Published in 1664 (the fourth year of the Kambun era), "Shichikushoshinshu" is a beginner's guide to three musical instruments: the "hitoyogiri" (a type of shakuhachi), the koto, and the shamisen. It includes 12 songs and instrumental pieces that must have been well known at the time, as well as lyrics and fingering instructions. "Shichikushoshinshu" is divided into three volumes, and the third volume (the shamisen part) contains Japan's oldest published shamisen "scores."
The following is a loose translation of part of the foreword of "Shichikushoshinshu."
[The purpose of this book is to learn how to play the "hitoyogiri" shakuhachi, the koto and the shamisen without being taught by someone. It is not meant for people who already have a command of playing technique. It was written in the hope that it might be of some use to people who don't know playing technique. (This doesn't mean people who can already play the instruments will become poor players if they read it.) If you take this book's purpose into account and know the songs from memory, you will probably do fine. Practicing with this book should give you a reliable foundation for performing the pieces. This will also enable you to play pieces not included in this book. Try to envision this exciting future while steadily making your way through the book.]
An illustration in "Shichikushoshinshu" shows a biwa (Japanese lute) placed in a "tokonoma" (alcove) behind a shamisen player. The first person to play a shamisen was Kengyo Ishimura. The book says that, after playing the three-stringed instrument called the "kokyu" during a visit to the Ryukyu islands, Ishimura downsized a biwa to create the shamisen.
Because I play the cello—a four-stringed instrument, like the biwa—I thought it would be interesting to create a new instrument for this beginning-period shamisen music. The name “violoncello” appeared in print for the first time in 1665, just a year after the publication of "Shichikushoshinshu." What kind of instrument would I make? First of all I wanted it to be an instrument that any cellist would be able to play right away. (When the instrument was ready I had several cellist friends try it out, and in fact they were all able to play it immediately.)
While the book includes lyrics, it provides no information about the length of sounds, in other words things like notes. This gave me the idea of creating an instrument with a mechanism that enables the player to keep a sound going as long as they wish, provided they don't stop the sound. I decided to make the speaker unit a plectrum and use it to produce howling. In terms of where to press down with the fingers, there are instructions like “Press about five "sun" (15 cm) below” and “Press the place next to the "chibukuro" (the slightly rounded part below the shamisen's tuning peg).” But how close is “next to”? All you can do is verify the proximity as you play. In terms of the played sounds, I thought slight pitch variations might be transformed into large differences in the sounds themselves, mainly by causing accidental interference of electric circuits. In regard to tuning, I had read the following: “As you know, the shamisen is tuned to a sound from the "sho" (a traditional reed instrument); accordingly, pitch pipes used to be made by "sho" craftsmen, and some were extremely good” (from "Dohachi Geidan"). As a substitute, I made a beach ball airbag and used it to produce sound on a melodica.
I titled the CD “Paraphrase on Shichikushoshinshu.”
Born in 1982, Tomoki Tai is a Tokyo-based cellist. With a principal focus on classical and contemporary music, he is an energetic musician who performs in a wide range of genres including improvised music and early music. In addition to the cello, Tai plays self-made electric instruments and viola da gamba in performances.
Published in the Edo era (1664), "Shichikushoshinshu" is a beginner’s guide to three musical instruments—the "hitoyogiri" shakuhachi, the koto, and the shamisen—which includes lyrics and fingerings for songs believed to have been popular at the time. Tai decided to create a new musical instrument in order to perform the shamisen music in "Shichikushoshinshu" (Japan’s oldest shamisen “scores”). The result was the self-made electric stringed instrument he calls the coiled cello. In 2021, Tai held several concerts featuring performances of the "Shichikushoshinshu" shamisen scores, one of which took place at Ftarri, Tokyo, on June 20, 2021. This album contains one 52-minute performance from that concert.
While the information in the original scores is insufficient for actual performance, Tai skillfully expressed his distinctive ideas through the use of his self-made instrument, performing all ten shamisen “scores” from "Shichikushoshinshu" in their entirety. In place of a pitch pipe, he used a melodica connected to a beach ball airbag he created himself. While this instrument played flexible, sustained tones, the noisy coiled cello displayed impressive power, producing a multitude of fragmented sounds reminiscent of faulty connections. This sensational performance was born of Tai’s skill as a cellist and his powers of invention and creative expression.
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supported by 11 fans who also own “Paraphrase on Shichikushoshinshu [1664]”
Delightful album! The piano skill, with purposely driven restraint has hints of Feldman. One rarely finds such appreciation for the silence between the notes. Richard Erickson