Koto Master Finds Freedom to Develop in US

JI: Tell me what it’s like playing the koto for American audiences.

Falconer: It’s interesting because when I was in Japan, I was always in the role of student and I tried to do my best at following. But here, everyone looks to you, and it changes your outlook. You have your own responsibility and you also have your own ideas. And people are more relaxed here about listening to music in general, while in Japan, koto is serious, koto is expensive and koto players play what koto players are supposed to play.

I think that basically I’ve grown a lot more (in the US) than I ever would have in Japan, where I would have been the follower for a much longer time.

JI: And how did you begin storytelling with the koto?

Falconer: We came to Seattle … We had adopted two boys but we had lost our health insurance; we still had some money but we were kind of low. And we had these two kids. They had been in a foster situation where they had been watching TV all the time. That was all they had. And when I opened up a book, they were all over me. They were so hungry for it! So we went to the library and got all these books and spent hours reading to them. In the process, we realized what it is for kids to have stories. Their imaginations get hooked and they’re there (in the story). Basically, I was reading to them a lot and trying to practice koto, reading to them and trying to practice koto, and one day I thought, “Why don’t I put these two together?” (laughs) I never would have thought of it if it hadn’t been for them. So I made a story and did it for the kids, and they really liked it. So I went to the libraries — at the time, I didn’t even have the stories memorized — and played and told the stories, and everybody loved it. It started building, and cause we were kind of financially desperate and intellectually, well, I was playing with the kids all day — so this just sort of blossomed.

I feel really happy about it. You have to have a certain level of playing skill to do it. And I can do the English stories and the Japanese versions. It’s been really fun to do.

Your hands are busy when you’re playing, but you’re able to talk. So now that I’ve started doing it, I keep waiting for others to do it too. It’s really natural.

JI: So no one else does this sort of storytelling with the koto?

Falconer: Not that I know of.

Another thing about the storytelling: A lot of the Japanese folk tales have these traditional values, and I realized as I was working with them that you have to find what you want to say with the story because some of them are quite wacky. You wonder, why did they write this? Then you realize that, for example, (it’s about) the idea of gratitude … or honoring one’s parents, doing what they say. As I was starting to tell these stories, I realized I was sharing the part of Japan I really liked.

JI: Can you explain to me the difference between the five-tone scale used in Japan and the typical scale used here?

Falconer: Our Western scale uses seven tones. Do, re,mi, fa, so, la, ti and then do again for eight. You can play all the notes on the koto, but it is not in the automatic tuning on your instrument, where you set the bridges. The traditional tuning is for the five tones, and then you repeat them. But you can always press the strings to get another half step, another half step.

You wear three picks — one on your thumb and your first two fingers. It’s a pretty cool instrument! It offers a lot of variety. You can tune it to anything you want.

Notation is with numbers, so you’re playing by the number. And you tune the koto before each piece. Each piece may require a different tune, so string number 5 might be a D or a G depending on the tuning.

JI: And the bass koto?

Falconer: (laughs) More numbers. It is very confusing. It’s just a few more strings, but it seems so much different. The bass koto is really cool, but it is hard to drag around when you are performing in public. It’s quite a bit bigger — a regular koto is maybe six feet, but it’s not heavy; the bass koto is about seven-and-a-half feet and it weighs a lot more. It’s big! The bridges are big; everything is big.

Kazue really worked hard on playing solo bass koto. So over the last 40 years or so, it has really changed a lot to become a more interesting instrument as a solo instrument. It has 17 strings, so it is a different animal than a koto.

JI: What’s one of your favorite songs?

Falconer: I like “Tori no Yo Ni.” That’s one of my favorite solos. (Tadao) Sawai’s music is always fluid and does not sound the same, and he has all these different ideas. Sawai’s music in general I really like.

To hear samples of Elizabeth playing the koto or to order any of her many CDs, go to Koto World, her record label. You can also follow her activities on her blog.

Spell of Spring: Some of the most dramatic and compelling music of the great composer and koto virtuoso Sawai Tadao (1937-1997), performed by American koto master Elizabeth Falconer, with John Falconer (shakuhachi) and Tari Nelson-Zagar (violin).

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