European Shakuhachi Summer School 2014

18 June - 23 June 2014

The 2014 ESS Shakuhachi Summer School kicked off with an evening public concert on the 18th June in the Radolfzell Herrenhaus (political administrative building), located just across the road from the Weltkloster (World Monastery), the main location of the Summer School.

The Weltkloster building itself has witnessed a tumultuous and even sometimes violent history over its nearly 400 year lifetime with various transitions in ownership and residency dating back to 1617 with the arrival of the Capuchin monks in Radolzell. 

Aside from performances by official summer school teachers, the opening public concert also included a guest performance by 7 Komuso mendicant monks from the fuke Zen sect of Buddhism who were on tour in Europe. Interestingly the fuke Zen was flourishing in Japan at around the same time the Capuchin monks were attempting to ground themselves at the Weltkloster in Radolfzell. As can be seen in the photograph, a characteristic feature of the Komuso monks is the Tengai, a straw basket worn on the head to symbolise the removal of ego. Historically, the Komuso monks were permitted by the Shogunate of the time to travel throughout Japan playing the Shakuhachi while begging for alms. While travelling, the Tengai afforded the monks a degree of invisibility, a useful feature for those Komuso who were either Samurai or Ronin (Masterless Samurai) and employed by the Shogunate to travel incognito as spies.

ESS 2014 participants

That said, I think the Komuso who were playing at the opening concert had more innocent and positive intentions, and certainly their presence was appreciated by a large audience, including members of the public from Radolfzell and most of the approximately 40 ESS 2014 summer school participants who had made the journey to Radolfzell from as far away as Japan and Australia, as well as more locally from within Europe.

Furuya, Matama and Kakizaki Sensei's

Principle teachers at the summer school representing the KSK (Kokusai Shakuhachi Kenshukan) School of Yokoyama Katsuya Sensei, included FURUYA Teruo, MATAMA Kazushi and KAKIZAKI Kaoru from Japan. 



The Zensabo and Minyo schools were represented by Kiku DAY (Denmark), the Tozan school by Jean-Francois LAGROST (France), the Kinko school of Yamaguchi Goro by Gunnar Jinmei LINDER from Sweden and, KIKUCHI Naoru from the Sawai school of Koto. Additional teachers at the summer school included: Véronique PIRON (France), Horacio CURTI (Spain), and Vlastislav MATOUSEK (Czek Republic).
 

Group playing Murasaki Reibo

The morning's program started at 8am with a one hour session of Zensabo Shakuhachi meditation with Kiku Day. These sessions were well attended and in addition to exploring the concept of Shakuhachi in meditation, the group worked on traditional pieces such as Kyorei, Shingetsu and Sou Shingetsu over the three subsequent days to practice what they had learned.  


Robuki (Blowing the note Ro as a warm up) then followed in the Herrenhaus at 9am for all participants. These sessions lasted 30 minutes and ran in to the individual school sessions as outlined previously i.e., KSK, Kinko, Zensabo, Tozan, Improvisation and Minyo and Koto. 

I joined the Intermediate and Advanced KSK classes to work on the pieces: Sanya, Mountain Valley, Shingetsu, Daha and Reibo. In addition to these classes, I also joined the Zensabo class to work on Murasaki Reibo, the Kinko class to work on Rokudan in conjunction with Koto player Kikuchi Naoru and then collectively with all summer school participants I worked on a group piece called Gaoru, to be played the following evening at the Evangelical church in Allensbach.

Allensbach am Bodensee

After a full day of workshops, evenings were taken up with concerts in surrounding towns such as Ueberlingen and Allensbach (see photo) providing participants with the chance to not only to see something of the surrounding area, but also to perform in public, many for the first time. 

Allensbach Church, Bodensee

The final event of the summer school was the student concert, a chance for participants to perform pieces they'd been working on over the previous days.

 

Closing days in Denmark

13 June 2014

Gosh the last days commencing the weekend before departing Denmark were incredibly busy, what with getting the bike sorted ready for transport, attempting to close things down with projects in Denmark and, enjoying some social time with friends I'd made in Denmark. Talking of which, the Sunday before leaving was enjoyably spent with Wencke (my colleague from CBS and friend) taking a boat out to the Swedish Island of Hven and cycling around the Island while dodging the rain and trying to snap up a few rays of sunshine. 

  

Approaching the harbour on Hven

The Island, with a population of just under 400, is only about 10km round, maybe a bit more if you take all the nooks and crannies in to account.What was particularly interesting was a small farm museum a little way out of the harbour town of Bäckviken which is where the ferry docked. It depicts farming life on the Island at the end of the 19th Century. 

 



The upper floor of one of the large barns had been converted in to an exhibition comprising a very interesting, if not somewhat eclectic collection of all sorts of items dating back to that period - including these ice skates. I wonder what a speed skater of today would make of those!!




After a hour or so, and a missed rain shower, we headed over to Kyrkbacken for lunch on the pebble beach. We weren't alone with this idea though, with many ferry passengers having also made their way over to the Denmark-facing side by this time. 

After a couple of hours stop, the cycle ride back to the ferry around the Swedish side was in my humble opinion a little more attractive with views of the rugged coastline over to the east and green fields immediately to the west. 

Arriving at the harbour about 30 minutes before departure, left us with just enough time to sample an ice cream before sailing back to Denmark along the Oresund Straight and once again past the famous wind turbine land (see) mark of Middelgrunden about 3.5km from Copenhagen.

Sofie Spanget Takkula (Cello), Bjarke Mogensen (Accordian) and Camilla Sibani (Piano) at the Roundtower (Copenhagen)

4 June 2014

I've been waiting for this one since last Friday when I heard from Bjarke that he was playing in a concert at the roundhouse together with Cellist Sofie Takkula. 

Sofie Takkula plays Bach Cello Suite Nr 1

Since I learned that he played accordian, and then went online to listen to his playing, I've just been mesmorised by the diversity of this instrument and his ability to produce the most amazing music. First things first though. 

In addition to Bjarke, the evening also included solo performances by Sofie Takkula on Cello as well as duets with Camilla Sibani on piano. 

The evening kicked off with one of my favorites, Bach's Suite Nr 1, to which I was first introduced in prose while reading The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin.

Sofie Takkula joined by Camilla Sibani

Having read this amazing book, I was inspired to order Pablo Casals early 20th Century recording of the Cello Suites - DG digital release. 

Bach was followed by Shubert's Arpeggione Sonata (1824) a very long - too long sorry - piece which took us to the break, much needed I'm sure by Sofie and Camilla who by this stage had been playing Shubert for the past several hours - OK - 25 minutes perhaps!

Sofie and Bjarke prepare for Kraftwerk

A 20 minute break then took us to Bjarke and Sofie's duet performance of an amazing piece written by Sofia Gubaidulina called Fachwerk. Fachwerk comprises, not a duel between these two instruments, but rather, a slow passing back and forth in between shades of light and dark before the two instruments finally merge with a crescendo at exactly the same moment and position - the centre of the cross. I was left speechless by this piece. I was definitely not the only member of the audience to have been  taken on a personal journey by these two incredible musicians. As Fachwerk unfolded, I was continually reminded of the Japanese writer Murakani. Talking to Bjarke after the concert he was saying that it is very possible that the composer may have been influenced if not by Murakami then certainly by Japan. Indeed, Sofia have impacted strongly on Japan because she was awarded the Japanese Praemium Imperiale in 1998. As I write this post, I'm listening to other pieces by this amazing composer on a recording given to me by Bjarke after the concert. Aside from two encores, the main part of the concert concluded with a lovely three part Rhapsody (Rhapsodia Concertante) by Croatian Composer Boris Papandopolu.

This may have been my last concert here in Copenhagen. How privileged I feel not only to have enjoyed so many beautiful concerts, but also, I have made a few musician friends along the way with whom I am sure I will remain in contact. Tak Koebenhavn.

Hareskov trail: Mostly dry and quick!

1st June 2014

Only one more weekend to go on the trails here in Denmark before heading over to Bodensee in Southern Germany. Wanting to make the best use of time and also the sunny conditions, I headed up to Hareskov this morning for some forest fun. 

You'd think by now that I'd know these trails inside out and back to front, but no, there are so many km's of trail here, and the forest is so dense that it's easy to get confused. Well, I find it easy to get confused. Just when I think I know where I am and what's coming next - Surprise!!! I'm not at all where I thought I was and instead I'm taking evasive action so as not to take any bark off a tree! 

The conditions now 2 months later are so vastly different. No longer are the trails riddled with muddy bogs. Rather, though a little moist still, the trails are quite compact which presents a totally different ride, a much quicker one. In and out of the tree lines and over the roots and occasional logs and bridges. Its not very technical but it's a lot of fun. 

 

After a little over 20km on the trails, I headed off to the shop for my lunch which as always I make early morning to take with me. I arrive at MTB Tours to be greeted by a parade of fat bikes.

The owners were sat out having a drink so I joined them to chat fat bikes, snow riding, desert and beach riding and so on. These guys were real fat bike enthusiasts and have summer as well as winter versions. Check out the On One with the custom built lefty (above) at 160mm!  

Interestingly, the owner of this one was saying that a front suspension on a fat bike makes it more difficult to handle and can in fact be counter-productive depending on the terrain because you have the built in suspension offered by the fat tires (5 inch at 7psi) and the suspension offered by the customised (by Cannondale) fork which can kind of counteract against each other, resulting in the rider being invited to vacate the bike via the bars!! 

 
So now I know a little more about fat bikes, which will be useful next weekend when I borrow one from the shop for a few hours. Yay, looking forward to it. Notice that two of the fatties are On One's from Sheffield, UK - the same make as two of mine in Australia.

Christiania - Copenhagen's 'Alternative' Residential Zone

31 May 2014

I've heard much about Christiania since I've been in Denmark. Things like: People smoke hash freely on the streets (note the main street is called Pusher Street!), photography is forbidden and certainly not recommended 'at the risk of reprisal from residents', huge 'wild' dogs roam the streets unescorted, it's a melting pot (no pun intended!) for all sorts of weirdos (term used by a friend from Copenhagen), drug-related crime is or was high (maybe a slight pun intended this time!), there was once a grenade attack on the streets and riots used to be a frequent occurrence between residents and the Police, nobody pays rent, it used to be a military camp and when they moved out in 1971 a bunch of activists moved in having climbed over the fences, squatted, and they remain to this day, although it's fair to say that today's population of about 1000 actually own the site having bought it legitimately for 76 million DKR in 2011. All the above and more have led to Christiania becoming one of Denmark's major tourist attractions receiving over half a million visitors each year. Unconventional marketing, but it seems to have worked. Intrigued - Yes, so too was I and so GT and I pedaled down to Christiania this morning. So what did I find?

Aside from three young girls of about 14 years old giggling uncontrollably and loudly not far from the main entrance, presumably from the effects of what they were smoking, I found a busy market place where one (tourists I suppose) could buy Rasta hats, multi-coloured T-shirts, shoes, sweaters, dresses, bangles, bangles and yes, more bangles. In fact, multi-coloured was the order of the day. Christiania is an assault of colour, and when I say colour, I mean BRIGHT colour! So, if you don't like colour don't bother visiting. If you do, be prepared to be bombarded from every angle. The people, their clothes, their buildings, their bikes, their food, their drinks, their tatoos and yes, their bangles all combine to form one massive colour attack. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-colour. But, why to such Kaleidoscopic proportion? What is it an expression of? Is there an underlying fear of non-colour? What would it mean for example if a building wall was not splashed in bright colours or was absent of mantric graffiti (term used here as an expressive art form)?

OK, so, bright colours contribute to happiness. I get that, I am after-all a happiness researcher! But this is more than that. This struck me like a form of materialism, a concept the earlier settlers in Christiania would no doubt have 'activated' against. Come to think of it, I'm sure it wouldn't take too long to hear the usual anti-society rhetoric from today's residents too! Indeed, as you leave Christiania you pass under a sign that reads, 'You are now entering the EU'.  Cute - Yea, maybe!! But for me, the chuckle is short-lived. What's the underlying message being conveyed? How do these residents differ from alternative communities that have sprouted elsewhere in the world, even in my own home country of Australia? 

I'll leave you to read more about the history and the people of Christiania online, if you feel compelled to do so. Personally, I wasn't inspired by what I saw, and I certainly wouldn't hold up their model of existence as an example of natural and sustainable living. Perhaps, they don't intend it to be and the underlying message escapes me!