Kyogen, Day Three
Just got back from my third day of Kyogen training. We had a day off on Thursday, so I went over the lyrics to the two songs with one of the other Kyogen students, Shaiya, who goes to UCLA. Later, we went to a second Kotsuzumi workshop at the art center. While it may seem like a simple instrument, the Kotsuzumi is quite difficult to play reliably, especially when considering that most performances require the musician to hold the instrument on his shoulder and sit seiza for up to one-and-a-half hours. Youch. Afterwards, we had some delicious ramen and friend rice at a tiny restaurant just around the corner from the art center that had free comic book porn for us to peruse. Hooray!
Anyway, today's lesson was taught by our second teacher, Mariushi-sensei. He studied with Shigeyama-sensei's father, and then ended up working with him on a variety of projects. We ended up going through the script line-by-line again. I have a feeling we'll be doing this a lot, since the accent is very exact. Jonah conducted a "knowhow" workshop today on the fusion of eastern and western theatre styles and it made me wonder how one can translate a theatre form like Kyogen which is so inherently based on the rhythms of a the Japanese language. In my opinion, new rhythms would have to be created for the new language, but I might be in the minority on this one.
After a short break, we went through both songs beat by beat, which was incredibly helpful. The first song is a children's song that has a lot of peculiar rhythms, making it difficult to follow. The second is a chant about a rain god. Finally, we went over the dance steps we had learned in the previous two lessons as well as learning some new, more complicated ones. I'm better than I thought I would be at this dancing thing. Maybe I should take some lessons when I get back to the states.
As I was leaving the art center I stopped by the office to drop off some things. Higashi-san was there and she told me that Mariushi-sensei thinks that I have a very good ear for the Japanese language. Huzzah! Two out of three. Shall I go for the hat trick?
I'll try to get some more photos up soon, as I just bought a nice little tripod.
~
Anyway, today's lesson was taught by our second teacher, Mariushi-sensei. He studied with Shigeyama-sensei's father, and then ended up working with him on a variety of projects. We ended up going through the script line-by-line again. I have a feeling we'll be doing this a lot, since the accent is very exact. Jonah conducted a "knowhow" workshop today on the fusion of eastern and western theatre styles and it made me wonder how one can translate a theatre form like Kyogen which is so inherently based on the rhythms of a the Japanese language. In my opinion, new rhythms would have to be created for the new language, but I might be in the minority on this one.
After a short break, we went through both songs beat by beat, which was incredibly helpful. The first song is a children's song that has a lot of peculiar rhythms, making it difficult to follow. The second is a chant about a rain god. Finally, we went over the dance steps we had learned in the previous two lessons as well as learning some new, more complicated ones. I'm better than I thought I would be at this dancing thing. Maybe I should take some lessons when I get back to the states.
As I was leaving the art center I stopped by the office to drop off some things. Higashi-san was there and she told me that Mariushi-sensei thinks that I have a very good ear for the Japanese language. Huzzah! Two out of three. Shall I go for the hat trick?
I'll try to get some more photos up soon, as I just bought a nice little tripod.
~
posted by Matt Hooks at 9:33 PM
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