Yearning for the Bell

Asuka Reibo, Nagashi Reibo and Murasakino Reibo are three examples of the shakuhachi’s traditional repertoire, the honkyoku (本曲 ‘original’ or ‘main music’). These pieces were probably first played no earlier than the 16th century. They were created, transmitted and performed within the context of Zen Buddhism. Their primary function is meditation; the music is secondary. The words Yearning for the Bell is part of the titles of all three pieces. The ‘Bell’ is a metaphor for ultimate physical, emotional and spiritual understanding.

The full title of the final piece is Kimpu Ryū Nesasaha Nagashi Reibo, (Flowing [version of],Yearning for the Bell of the Bamboo Grass Sect, Brocade Wind Lineage)

Refuge The composer writes: Refuge is an homage to a solo shakuhachi work called Ryūhei (Exile), which was composed in the early 20th century by Chikuho Sakai I, the founder of Chikuho-ryū (lineage or sect), and the father of Riley’s first main teacher (Chukuho II).

Riley taught me to play Ryūhei nearly ten years ago, and the work has remained dear to me ever since. My homage is a structured improvisation: Riley plays with fragments of Chikuho’s material, and I travel around them, echoing, complementing, and reorienting the sounds. I am intrigued by the way the clarinet repaints the colors of the shakuhachi—and by the dream of a journey from exile to refuge.

O Ignee Spiritus (O Fiery Spirit) is an antiphon by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) transcribed by Beverly Roberta Lomer, and adapted for shakuhachi by Riley Lee. “Music“ wrote Hildegard, “is perhaps our only way to reach God. and thus, complete knowledge.” Escot noted that nearly six centuries earlier, Boethius (d. 524) stated that “through the experience of music, reason ascends from the corporeal to the incorporeal.”

Riley Lee has been playing Hildegard for and to himself for decades. In 2019, after completing a 3-day recording session half a day ahead of schedule, on impulse he decided to make use of the remaining studio time by recording three hours of Hildegard’s music, later released as a 3CD set called “Breath of the Earth”.

Most of the transcriptions Riley used was by Hildegard scholar Beverly Lomer. To his relief, Ms Lomer, upon hearing the recording, said that she was surprised at how well the instrumental interpretation worked. This is a testament to Hildegard’s creative power, especially as in her mind, the lyrics always dictated the melodies in her compositions.

Two Shakuhachi Duos from Isle Royale was written during an artist residency in Isle Royale National Park, a US Biosphere Reserve in the middle of Lake Superior. The two movements, Loons and Black-Throated Blue Warbler, are modeled on traditional Kinko School shakuhachi gestures, and use the slightly overlapping phrase form of the famous shakuhachi duet Shika no Tone. The piece is dedicated to Ralph Samuelson, who performed the premiere with the composer at Roulette in New York City in 2006.

Cloud Hands was composed in 2007. The composer writes: Cloud Hands is a central movement in the tai chi form where the body rotates from side to side while slowly stepping sideways. In typical Wushu fashion the rotation is centered in the belly while the legs and upper body take turns leading and following.

In a similar way this piece uses canonic motion, sometimes lead by one flute, sometimes by the other, with 1 player either catching up with the other or slowing down to meet them. While it is through-composed there is an element of improvisation in how these meetings take place. In Tai Chi the Cloud Hands movement is also called Bear Walk and I picture this as a meeting of 2 big bears – perhaps as an analogue to the classic shakuhachi duet Shika no Tone which symbolizes 2 deer.

It was written with longer flutes in mind, thus moving downward to ‘bear’ level. It also features a kind of meeting of the the schools of my 2 famous teachers Goro Yamaguchi and Katsuya Yokoyama, who on occasion played Shika no Tone together. A basic phrase in Shakuhachi Honkyoku is the Nayashi, where the last pitch played is repeated but starting lower and bending bach up to pitch.

In Yokoyma’s school, this bent interval is usually a whole step, followers of Yamaguchi and other Kinko school teachers play a half step. Cloud Hands uses as one of its central themes side-by-side nayashi of a half and whole step. Clouds Hands (recorded with myself and Riley Lee) was featured on my 2010 Tzadik release Ryu Nashi, which means No School.

Birdwing was composed in 1996 for shakuhachi and tape. The tape part of Birdwing was created at the Winham Laboratory, Princeton University. Special thanks to Mahanrishi Singh Khalsa. Birdwing was commissioned by the International Computer Music Association and was premiered by Riley Lee in Hong Kong in 1996. This piece is dedicated to Tomie Hahn.

1. I am lucky to be at the lake so early, while everything is frozen and unmoving: I can see the three little marks a sparrow’s wing left in the snow.

In a moment the wind will blow over them and they will be gone.

2. We know of a place where woodcocks live. They are secretive and mysterious birds.

Every spring we go to witness their nocturnal flight.

To do this requires standing in an open field at dusk and waiting: waiting for the daytime birds to go to sleep, waiting for stillness, waiting for the sun and the moon. Only when it is too dark to see will they appear. You can’t se them, but you can hear the songs their wings make as they fly, spiralling up and then dropping down.

One year we stood and waited, but they were not there. Neither seen nor heard, the birds flew only in our memories, their wings whistling.

1996 James Pritchett

Riley Lee was born in Texas in 1951, grew up in Hawai’i, and lived in Japan altogether foralmost a decade. He first began playing the shakuhachi in Japan in 1971. In 1975, he became the first non-Japanese to attain the rank of dai shihan(大師範). This literally translates as ‘big teacher’, though the reading is often inflated for publicity purposes, albeit technically correctly, as ‘grand master’. In that year, Riley received his second professional shakuhachi name, Kōho (皇保“perpetuating that which is majestic”).

In 1974, Riley became the first non-Japanese professional wataiko player (和太鼓; Japanese drums), touring the world as a founding member of the group now called Kodo. His love of long-distance running began while with the group; in 2023, he ran the Newcastle (NSW), Sydney and Honolulu marathons.

In 1986, Riley moved to Australia with his wife Patricia and their twin daughters. Riley has a PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Sydney, is an Honorary Fellow at Western Sydney University, and is on the staff at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He first taught at Princeton University in 2007 through the invitation of Professor Tom Hare (CompLit), and in subsequent years, returned to work with Professor Barbara White (Music).

For the past decade, Riley spends several months each year in North America and Europe, teaching, performing and giving workshops on breathing, meditation and the shakuhachi. Riley returned to Princeton for the Spring 2024 semester, to teach a First Year Seminar, entitled Mindfulness Meditation, Memory and Music.