Track 1 Sokkan
Kiku Day, shakuhachi
The piece Sokkan comes from the traditional repertoire of the Japanese monks known as komusō in the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism. The shakuhachi is a vertical bamboo flute. The piece is played on a ji-nashi shakuhachi, a shakuhachi with no lining to its bore, unlike modern instruments that have lacquer coatings. The flute has the length 2.9 (around 88 cm) and is thus longer and deeper sounding than the standard 1.8 (54.54 cm) instrument, which suitably matches the meditative aspect of the piece. The title translates as ‘observing the breath’ and refers to the practice of meditation, a practice the Fuke sect monks engaged in through playing the shakuhachi. This piece can seem deceptively simple when heard, but is in fact known for the complexity and difficulty of the breath control that it demands.
Kiku Day graduated with a BA in Music from SOAS in 2003. She then completed an MFA in Music Performance and Literature at Mills College, Oakland, California, and returned to SOAS to enter the PhD programme in Autumn 2005.
