Friday, December 22, 2006

A Rare Treat

posted by Missy
That might be how I would describe the yummy parfaits we had the other night in the J Cafe (described in an earlier post by Kathie) (Jim, who is up for any new food experience involving chop sticks, gets suddenly picky when it comes to ice cream–he didn't finish his corn flakes and proclaimed the concoction not to his liking). But I am actually referring to the rare treat of being able to see Taiko's group, Kiriku, in action.

Upon our return to Tokyo from Fukuoka on Thursday afternoon, about eight sonosians headed straight from the airport to Tokyo Disney, a few returned to the hotel and did their own thing, while Lois, David and I followed Taiko to her evening concert with Kiriku, an hour's train ride outside the city. The concert was a special holiday performance for families, so there were lots of kids in the audience. I was somewhat surprised initially that the program included several slow, lyrical pieces (two Ave Maria's and Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, for example) until I realized (or remembered might be a better word...) that the bells themselves are incredibly fascinating to children. And Kiriku's beautiful, flowing motions are mesmerizing on those pieces. They play with the same graceful freedom of motion as their founder and director, Taiko, who has taught four of the other five ringers everything they know about handbells. The melody is always clearly articulated both aurally and visually, allowing the listener to "hear" some of the long notes even after they may have stopped sounding in the hall. Another thing that caught my attention was the velvety texture of the bass bells. Taiko told me later that she doesn't like the sound of the clapper attack with the hard or medium settings, so she has the group keep the bass bells on the soft setting all the time and just play with firmer strokes to get the necessary clarity of sound. Personally I like being able to use all of the options available, but this practice really works for Kiriku. Once I realized the bells were all set on soft I listened more actively for any muddiness, but heard none. Amazing!

If the slower numbers were mesmerizing for their lyrical beauty, the fast numbers were breathtaking for their flawless precision. The group did an arrangement of Mozart's "Rondo ala Turka" that was unbelievable. The plucking and malleting in the bass were mind-boggling, as were the treble runs and mid-range offbeats. (I have played those offbeats with Sonos–and we play it with 12, not 6–and was not nearly so accurate, though I thought I had done a pretty good job at the time.) The piece that really got the kids going was Leroy Anderson's "Plink, Plank, Plunk," another fast, precise, and fun arrangement complete with five or six different whistles, wood blocks, and popping balloons! You couldn't help but smile out loud with this piece. If these two show-stoppers were not enough proof of Kiriku's expertise with handbells, they left no doubt with their first encore, Kabelevsky's "Comedian's Gallop." All I could think all the way through was, "Wow!" Kiriku finished the concert with a second encore of Silent Night, with the audience singing along.

I learned later that Kiriku rehearses about 10-12 hours a week, and it really shows. I would love for Sonos to have that kind of rehearsal time too! I have always thought that if we can do what we do with the four hours a week we typically have (or the 10 hours every two weeks that we had before this tour), how much more we could do if we really had the resources to do this full time...

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