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6 Haiku in the Form of a Drum
Kodo at the Wisconsin Union Theatre
Madison, WI (1993)
by Arthur Durkee
•
High over wild seas
surrounding Sado Island:
the river of heaven
–Basho (17th century)
Basho, the great genius of haiku (a traditional Japanese poetic
form), wrote of the view to Sado Island in his classic travel
book, Narrow Road to the Interior. Now, three centuries later,
a fresh wind blows from Sado: Kodo, the Children of the Drum,
who make their home on Sado Island in the rough Japan Sea. Living
communally in a converted schoolhouse, they have developed an
intense daily physical regimen to aid them in their strenuous
performances. While Kodo uses a wide range of traditional Japanese
instruments in their shows, the heartbeat of the evening are the
taiko, traditional Japanese drums. “Kodo” also means “heartbeat,”
as in the sound of the mother’s heartbeat as heard and felt from
within the womb.
Kodo presented almost two hours of marathon drumming tonight,
beginning with the spring-awakening festival beats of “Nobi,”
where the music began in the lobby then swarmed through the audience
to take the stage:
the drummers’ hands blur,
blonde as the wood of their sticks:
flock of souls takes flight
Absolutely every piece of music Kodo played was wonderful, though
a few favorites deserve special mention. A piece I have heard
them play often is “Monochrome” by Maki Ishii, a composer who
has written several pieces especially for Kodo. “Monochrome” begins
almost silently, with seven shime-daiko (small rope-tied drums)
played in unison; the sound slowly builds and builds until it’s
deafening, then gradually subsides into near-silence again. The
piece greatly expands the technical range of Japanese drumming,
using both traditional and modern playing techniques. Mr. Ishii’s
pieces tend to wash over the listener in huge tidal waves separated
by pregnant silences; “Monochrome” is his masterpiece: pure, elegant,
and powerful.
Equally as spellbinding were the two quietest pieces on the program.
“Nishimonai” is a dance performed during the O-Bon festival, in
remembrance of the dead. The female dancer wears a large straw
hat tilted forward to cover the face, creating a sense of shadowy
mystery:
abandoned temple,
hands gently shaping the air–
dancing for the dead
“Yamauta” is a flute song, played by a solo performer in near-darkness.
Several versions of this tune can be found along the 19th century
sea-trade routes among the islands of Japan; tonight it called
forth a great sense of deep emotion out of the depths of time:
giant act of faith,
to believe the world has form:
gods dancing all night
As the flutist walked out through the audience, still playing,
the members of Kodo prepared the stage for the concluding pieces
of the evening. They wheeled out a huge platform containing the
o-daiko, an 800-pound drum made from a single tree trunk. The
platform was edged with paper lanterns casting soft light, and
two drummers clad in loincloths sat atop it. At the first stroke
on the o-daiko, the audience gasped. You feel this drum as much
as hear it; it vibrates your whole body. Slowly, the lead drummer
built up an accelerating rhythm, until he was playing with his
entire body and mind, striking the five-foot-diameter drum with
sticks the size of baseball bats. The furious call of the drum
seemed to go on forever, but it contained a deep tranquility:
whirlwind of sound,
the drummer battles the drum:
intimate ecstasy
Kodo ended the concert with another powerful festival drumming
piece, “Yatai-Bayashi,” with three drummers seated on the ground
playing large taiko. A rousing standing ovation and several curtain-calls
later, Kodo concluded the evening with an encore that involved
the audience in clapping to the beat and laughing with the drummers
in joyous abandon. The entire concert was performed with breath-taking
virtuosity. The drumming pieces reached fever pitch, and the quieter
pieces attained no less a peak of emotional intensity. Throughout
the evening, members of the troupe, dressed in traditional workers’
costumes, moved drums and sets for each piece themselves, preparing
the space in an almost ritual manner. They made everything look
easy and simple, enhancing the smooth flow of one piece into another.
Their performance was as much a spiritual exercise, a dedication
of craft to communing with the gods of music, as it was a concert.
Kodo’s level of professionalism, technical expertise, and musical
communion is paramount–very few ensembles can match them.
soul of the drumming:
search for silence in the heart
while the world’s ablaze
Original haiku © 1993 Arthur Durkee
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