Customer Reviews

Koto Music

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This CD of Japanese music can be enjoyed by listeners who are not familiar with this instrument or with oriental sounds.

If you like Philip Glass, you will be mesmerized by it.

Miyagi's compositions are brilliant,and Tadao Sawai is a koto vituoso.

What more could you ask for? Music composed by one of the twentieth century's greatest koto composers performed by one of the same century's greatest koto players. Needless to say, this is a fine CD. The music is refined and beautiful and yet full of high energy...some of the tracks skip along at breakneck speed, while others have a more subtle, latent power to them. I especially found "Seoto" (track 5) to be incredibly moving, almost haunting, but all of the tracks have their own strengths, and Sawai knows how to bring these out in his inspired virtuoso performance. The focus on a single composer is also helpful, giving the listener a good sense of Miyagi's range and versatility: even his first extant composition, "Mizu no Hentai" (1909), is included, but postwar masterpieces like "Tegoto" are not neglected by any means. His invention, the 17-string koto, is featured, too.

Those who are averse to the traditional style of Japanese singing should be forewarned. Both "Mizu no Hentai" and "Onoe no Matsu" have vocal parts with that kind of singing at its most warbling and hard-to-endure. I would be lying if I didn't admit that I mostly strain to hear past it to the koto itself most of the time.

The liner notes are pretty good (and are trilingual, in French, English, and Japanese). They have a fairly extensive biography of Miyagi Michio and succinct bios on the performers (Sawai and his wife Sawai Kazue--a noted koto musician in her own right and a disciple of Miyagi himself), and each track has decent explanatory notes. Only watch out! The English part has the tracks all jumbled out of order for some annoying reason. Refer to the back of the CD case for the correct order.

Other than that aggravating glitch, though, this is a great CD of koto music. Miyagi was well-versed in Western forms of music and incorporated these into his own style to some degree, so this may be an especially accessible album for those relatively unfamiliar with Japanese koto music. On the other hand, this album's sharp focus on an especially important and influential koto composer (as performed by consummate koto musicians themselves) makes this really an essential CD in the collection of long-time listeners. Again, what more could you ask for?

Koto Music is a beautiful blend of Japanese instrument. The title is suiting....very straightforward. I fell in love instantly.