Music
Type of Concert: Pau Hana; Music and Dance from Asia and the Pacific
General reaction: Overall, I was somewhat impressed with the majority of the performances. There were many different instruments, costumes, and music expressing the different cultures. There were a few musical instruments that seemed out of the ordinary, and also wasn’t very pleasing to the ears, but they did a great job. The UH students in the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Hawaiian music courses performed at this concert.
Composition I liked best: The musical piece that I enjoyed the most was the Japanese Koto, Edo- komoriuta and Sunayama. Edo-komoriuta is a well- known traditional lullaby which originates from the Edo region of Japan, written around the year of 1922. While listening to the women singing the lullaby, I was actually falling asleep! This music must definitely work for young babies/children. It was very pleasant to listen to. It was something quite different for me, but quite calming, peaceful, and just displayed exquisite sounds. There were about 6 females sitting on a stool wearing kimonos, playing some type of Japanese guitar. Their voices were very soothing and harmonizing. Other versions of this lullaby would include the piano and clarinet. The tempo of this song was of course very slow because it was a lullaby.
The Edo-komoriuta musical piece simulated the Baroque period in a sense that it consisted of only a female voice. In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, there was a taste for women’s voices and the rise of the prima donna “first lady”, which of course reminded me of this particular music piece.
The Korean dance Puch’ae Ch’um was fun to watch. It is a fan dance that has become a standard part of the folk dance collection. The fans are manipulated in many designs and patterns. The opening and closing of the fans adds many rhythmic dimensions to this piece. The female dancers wore kimonos and socks while they danced in unison with their prop decorated
General reaction: Overall, I was somewhat impressed with the majority of the performances. There were many different instruments, costumes, and music expressing the different cultures. There were a few musical instruments that seemed out of the ordinary, and also wasn’t very pleasing to the ears, but they did a great job. The UH students in the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Hawaiian music courses performed at this concert.
Composition I liked best: The musical piece that I enjoyed the most was the Japanese Koto, Edo- komoriuta and Sunayama. Edo-komoriuta is a well- known traditional lullaby which originates from the Edo region of Japan, written around the year of 1922. While listening to the women singing the lullaby, I was actually falling asleep! This music must definitely work for young babies/children. It was very pleasant to listen to. It was something quite different for me, but quite calming, peaceful, and just displayed exquisite sounds. There were about 6 females sitting on a stool wearing kimonos, playing some type of Japanese guitar. Their voices were very soothing and harmonizing. Other versions of this lullaby would include the piano and clarinet. The tempo of this song was of course very slow because it was a lullaby.
The Edo-komoriuta musical piece simulated the Baroque period in a sense that it consisted of only a female voice. In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, there was a taste for women’s voices and the rise of the prima donna “first lady”, which of course reminded me of this particular music piece.
The Korean dance Puch’ae Ch’um was fun to watch. It is a fan dance that has become a standard part of the folk dance collection. The fans are manipulated in many designs and patterns. The opening and closing of the fans adds many rhythmic dimensions to this piece. The female dancers wore kimonos and socks while they danced in unison with their prop decorated