# Nagauta Symphony, 'Tsurukame', 1934, by Koscak Yamada



## Bookman (Mar 8, 2011)

Ok, listen up people:

Download the above piece of music, available freely and without complication at http://classical-music-online.net/en/production/17337, (you may have to create a free account).

I have been listening intently, hungrily, searchingly, to classical music for 60 years, and this, in its unique way, is the most interesting piece i have come upon in oh a very long time.

I want opinions of this piece, I want to create converts, I want to hear opinions, but, please, not from anyone who has not listened carefully to this (40Mb, 17:30) piece at least three times, ok?, nor from stupids.

Admittedly the culture-shock alone makes for difficult digestion, - which it did at first for me, for I am not overly a fan of Eastern music, - but repeated playing, - for I may be old, but I am hungry and faithfast still, - makes for a very remarkable experience.

Save for a brief entry in the post: "Some Great Lesser Known Symphonies You Should Hear", this is my first, maybe my only, posting.

So: feedback, people!, but, as I say, listen thrice, employ that which the young these days so rarely possess: patience, faith! There is something, - I know not what, - in this work which can address many and diverse tastes.

Bookman


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Since you speak very highly of it, I hope I will have the follow through to give it a try sometime. Just being honest. But I would like to.


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## Bookman (Mar 8, 2011)

*Pussies!*

In two weeks: 60 views but only one limp response; seems I was too outspoken, too challenging of that courage, clearly unevidenced here, which a true listener, a true hunter after man's rare musical magics, must possess, the hunger too, - for the hungry do not, as do the fatted, look upon a morsel with first a faulting eye, - if he is to achieve a less incomplete wholeness.

I understand: style over content: my message, wanting of nicely weasel words, was taken for the medium, - an error usually occasioned simply by want of years, maturity, - and what was delivered in a no nonsense manner was invalidated by those two staples of youth: affront and petulance, which delightfully often provide very welcome distractions from serious searching for solutions, or from undertaking any endeavour which requires more than the charity of a token effort. Ah, youth will risk its very neck on a skateboard or motorbike, but to venture the mind riskless upon the commitment of an hour, no: too much work, too imperially ordered, ha!, as if taste was wholly a personal matter, when it is not.

It was all anyway an experiment, merely an exercise in powerlessness, a look into this posting and sharing phenomenon, a whim, an old fart's little hope that, despite all efforts, we are not all quite so absolutely alone in our listening as we imagine. We are, irrevocably.

Goodbye, talkclassical


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Hm I liked the piece, it wasn't really a culture shock for me at all, given that I already love Eastern music. Thanks for introducing me bookman!  Actually I just noticed this thread today. Had you stuck around a little longer you would have seen my high praise of this piece. It's too bad you were so rash about your decision to leave.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

He's still here, signed on. I actually am listening to the piece right now. I had forgotten of my "limp" non-commitally phrased, commitment. It would seem like bookman thinks that my lack of follow through speaks for the rest of the forum. 

You know bookman, I actually started a thread a while back, "a game for sharing pieces with each other." It was designed so we could all listen to each others recommendations. It took a lot of energy from me, and a lot of users really procrastinated, myself included. So I don't know what the deal is. Your strongly worded original post was compelling enough for me to want to grace it with some response, but perhaps it goes against the grain of how a lot of things are typically done on talkclassical. We are "talk-classical" after all, some sometimes we talk too much. 

However, perhaps I'll resurrect that game. Non comital, but I'm thinking about it. Now I'll stop typing and listen more actively to the piece, mind you.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> He's still here, signed on.


Oh, yes...so he is.

Hi Bookman!  :wave:


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Bookman said:


> ...
> 
> It was all anyway an experiment, merely an exercise in powerlessness, a look into this posting and sharing phenomenon, a whim, an old fart's little hope that, despite all efforts, we are not all quite so absolutely alone in our listening as we imagine. We are, irrevocably.
> 
> Goodbye, talkclassical


Does it matter if one is alone in the Universe if one is enjoying some piece?

Welcome to TalkClassical, and goodbye to you, too.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Hey Bookman,

That was very interesting. It was harmonically static in an eastern sort of way, the singing and the traditional japanese implements give it a very unique feel. Its fascinating that its so early, from 1934, relatively very early for the japanese western influenced art music scene. I know that Alexander Tcherepnin had an influence in Japan and the east, I wonder if Tcherepnin ever heard this piece?

Its probably right up violadude's alley(if you knew him and his tastes, you'd know what I'm saying), you can bet he's sincere when he said he found it interesting, and I hope you believe I am too. I was compelled enough to want to listen to it again, and am doing that right now.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Does it matter if one is alone in the Universe if one is enjoying some piece?.


Actually, HC, I think it often does. I love to share "my music" with others. It adds to my own enjoyment.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

clavichorder said:


> Actually, HC, I think it often does. I love to share "my music" with others. It adds to my own enjoyment.


Fair enough. I did my homework just now - couldn't find anything on youtube about the piece suggested by the OP.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I'm not getting a sense of culture shock from this, at all. It might be because I'm already familiar with a lot of Japanese traditional music, but this piece seems perfectly normal to me.

Further information: http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.557971


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

This was the only piece I could find on youtube by this composer. Compared to the piece in the OP, I found it disappointingly bland and generic. It still makes a nice listen though I guess.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

His last.fm bio reads:

Kósçak Yamada (Kosaku Yamada, 山田耕筰, Yamada Kōsaku), (9 June 1886 - 29 December 1965) was a Japanese composer and conductor.

In many Western reference books his name is given as Kósçak Yamada. During his music study in the Imperial German capital of Berlin from 1910-13 he hated the moment when people laughed at him because his "normal" transliteration of his first name "Kosaku" sounded like the Italian "cosa" meaning "what" or "thing" + the German "Kuh" meaning "cow"; which resulted in his choosing a somewhat fanciful transliteration of Kósçak Yamada ever since. Yamada was born and died in Tokyo.

Edit: There's even a wikipedia article on this Nagauta Symphony

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagauta_Symphony


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