Mizuyo Komiya - LULLABY[2000]

Imagine lying in a slow-moving river, feeling the current flow over you. The cool water surrounds you. The sky radiates blue and and the trees whisper in the breeze. The concept of time and space no longerexists. There is only peacefulness and the soothing strains of a Japanese koto.

In Lullaby, Tokyo-born masterplayer, Mizuyo Komiya demonstrates her expertise on the 25-string koto. Traditionally a 13-stringed instrument, the 25-string koto allows an extensive range sounds that are both classical and moderinstic.

Mizuyo studied music in America, first at the highly acclaimed Berkeley Music School and then at the New England School of Music in Boston where she studied folk music and improvisational performance under Ran Blake and Hankus Netsky. Although traditionally trained on the koto by her mother, the head (Iemoto) of the Ikuta Tradition Koto School, Mizuyo's exposure to European music theory broadened her melodic perspective.

The koto is the most famous of Japanese classical instruments and the most popular. Originally conceived in China around 2200 years ago, it arrived in Japan around the mid-5'h century and was used mainly as a court instrument. The modern koto is approximately 180cm long and 35cm wide. The paulownia wood instrument is placed horizontally on the ground or on a low table and is played by plucking the strings with the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand, which are fitted with ivory attachments (tsume: "plectrum"). The left hand, in traditions after the 16th century, may alter the pitch or ornament the sound of each string by pressing or manipulating the strings on the other side of each bridge.

Mizuyo's compositions mysteriously express an unusal blend of music.

01 Path / Mizuyo Komiya
02 Furusato / Mizuyo Komiya
03 A Lullaby of Takeda(Takeda no Komoriuta) / Mizuyo Komiya
04 A Lullaby of Shimabara(Shimabara no Komoriuta) / Mizuyo Komiya
05 Beyond the Window / Mizuyo Komiya
06 A Lullaby of Itsuki(Itsuki no Komoriuta) / Mizuyo Komiya
07 Ho Ho Hotaru Koi I / Mizuyo Komiya
08 Ho Ho Hotaru Koi II / Mizuyo Komiya
09 I've Felt Little Autumn(Chiisai Aki MItsuketa) / Mizuyo Komiya
10 Hanayome Ningyo / Mizuyo Komiya
11 Furusato II / Mizuyo Komiya
12 Oyasumi / Mizuyo Komiya


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