Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

As I recall, he was in pretty good form, but smoking quite heavily. He also looked somewhat better than the image on this video would indicate.

Last edited by edosan (2010-08-14 23:24:35)

Justin wrote:

He seemed unusually short of breath. Was he OK at that time?

Where are you hearing the shortness of breath? He seems to be opening his mouth wide, I assume in order to keep the inhales from making too much sound. After about 5 minutes of very energetic playing he does make a gasp or two, but I find it hard to call it shortness of breath. There are also a few times at the end where he lets his posture break. Maybe this is a last ditch effort to squeeze out more air in those spots, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's a technique he's using to get a little punch at the end of the phrase. It sounds to me that he's getting some nice, long phrases. I know I don't know the piece or the music, but it still seems hard to believe someone could come away from a performance like this saying he seemed short of breath, so I have to ask what is it you are hearing that I'm not?

shaman141 wrote:

Radiognome-If you don't know the piece or the music then perhaps that could be the reason why you don't recognize a shortness of breath.

So do you know the piece and can you hear it?

Yes Radiognome. Are you in the process of informing yourself about the piece now so that you can bestow more wisdom down upon us?

shaman141 wrote:

Yes Radiognome. Are you in the process of informing yourself about the piece now so that you can bestow more wisdom down upon us?

Can't you just tell us uneducated folk where you hear the shortness of breath? That's what I asked from Justin. It sounds like awesome playing with great breath support to me.

radi0gnome wrote:

shaman141 wrote:

Yes Radiognome. Are you in the process of informing yourself about the piece now so that you can bestow more wisdom down upon us?

Can't you just tell us uneducated folk where you hear the shortness of breath? That's what I asked from Justin. It sounds like awesome playing with great breath support to me.

Hi Radiognome,
I have to admit when you said:

radi0gnome wrote:

I don't know the piece or the music

I was rather put off answering your question.
Josh, yes well explained. Musically it is fantastic as usual. But I think we who've studied the piece might feel that he had less breath than at other times, resulting in shorter phrases, and therefore more breaths - quite possibly due to the altitude. However the music is in no way negatively effected. Many students can't play at the same speed+phrasing as is usually taught (regardless of piece or school) and the changes they make (more breaths for example) are more often than not to the detriment of the music. But as Josh pointed out, Yokoyama clearly knows his limit and plays each phrase accordingly, keeping each breath as an excellant musical expression and maintaining the integrity, unity and beauty of the piece as a whole. It takes great skill to do this.