Koto Music of Japan - Music for Japanese Instruments

"Compositions of Yoshida Seifu"

Various
Toshiba - TM 5060

Track	Title	Kanji	Length	Artist
1	Inori (Seifu)	祈り	04'50	Shakuhachi: Sasaki Sōfū Shakuhachi: Watanabe Kōfū Koto: Hanabusa Emiko Koto: Yoshida Kyōko Koto: Yamaguchi Eiko
	(Adoration) When the Polish nobleman, Count Lubiensky, visited Japan in 1925, he commissioned this music for a bellet of his creation, inspired by ancient Greek sculpture, expressing the chaste devotions offered by the Athenian maidens to their gods. The music takes the following form: Intorduction - The chaste devotion of the maidens - Joy that the gods will answer their prayer - Terror that their prayers may not be answered - Confidence that their prayers, if sufficiently fervent, will surely be heard.
2	Kamome	かもめ	03'25	Shakuhachi: Hirokado Reifū Koto: Kanashima Sachiko
	(Sea Gulls) As dusk quietly falls over the water, a boatman rows home, singing to himself the Song of the Pack Horse Driver. The melodies of familiar boat songs, the rhythm of the oars, and the cry of the sea-gull are all woven into the music.
3	Komoriuta (Seifu)	子守唄	04'02	Shakuhachi: Watanabe Kōfū Koto: Yoshida Kyōko
	This piece is in three sections : Lullaby, Love's Dream, and Grief. The music is full of sadness and expresses the feelings of a young mother who has lost her husband. As she sings a gentle lullaby to her little orphaned child, memories of past happiness flow thorugh her mind like a dream, and she is finally overcome with grief.
4	Ogawa no Hotori	小川のほとり	03'30	Shakuhachi: Yamakawa Naoharu Koto: Yoshida Kyōko
	(By the Stream) This piece describes a gentle spring day with birds singing and the sound of a babbling stream.
5	Yamaji (Seifu)	山路	04'07	Shakuhachi: Hirokado Reifū Koto: Kanashima Sachiko
	(Mountain Path) This piece is based on the folk-song "Yama Oiwake" (The Sound of the Mountain Pack-Horse Driver) and describes a mountain path in late autumn when the red maple leaves are falling. The sound of the horse's hooves and the jingle of bridle-bells mingle with the deep note of a distant temple bell.
6	Umi	海	08'25	Shakuhachi: Sasaki Sōfū Koto: Yamaguchi Eiko Koto: Yoshida Kyōko
	(The Sea) In the early autumn of 1931, the composer went to the United States to give recitals of Japanese music and dance, but after the tour, in March, 1932, he fill ill in Los Angeles. Before his recover, as he lay at death's door, the turbulent vicissitudes of life seemed to him like a great ocean, and it is this impression that he has attempted to convey in this composition.