this repertoire. My content will NOT be stuffy. Sorry it was clearly too basic for you.

You must be a monster player if you aren't challenged by something like "Mirage". The minute I think something is easy and not challenging is the minute it becomes about me and not my art. That is pretty disrespectful.

I also love Ishii's music. We will program his Concertante in the spring. Thanks for the comment.

[thesearchableable]

I didn't mean challenging for the player - of course I don't think that music is easy to play - I meant that musically it is fairly conservative compared to what was going on in the 50s and 60s in modern music.