The Making of ‘Aegean Fishing Port’
The first half is about ‘no rhythm’, and the second half is about special timbres.
– May. 13, 2024
Nov. 2, 2022 : Composed
May. 13, 2024 : Published ⇒Aegean Fishing Port Blog
This is a ‘no rhythm’ song. When I looked it up in order to write this article, I learned that it’s called ’ametric’ in musical term. But the term isn’t familiar to me, so I’ll use ‘no rhythm’ here . First, take a look at the score of beginning.
Playing of above score
The time signatures change as 8, 5, 7, 5, 6 for every measure. This doesn’t mean that the rhythm changes. This song has no rhythm.
‘No rhythm’ is rare in Western music, but it is very common in classical shakuhachi solo songs. I would like to write a little about no rhythm and shakuhachi playing.
Shakuhachi scores are written using a unique notation. There aren’t written the length of notes obviously, and performer plays the notes with the length he wants. There is no concept of a consistent measure of length, nor is the accent repeated measure by measure.
Performer can have any length of silence before starting the next phrase. The silent period is called ‘Ma’; the literal meaning is ‘space’. It’s not the musical rest. It is the time of mental preparation for the next phrase, and it is also a musical element that expresses the best time to start the next phrase. So, the ‘Ma’ must be silence, and its length is the musical expression of the performer.
Also, the performer can take the time for breathing as long as he wants. If he wants to start the next note strong, he will breathe deep enough for the strength and length, and take the time to do so. In Western music, breathing should be done in a momentary pause between measures, because it’s a hindrance to the music. However, deep breathing in shakuhachi is also an act of calming the mind.
Getting back to this song, I found the first recording which was played when the song came to mind.
The first song that came to mind.
At that time, I didn’t have a specific theme, and vaguely played the feeling of the Mediterranean. Listening to it now, it seems like I was trying to make a certain rhythm.
I then searched for a photo that would go well with this sound and found the cover photo above. The next recording is the song I played while looking at the photo, which showed the clear water and empty fishing boats swayed by the calm waves.
The song I played while I was looking at the cover photo.
Listening to this, I notice that the theme has been specified as ‘fishing port’ or as ‘fishing boats’ by the photo. And the song has already no rhythm. It was because of the whimsical waves on the photo, but it was also true that the photo evoked my free feeling of rhythm, that I had had.
What I was worried about 😅 was how to transcribe this performance into staff notation. At first I tried to write it into the score in fixed time signature. But should it be 6/4 or 4/4? After analyzing the song I played, I found the average was 5/4, and wrote the score below.
Because I forced the song all into measures of the same length, there are fermatas all over the place. It’s unnatural, and I realized that I didn’t really want to write a song in 5/4. So I rewrote it as below.
I wrote the time signature for each measure, but I was not trying to say that each measure had a different number of beats. I just transcribed the length of the notes I played. The meaning of each measure was that if it played by shakuhachi it was the phrase that should be played in one breath.
The blue marked periods which has no melody are the ‘Ma’. From this score, you can see that the ‘Ma’ have different lengths. And red marked notes have accents. You can see that they are not on the ordinary beat. But this is just a record ‘I played like this’. If you play this song, please play all the lengths and the accents as you want.
Reading this writing, some people may say, “If you want to make the song Japanese style, you should use Japanese musical notation.” But this song is almost Western music. Because the musical scale and the concept of harmony come from Western music. This song cannot be written in shakuhachi score at all, which has different scale and no concept of harmony. But the staff notation can describe this song. So this is almost Western music.
There are many songs that have rhythm in old Japanese songs, but some have no rhythm. I think the reason is those songs don’t have the origin in dances, but developed from praying or reciting poems. And to tell the truth, classical shakuhachi songs are not music. They were the means of spiritual practice in Zen, not for fun or art.
The next is about the timbres. For this song, I wanted to express the warmth and clarity of the Aegean Sea not only through pitch or rhythm, but also through timbre.
The blue marked harmonies resonate sparklingly when the bass is A. It’s the phenomenon that only happens near this fret.
The green marked note is played on the 3rd string, so the timbre is warm and the tone sustains. It can express the depth of the water and its color. Please take a listen.
Beginning of the finished version
I only have one guitar, so these features of timbre may be unique to this guitar. But being particular about timbres is also a fun of composing, even if it was only effective with my guitar. The marked notes were placed because I wanted to use the timbres. The reason for necessity is different from the other notes.
However, this song was not the only one that was created in a special way. The same ideas have been incorporated little by little into the songs I’ve made so far.
Coffee Song has short fermatas on the last of the 5th, 6th, 9th and 10th measures. They are not only for making the tones longer. I wanted to have the time to let me calm down. These ‘Ma’ make this song feel more relaxed, and I think that’s the distinct feature of this song.
Coffee Song : Staff notation↗️
The other song which was created particularly with the timbre is Serene Summer Night. I started the song with 3 octave apart E to express the coolness of night and the deep blue of summer night sky. It is marked purple below. The orange marked note is played with a bit warm tone on the 3rd string to express the street light flickering on the surface of the water. To make that sound more impressive, the note starts before the beat by a 16th note length.
Serene Summer Night
Although I use the Western instrument, I have lived in the Japanese culture, so the songs I make might be somewhat different from the original Western music. But I love guitar, so I enjoy creating songs on my guitar, whether they are Western style or Japanese style. This Aegean Fishing Port also includes an interlude that plays on the Western rhythm of waltz. I wanted to add the rhythm to create a fun part.
In order to write this article, I listened to the first performance I played, and I thought it was pretty good song. Maybe one day I will find another photo and complete it as a sister song, with a normal rhythm 🙂
The score and my performance of the whole song are below.
⇒Aegean Fishing Port Staff Notation↗️
† The photo shows the ‘shakuroku’ that I inherited from my father. Shakuroku is shorter than shakuhachi by 6 cm, and the notes are one higher.