Listen – Old – Soundings

RHYTHM OF THE TIDES

(Topo)graphic Image 1

Breath inflates lungs. Drum awakens.

A little world arises atop a wooden piling in the mudflats of Tsleil-Waututh territory, also known as the eastern tip of Burrard Inlet. A tiny intertidal habitat nourished by sun and sea, bound by the rhythm of the tides. Barnacles, mussels and moss, blue-black periwinkles.

Symbiosis, reciprocity, dependent co-arising.

Ma.

Sounding 1

I inhale a world. Ōdaiko reverberates. Inviting ma.

Ocean pulses meet ocean drum. Hum of boat across salty waters. My father prepares the rods to fish. Practised movements, like breath. Achingly familiar.

Sounds of the duduk² enters. Echoes of our hospital room during labour, birthing our first child.

Tibetan singing bowl awakens.

The comings and goings of life.

Credits

Breath: Amy Newman

Duduk: Creative Commons cc0 1.0 https://freesound.org/people/ethnictune/sounds/352572 (Excerpt slowed for use in thesis.)

Tibetan singing bowl: Elaine Ginn

Chinese gong: Amy Newman

Shime³ accents: John Endo Greenaway

Conch: Amy Newman

Ocean Drum: Amy Newman

RHYTHM OF THE TIDES

(Topo)graphic Image 1

Breath inflates lungs. Drum awakens.

Symbiosis, reciprocity, dependent co-arising.

Ma.

Sounding 1

I inhale a world. Ōdaiko reverberates. Inviting ma.

Ocean pulses meet ocean drum. Hum of boat across salty waters. My father prepares the rods to fish. Practised movements, like breath. Achingly familiar.

Sounds of the duduk² enters. Echoes of our hospital room during labour, birthing our first child.

Tibetan singing bowl awakens.

The comings and goings of life.

Credits

Breath: Amy Newman

Duduk: Creative Commons cc0 1.0 https://freesound.org/people/ethnictune/sounds/352572 (Excerpt slowed for use in thesis.)

Tibetan singing bowl: Elaine Ginn

Chinese gong: Amy Newman

Shime³ accents: John Endo Greenaway

Conch: Amy Newman

Ocean Drum: Amy Newman

AWAKENINGS

(Topo)graphic Image 2

Centre of Sansho Daiko’s large Chinese gong. Nodal points of energy and connection.

Tensionality and movement. Sliver of forest. Hyoshigi[1] marks an awakening. Cassandra’s hair rushes past her rutilant cheeks as she bends towards me, offering her hand.

[1] Hyoshigi: “Wooden blocks used as clappers, similar to Latin clave, but struck at the tips,” rather than middle of the instrument (Togen Daiko, n.d., para. 20).

Sounding 2

Slow breath. Hyoshigi calls to attention.

Children’s voices at play. Tibetan singing bowl sounds.

Shakuhachi melodies bend and pulse. The in-betweenness of notes. Breath enlivens the bamboo, arouses kami.

A fragment of Uzume Taiko’s “Grace” arrives, as insects and shakers, chajchas meld into sibilant shimmerings.

Saxophone wails. Angklung[1] chatters.

[1] “Angklung is an Indonesian musical instrument consisting of two to four bamboo tubes suspended in a bamboo frame, bound with rattan cords. The tubes are carefully whittled and cut by a master craftsperson to produce certain notes when the bamboo frame is shaken or tapped.” https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/indonesian-angklung-00393

Credits

Breath: John Endo Greenaway (Excerpt slowed for use in thesis).

Hyoshigi: Amy Newman

Tibetan singing bowl: Elaine Ginn

“Untitled”: Performed by Takeo Yamashiro on shakuhachi. (Excerpt slowed for use in thesis). ©Uzume Taiko, Chirashi. 1990.

“Grace” by Uzume Taiko: Composed by Leslie Komori, tenor saxophone by Amy Newman. Excerpt performed by John Endo Greenaway, Eileen Kage and Leslie Komori.©

Uzume Taiko, Chirashi. 1990.

Shakers, rattles, chajchas: Elaine Ginn, John Endo Greenaway, Amy Newman, Emiko Newman

Alto Saxophone: Amy Newman

Angklung: Elaine Ginn

Small gongs, wind gongs: John Endo Greenaway, Amy Newman, Emiko Newman

Spoken voice: Amy Newman (original text)

ŌROSHI RELEASES INTO MATSURI

(Topo)graphic Image 3

Ōroshi calls for attention, holds space for ma to sound. Stretched hide of taiko drum. Black tacks hold skin close to the body. Images of Rakuichi, Vancouver’s mikoshi group swirl across the drum’s hide.

Seiya Seiya! The rhythmic call and answer of the assembled men and women carrying the mikoshi at the Matsuri. At the centre of the skin, the tomoe arises, retelling the circular play of the sun, moon and Earth. Crow calls punctuate the air.

Sounding 3

Ōroshi begins. Angklung accents in-between moments. Shakers and tuned gongs punctuate space. Large Chinese cymbals answer the call of the drum.

Mikoshi bearers from Rakuichi parade and jostle the kami at Nikkei Place matsuri. They call out rhythmically to stay focused and gather energy to carry the heft of the mikoshi.

Shime and josuke rhythms arise from a taiko practice at the Gold Buddha Monastery in Vancouver.

Credits

Ōdaiko ōroshi: John Endo Greenaway

Chinese crash cymbals: Elaine Ginn

Angklung: Amy Newman

Shakers and tuned gongs: Elaine Ginn, Amy Newman, Emiko Newman

Voices of Rakuichi and festival participants

Shime and josuke: Elaine Ginn, John Endo Greenaway, Amy Newman, Kanata Soranaka

Crows and ambient forest: Recorded by John Endo Greenaway and Amy Newman

“Aiiro” based on Nagamochi-uta (Traditional) by Uzume Taiko: Performed by Boyd Grealy on frame drum, John Endo Greenaway on Chinese drum, Amy Newman on alto saxophone, Bonnie Soon on riq. ©Uzume Taiko, Every Part of the Animal. 1998.

ANCIENT RETELLINGS

(Topo)graphic Image 4

Round of tree in west coast rainforest. Broken by the wrath of the storm god. Smoothed by rain and wind. Herons nest in the tall trees above. Hatchlings chatter.

Don tsuku don tsuku, don tsuku, don tsuku. This underlying rhythm folds into itself, holding layers of sounds. Birthing a song.

The crack in everything. Cohen’s light. Openings into aletheia.

Sounding 4

Amidst the moist rumblings . . . the world falls into a reverberant darkness. Uchi-wa daiko[1], chappa, ōdaiko call out to one another. Trills of sparrow. Whispers of kami, sea and sky.

Mediative drone of the alto recorder. Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto’s comedic, sensual dance on the overturned sake barrel births the first taiko drum. Rain, wind, assembled kami and the roosters awaken and join the lively ruse to lure Amaterasu from her cave.

The singing bowl carries light back to the world, keeping the story in play.

[1] Ucha-wa daiko or fan drum has a single skin “stretched over an iron frame, stitched and attached to a wooden handle” (Ben, 2014, para. 1).

Credits

Tibetan Singing Bowl: Amy Newman

Small and large wind gongs: Amy Newman

Young herons chatter with chipping sparrow trills: Recorded by John Endo Greenaway

Ancient Game Singing Bowl: Soundsnap. https://bit.ly/2WFQrNN

Studio Crowd Whispers: Soundsnap. https://bit.ly/2UXUCEh

Uchi-wa daiko: John Endo Greenaway

Ōdaiko: John Endo Greenaway

Chappa: Amy Newman

Laos river, early morning: Soundsnap. https://bit.ly/3C2cher

Taiko Jam: Elaine Ginn, John Endo Greenaway, Amy Newman, Emiko Newman

Spoken voice: Amy Newman (original text)

YET TO COME

(Topo)graphic Image 5

Yamadera. Japanese Buddhist temple rests on a mountainside. 1,015 stone steps.[1] We begin the ascent, purchase omikuji[2] (fortunes, or “sacred lot”) for five yen. Visitors who do not get a good fortune may tie their omikuji to a rope or wire in a wooden frame. This way, the bad luck will not follow us.

Blessings.

Curses.

10 levels of nuanced fortunes. In-betweenness.

We tremble in relation with all things.

[1] Live Japan (2021).

[2] Voyagin (2019).

Sounding 5

Ocean swells and sighs. The improvisatory ringing, tapping, clicks and buzzes of the chappa, in conversation with the ōdaiko and one another, punctuate the salt air.

Shakuhachi visits and recedes. Hermeneutic movement. Unexpected comings-together, pauses, folds and flutters. A sense of Gadamer’s being “completely there in it.”

Generative understandings, expressions of ma, the rumbling tensionalities of living every day with children, teachers, kin. All of us suffering the push and pull of letting go. The murmuring stream speaks. Vast unfinished worlding.

Yet to come.

Credits

Surf-close-up waves breaking on rocks: Recordist(s): Bruce Reitherman. Source: BBC Rewind - Sound Effects Natural History Unit https://bit.ly/3yj2kab

River/estuary Atmosphere - Spring, day. Many gulls calling over river: Recordist(s): Grace Niska Atkins. Source: BBC Rewind - Sound Effects Natural History Unit https://bit.ly/3C0b1sh

Alto Recorder: Amy Newman (Slowed for use in thesis.)

Chappa (small, medium, large): Amy Newman

Ōdaiko: John Endo Greenaway

Creek: Recorded locally by John Endo Greenaway and Amy Newman

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5