An article with Motoshi Kosako
An article with Motoshi Kosako
1)My thought as harp improvisor
Improvisation
is often considered something special, unfamiliar and/or difficult to
understand by many musicians, although, upon reflection, improvisation
is probably the most common activity in our daily life. We engage in
many different activities everyday, from the time we get up to going to
bed at night. We wash our face, take a shower, our daily cooking,
driving the car, talking with others, writing emails etc. If you think
of how you do these daily activities, you would notice almost all these
activities have large space for improvisation. Using the example of
brushing teeth, it is likely we don’t follow any fixed procedure of
brushing teeth, such as number of strokes, amount of tooth paste, order
of teeth to brush, amount of water to rinse mouth and so on. We brush
teeth with the aim of “cleaning our teeth”, where there are general
guidelines but not movement by movement detailed instruction, such as 4
circular strokes on the front left tooth in both directions. Sometimes
we start from front teeth, other times from back teeth, sometimes we do a
full 2 minutes, sometimes we just need to freshen up. It all depend on
our feeling and necessity in that moment. Like that annoying small piece
of fiber from stuck between the back teeth, you may start working on
back teeth first.
The
principle of music improvisation is basically same. With knowing the
final destination, we choose the way to get there depending on
inspiration in that moment, the necessities and/or experience we want to
have on the way there.
In
our daily life, it is rather very rare to do things by following fixed
procedure precisely, although in music it is very common to play what is
already fixed as precisely as possible. In a sense, classical musicians
are tackling the very difficult task of non-improvising, that we rarely
practice when we are engaged in life activities. From this point of
view, it is very natural reaction for unexperienced performers to
struggle with fear and nervousness coming from pressure of performing
difficult piece of classical music. We get nervous and frightened simply
because we don’t do our daily activities in the way we play classical
(non-improvisational) music.
I
discovered that I am essentially improvisor by disciplining myself as
classical harpist in a past. I never got comfortable with playing
non-improvisational music. Even when I got good outcome in performances,
I couldn’t feel the strong sense of “ I am doing right.”
In
2010, I completely retired from classical (non-improvisational) music
performances and I have since solely specialized in improvisational
music. Personally, I feel more fulfillment playing improvisational
music.
I
have no intention to discuss which is “better” improvisational music or
non-improvisational music. Each musician has natural tendency either
suitable for improvisational music or non-improvisational music. Since
harpist population has never been large and the tradition of harp
improvisation is very limited both in time and space, we haven’t
gathered a large mass of improvisation specialization; the accumulated
knowledge and experiences of improvisation on harp. Frankly speaking,
the development of knowledge and skill of the harp as an improvisational
instrument is still at a primitive stage compared to other instruments
such as piano, guitar, sax trumpet and so on. This fact makes the path
of becoming harp improvisor almost invisible and so most harpist pursue
the path of becoming classical harpist no matter how suitable they are
for that path or not.
I
used to be serious Jazz guitarist before starting harp at age 27, in
1999. Within a few years I, fortunately, became a professional classical
harpist by teaching myself. In first 7 years I strictly played only
classical music, and later started applying the knowledge and experience
as Jazz musician to harp. There are many of differences between these
two instruments but the principle of improvisation and playing jazz is
same. In spite of widely accepted view of “harp is not suitable
instrument for jazz”, I think harp is as suitable for Jazz / highly
sophisticated improvisational music as any other instruments commonly
used in jazz.
My
point as a jazz harpist is to be a“ jazz musician who plays harp” in
stead of “harpist who plays jazz.” As Jazz musician, I believe in
unlimited possibilities of harp as instrument for improvisational music.
My mission is to keep a sincerely dedicate myself to the exploration of
the potential of harp for improvisational music, to introduce harp to
non-classical music community and share the achievement with fellow
harpists.
2)How much improvisation do you have in your music?
I
think there are numerous gradients between strictly playing written
music and free improvisation. I am going to discuss 4 stages of these
gradients.
Stage
1) “Strictly playing note to note as it is written”; This is how we
play classical music (including written contemporary music). Within the
written music there is a limited space for personal interpretation
allowing us to play according to the inspiration in the moment within
the notations on music. For example, you may play “Clair de lune” by
Debussy slightly different tempi every time you play, or you can play
dynamics differently depending on your spontaneous inspiration.
Stage
2) “Mostly playing fixed written notes with some ornaments and
variations on harmony”; The typical examples of this in classical music
is baroque music with figured bass. When jazz musicians play the head
(theme) of tunes, we improvise to this degree. We, jazz musicians, are
supposed to improvise ornaments on written melody lines and chose
voicing on give chords indicated by chord symbols. If we want, we can
add counter melody line that goes with the written melody.
Stage
3) “Playing improvised melody and voicing of the given chord on written
chord progression” This is the way a jazz musician typically
improvises outside of playing the theme. Beside playing melodies
improvised in the moment, we have a freedom to expand chord progression
using alternative chords, adding tension notes, and may even change
rhythm patterns.
Stage
4) “Playing music from no given structure”; This can be called
“Instantaneous composition”, while 2) and 3) can be called “
Instantaneous arrangement”
As
mentioned earlier, there are numerous gradients between these four
stages. When you try to improvise, it is helpful to understand which
stage of improvisation you are pursuing, because different stages
require different sets of skills and knowledge, and way of dividing
attention. If the improvisation is closer to stage 1) “Strictly playing
note to note as it is written”, the major focus of our attention is
necessarily engaged in following the written notes by memory and/or
reading music, a greater knowledge and understanding of the styles of
music and notations is required and more skill on playing whatever is
given to play by someone else as fluently and accurately as possible.
The closer improvisation is to stage 4) “Instantaneous composition”, the
more of our attention has to be focused on what is going on in the
moment and what seems “right”, and being aware of how it flows through
the present into the future, and more knowledge of intellectual
information about harmony and scales is required, as well as greater
skill of transforming what you perceive and feel (and/or listening to
inside of your head) at the moment into music.
When I am moved by beautiful piece of music, my interest in
understanding the structure and architectural aspect of the music is
provoked more than the desire to be able to play the piece of music
itself. Maybe for some people, the desire to play the given piece comes
first. We each have our own way to relate to music depending on who we
are.
For
example, if you are most comfortable with playing written notes and
have some interest to improvise, you can consider learning stage 2)
improvisation “Mostly playing fixed written notes with some ornaments
and variations on harmony”. If you are interested in understanding of
the process of creating music and playing written music is not your
strength, it is worthy to pursue stage 3) improvisation “Playing
improvised melody and voicing of the given chord on written chord
progression” and stage 4) improvisation “Instantaneous composition”.
By
making effort to know ourselves, we can find the right balance of how
to be involved in improvisation. In other words, through the efforts to
find our own way to engage in music, we reveal who we really are. This
aspect of “knowing ourselves”, this ultimate philosophical proposition,
is one of the biggest benefit of being a sincere musician.
Born in Matsuyama City, Motoshi Kosako started his musical career playing piano and guitar with professional jazz bands in Japan. In 1997 he moved to the United States, where he is currently the principal harpist of Stockton Symphony Orchestra, and where he received the ''Best of Sacramento''-award from Sacramento Magazine, which described that “Kosako plays with a fluid, modern style that evokes Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea.”. Mr. Kosako has released six albums: ''Celestial Harp I'', ''Celestial Harp II'', ''Living Harp'', the jazz trio-album ''Naked Wonder'' with Bill Douglass (bass, Chinese bamboo flute) and Daryl van Druff (drums), the duo-album ''Place In The Heart'' with Grammy-award winning Paul McCandless (oboe, English horn, soprano sax, bass clarinet), and the current release ''On The Way Home''.
Find out more about Motoshi Kosako's work HERE
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