August 16
Shinto music will be performed in Novosibirsk
<A photograph of Satoko Ishize>
A Japanese composer, Satoko Ishize and the Novosibirsk State Philharmonic Society announced the beginning of cooperation. The compositions of Ishize san will be performed by the Russian Academic Orchestra of Novosibirsk Philharmonic Society.
Using traditions of religious music in contemporary art is no so rare, but Ishize went her own way. She uses in her works the instruments of Shinto shrine music, which dates back from primitive magical ceremonies.
“My compositions are in many cases based upon the melodics of one of the most important shinto ceremonies, Mitama utsushi, or ‘transportation of God’ ”, said Ishize san to “Izvestia”. “Once a year the priests take out from shrine the ark, in which a local spirit or god resides. (Shinto is a polytheism to worship gods of nature and the spirits of ancestors: Izvestia) During the process of transportation participants sing a sound, while raising and lowering its pitch. Such a movement works perfectly in contemporary music.
Ishize san comes from a family of hereditary priests and samurai. She herself participated in ceremonies and turned out to be one of the few who use Shinto music movement in her own compositions. She graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in the US, where she studied orchestral music. After that she decided to mingle Japanese traditions with the Western classics and contemporary rhythms.
“In many of my compositions you hear the sound of Norito in the back. Norito is a prayerful melody with rising pitch.”
