Bach's '3rd Suite for Cello' interpreted through dance.
Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach - Struggle for Hope
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- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
In STRUGGLE FOR HOPE Yo-Yo Ma and Kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando combine talents to create an emotionally charged dance performance to J.S. Bach's 'Suite No. 5 for Unaccompanied Cello' that draws its inspiration from two very distinct worlds. As eastern mysticism meets western rigor, the two rehearse and discuss the ultimate goal: a performance that enhances both traditions and transcends the cultural boundaries that naturally exist between them.
'The collaborative process depicted on camera is as fascinating as the final choreographed realizations of the music, as both musician and interpreter strive to unite their visions of elevating Bach's music to higher artistic planes.' Richard McRae, Associate Librarian, University at Buffalo Music Library, MC Journal
'Filmed in gorgeously rich colors.' Variety
Citation
Main credits
Ma, Yo-Yo (host)
Ma, Yo-Yo (instrumentalist)
Fichman, Niv (film producer)
Sweete, Barbara Willis (film director)
Bandō, Tamasaburō (choreographer)
Bandō, Tamasaburō (performer)
Other credits
Editor, David New; director of photography, Jooset Dankelman.
Distributor subjects
Asian Studies; Choreography; Dance; Humanities; Japan; Multicultural Studies; Music; Pacific Studies; Performing Arts; TheaterKeywords
WEBVTT
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[background noise]
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[music]
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-This is the beginning
of the Fifth Suite.
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It’s my favorite suite.
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It also happens to be the most
spiritual and the saddest.
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I thought it was appropriate to ask
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Tamasaburo Bando to
be the choreographer
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for this suite because he happens
to be my favorite Kabuki actor.
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[music]
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Kabuki is a traditional
form of Japanese theater.
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It’s several hundred years old,
and I love it.
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It is highly stylized.
There’s lots of color and drama,
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and the costumes are
absolutely gorgeous.
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Like in Greek theatre,
the men play women’s roles.
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Tamasaburo’s considered
by many people to be
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one of the greatest
Kabuki actors of all time.
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When I first saw him perform,
I was totally mesmerized.
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He uses every gesture and
nuance with exquisite command.
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These gestures-- sometimes
he uses props also,
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he uses them to express ideas,
and characters, and feelings,
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very much the same way
Bach might use melodic
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and rhythmic motifs to
paint a musical picture.
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[music]
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[background noise]
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Here we are on the
stage of the Kabuki-za.
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Do you remember when I first met you,
I asked you,
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\"Can we do something together?\"
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And you were very nice about saying,
\"Sure, let’s try.\"
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If it means trying to do new works,
well,
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I guess you’re involved in
doing a lot of new things,
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including what you’re
doing in the suite.
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You’re wearing [crosstalk]
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-Before we go on the Suite,
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Yo-Yo,
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you’ve told me, in the past,
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that you always try
to do the right thing,
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but I’m more selfish than that.
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I only do what I like.
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-Oh, I see,
but you have such good instincts,
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you end up doing the
right thing anyway.
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[laughter]
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-I see Yo-Yo as the
central axis around which
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Bach’s Unaccompanied
Cello Suite develops.
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As Yo-Yo plays,
a feeling develops through his cello.
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Something happens.
Someone approaches.
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In Yo-Yo’s mind,
in this heart, something happens.
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A spirit approaches,
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you enter a world beyond
the sound of the cello.
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The spirit, the dancer is drawn
into it or drawn forth by it.
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That’s my interpretation.
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Another thing is,
the listeners enter into Yo-Yo’s
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world and when the piece is finished,
they leave it.
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Quite often,
in Japanese drama, a spirit appears
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on stage, speaks, and at dawn,
returns to the other world.
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There are many plays like that.
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-I feel my duty with the
Fifth Suite is actually
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to make sure that whenever I think
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is in that work,
either technically speaking,
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compositionally speaking or in
terms of ideas, of feelings,
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whatever I know is well
transferred to Tamasaburo
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so he knows exactly what I
know as much as possible.
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Then I trust him to take it all and
to take it to a different place,
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and to give it back to me,
and then I’ll think about it,
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and then I’ll give it back to him.
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It’s that’s kind of
process that will hopefully
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result in something
that’s worthwhile.
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Hi, Tamasaburo.
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This is your friendly cellist
sending you a little message.
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I’m going to talk to you,
today, about the fugue.
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This is maybe one of the
most abstract movements,
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but I’m going to concentrate
on phrase lengths.
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I’m going to count down bars and
we’ll talk about it afterwards, okay?
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Here we go. [music]
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One, two, three,
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four, five, six, seven, and entry.
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Entrance of theme,
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three, four, five, six, seven.
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Only seven, and which-- three, four,
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five, entrance of theme.
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What we have,
so far, are three phases.
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Eight measures for the first
entrance of the voices, fugue voices,
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seven measures of the second,
a five measure bridge,
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and then another entrance.
Basically, irregular phrase lengths.
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This is all me,
and then starting here--
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-Then me, from far away.
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-Okay, I’m starting this.
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-I enter, I do this.
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I light a candle.
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[music]
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Now the candles are lit.
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-It’s always
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[music].
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You think this
[gesturing] gives light?
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-This nuance gives light.
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Another difficult
thing about this work
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is the way the music is constructed.
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A theme appears,
and then it dissolves,
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but as it dissolves,
yet another theme appears.
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As you go through movements one,
two, three, four, five, you
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hear themes from certain movements
appearing in other movements.
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It’s difficult to cut into sections.
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If I dance according to the melody,
the rhythm changes.
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If I dance according to the rhythm,
the melody changes,
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and the nuance changes.
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Just when I think I’ve captured
the rhythm, it dissolves.
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In a way,
it’s like Japanese or Asian music.
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Rather than approaching it
as several complete segments,
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it’s better to start from the
first note and learn it bit by bit,
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in sequence. That’s what I try to do.
I move with my body.
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[humming]
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This is how I approach the piece.
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I don’t just memorize the score,
I move with it.
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I approach it in sequence,
like a train,
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like beads in a rosary,
a thread unreeling.
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[music]
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I still can’t grasp
the second movement.
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This is what I was doing.
Here’s the chandelier.
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I start like this.
Here, I do something.
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I felt the dance was
hitting against an obstacle,
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so I would collide with it.
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This way [humming],
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if I go like this--
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If I go like this, it may work.
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-More dimensional,
right, and once more, circular.
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Yes.
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-When I started,
like this [dancing].
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If I do it this way, I feel pushed,
so the solution is a circle.
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-When you take something like music,
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which is not very much a measurable,
quantifiable thing, you can say,
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\"Well, it’s classical music,
this is western music.
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Classical music is dead,
White European music.\"
00:11:28.170 --> 00:11:31.243
Well, you could say maybe that’s
true, but on the other hand,
00:11:31.410 --> 00:11:36.780
I think what it tries to
express are values and ideas
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that anybody can understand
if you go for it.
00:11:40.830 --> 00:11:42.540
I think this is something--
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if what I’m trying to do works,
then I think it proves a point.
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That what we’re dealing in the arts
is not just music, or painting,
00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:05.863
or literature, but actually, it
deals with humanity, with thoughts,
00:12:06.030 --> 00:12:08.030
with feelings that are, in fact,
00:12:08.880 --> 00:12:12.780
a codification of the very
best of someone’s mind.
00:12:14.130 --> 00:12:21.130
The melody part of this movement
is very human between suffering,
00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:27.000
and hope, and hesitation,
but within the rhythm part of it.
00:12:27.240 --> 00:12:29.627
The one, two, [sings]
00:12:29.794 --> 00:12:31.188
before [sings]
00:12:31.355 --> 00:12:32.218
if you keep to a rhythm-
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-When it changes,
Yo-Yo, do you still follow a rhythm?
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Not bar by bar.
00:12:38.217 --> 00:12:43.833
-Yes, right.
I think I don’t make one, two.
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[music]
00:12:47.093 --> 00:12:52.821
Two, but I go, one [sings],
00:12:52.988 --> 00:12:56.498
one [sings], down.
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-That’s the difficult part.
00:13:01.627 --> 00:13:05.099
-For me, tempo, or the pulse,
00:13:05.781 --> 00:13:09.170
is the inevitable, is fate.
00:13:09.607 --> 00:13:12.013
Mm, two
00:13:12.337 --> 00:13:16.527
[sings], two [sings].
00:13:16.694 --> 00:13:18.850
-Now I see why it was so difficult.
00:13:19.017 --> 00:13:22.518
When I tried to express emotion,
00:13:23.060 --> 00:13:25.650
the tempo would come
up from behind me.
00:13:26.747 --> 00:13:28.572
Therefore,
I needed an explanation which would
00:13:28.739 --> 00:13:33.114
help me rise above
this tempo problem.
00:13:35.501 --> 00:13:37.210
Now I have it.
00:13:37.377 --> 00:13:40.634
If I keep the tempo
with my lower body,
00:13:40.801 --> 00:13:43.885
then I can still express
emotion with my upper body.
00:13:44.052 --> 00:13:48.270
-Yes, absolutely. Yes.
00:13:48.437 --> 00:13:53.898
-That’s where the difficulty was.
00:13:54.769 --> 00:13:58.118
I’d go one way, and then, what?
00:13:58.285 --> 00:14:02.326
That’s why I needed
a tempo to follow.
00:14:04.825 --> 00:14:08.605
-I’ve been watching Tamasaburo
struggle to understand this work.
00:14:08.820 --> 00:14:11.940
It’s a hard piece,
both technically and structurally,
00:14:12.330 --> 00:14:14.143
and it’s emotionally complex,
00:14:14.640 --> 00:14:17.970
involving many layers of
feelings of loss and mourning,
00:14:18.570 --> 00:14:19.995
and reconciliation.
00:14:21.180 --> 00:14:27.210
In my family, this music has always
been a source of great comfort.
00:14:27.870 --> 00:14:34.273
My parents grew up during a time that
was torn apart by war and strife,
00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:38.880
and my father, during World War II,
would play the music of Bach,
00:14:39.210 --> 00:14:42.750
always, as a form of solace.
00:14:43.501 --> 00:14:45.963
-My mother worked
running a restaurant.
00:14:46.130 --> 00:14:50.523
As a result,
my father didn’t have much to do,
00:14:50.964 --> 00:14:54.242
so until I had to start
school at age five,
00:14:54.409 --> 00:14:57.739
we were always together,
from morning to night.
00:14:58.215 --> 00:14:59.893
He let me dance.
00:15:00.502 --> 00:15:04.099
If I wanted to wear something
beautiful, he’d say, \"Bring it,\"
00:15:04.266 --> 00:15:06.065
and have someone dress me.
00:15:06.232 --> 00:15:10.058
If I wanted to put make-up on,
he’d have someone make me up.
00:15:10.225 --> 00:15:12.142
He let me do everything
I wanted to do.
00:15:12.309 --> 00:15:16.188
When I said, \"I want to go on stage,
so I’ll need to be adopted,\"
00:15:16.355 --> 00:15:17.911
he said, \"I see,\" and so, I was.
00:15:18.078 --> 00:15:20.880
-Tell me,
what does it mean to be adopted?
00:15:21.300 --> 00:15:24.960
I was never quite clear
if you’re adopted,
00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:28.848
did you want to be adopted?
00:15:29.015 --> 00:15:34.222
-In the Kabuki system, you have to be
adopted in order to get a stage name.
00:15:34.623 --> 00:15:36.136
Back then, I didn’t actually
need to change families.
00:15:36.303 --> 00:15:42.643
-Your parents, were they happy
about giving you up for adoption?
00:15:42.810 --> 00:15:44.504
Or were they sad about it?
00:15:44.941 --> 00:15:49.543
-My mother was
probably a little sad,
00:15:49.984 --> 00:15:54.118
and my father also
wanted to keep me with
00:15:54.285 --> 00:15:59.842
him because he loved me so very much,
almost to excess.
00:16:01.151 --> 00:16:04.243
When he said,
\"Go ahead and be adopted,\"
00:16:04.568 --> 00:16:11.521
as a child,
I had no idea what that meant,
00:16:13.260 --> 00:16:15.164
but I’d have done anything to become
00:16:15.331 --> 00:16:18.504
an actor and appear in
the Kabuki-za Theatre.
00:16:18.831 --> 00:16:21.895
[music]
00:16:22.333 --> 00:16:24.634
[laughter]
00:16:30.863 --> 00:16:37.863
[background conversations]
00:16:58.301 --> 00:17:00.154
-Oh, look at this guy.
00:17:02.122 --> 00:17:04.526
[laughs]
00:17:05.184 --> 00:17:07.032
[applause]
00:17:07.199 --> 00:17:10.922
Oh, beautiful.
00:17:11.573 --> 00:17:18.573
[music] [applause]
00:17:22.833 --> 00:17:27.189
-My friendship, my affection
for Yo-Yo is a completely
00:17:27.356 --> 00:17:32.491
different matter from the
performance I’m creating.
00:17:34.790 --> 00:17:36.747
I’m a friend of Yo-Yo,
00:17:36.914 --> 00:17:40.544
but on stage,
I take the form of a woman,
00:17:40.711 --> 00:17:45.854
so there’s bound to be
some sense of lovers.
00:17:46.289 --> 00:17:50.887
However,
in the world that I’m creating,
00:17:51.054 --> 00:17:55.099
I don’t think Bach’s Suite
requires a love story.
00:17:56.415 --> 00:17:58.797
How shall I say it?
00:17:58.964 --> 00:18:02.286
Watching this,
you might get a feeling of lovers,
00:18:02.453 --> 00:18:05.254
but it’s really something
dryer than that.
00:18:05.421 --> 00:18:10.289
It’s human love in a larger sense,
or the feeling you have
00:18:10.456 --> 00:18:17.456
when a bird sits beside you
or an animal sits beside you,
00:18:17.689 --> 00:18:22.056
or when you see flowers blooming.
00:18:22.223 --> 00:18:27.912
It’s the relationship between a man
and a woman in an abstract sense.
00:18:28.458 --> 00:18:33.000
-You play your Onnagata,
which means you play women’s roles.
00:18:34.170 --> 00:18:36.350
Is that something that’s
decided early on or--?
00:18:36.517 --> 00:18:39.431
-When I was a child,
I played both roles,
00:18:39.598 --> 00:18:42.660
but I liked beautiful
kimonos and Onnagata better.
00:18:42.989 --> 00:18:46.926
-Even as a boy, dress-up,
clothing, and stuff like that,
00:18:47.365 --> 00:18:48.865
is that something--?
00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:52.890
My children do this all the time,
so it’s--
00:18:53.333 --> 00:18:54.653
-It was like that, yes.
00:18:54.820 --> 00:18:57.163
-Whenever I’ve seen you perform,
00:18:57.330 --> 00:19:01.453
it almost seems as if you’re
playing a woman’s role,
00:19:01.620 --> 00:19:05.443
and by abstracting the
essence of a woman that
00:19:05.610 --> 00:19:08.743
people actually look to
you almost as a role model.
00:19:08.910 --> 00:19:11.479
-Yes, I think that happens.
00:19:11.646 --> 00:19:16.176
Luckily, I’ve had the chance
to play many different types
00:19:16.343 --> 00:19:22.461
of women so I’ve become
free from those types.
00:19:22.790 --> 00:19:26.606
Therefore, when you asked
if we could work together,
00:19:26.773 --> 00:19:32.019
I knew I could rise
above these types.
00:19:33.660 --> 00:19:36.494
Although I appear in female form,
00:19:36.661 --> 00:19:39.868
I felt no difficulty
in becoming the sort
00:19:40.035 --> 00:19:45.360
of woman that matches
the sound of your cello.
00:19:45.663 --> 00:19:48.101
Of course,
I assume the form of a woman,
00:19:48.404 --> 00:19:51.970
but I want people to think,
\"A man could be doing this.\"
00:19:52.137 --> 00:19:56.511
Taking a more neutral approach,
00:19:56.836 --> 00:20:01.260
I tried to make myself
into someone who would
00:20:01.427 --> 00:20:04.240
simply move to the sound
of the cello strings.
00:20:06.836 --> 00:20:12.545
-You once said that
part of performing is--
00:20:12.873 --> 00:20:15.660
I think this is in
relation to a Kabuki play,
00:20:16.050 --> 00:20:18.810
where a seduction takes place.
00:20:19.590 --> 00:20:23.280
You said that at the
moment of seduction,
00:20:25.380 --> 00:20:31.942
you find your highest moment, that
you find your moment of catharsis.
00:20:32.270 --> 00:20:33.647
-Oh, catharsis.
00:20:33.975 --> 00:20:35.655
-You remember saying that?
00:20:35.822 --> 00:20:36.316
-Yes.
00:20:36.483 --> 00:20:37.556
-First of all,
do you remember saying that?
00:20:37.723 --> 00:20:39.087
Or maybe it was a misquote.
00:20:39.254 --> 00:20:46.254
-Yes, especially after-- It happens
in a flash after a strong emotion.
00:20:49.878 --> 00:20:54.003
-A certain kind of emotion,
boom, then you feel something.
00:20:54.170 --> 00:20:55.817
It’s there.
00:20:56.147 --> 00:20:57.051
-Yes.
00:20:57.218 --> 00:21:00.176
-Maybe that has an element
of hope to it also.
00:21:02.360 --> 00:21:05.069
-You told me there is
hope in this suite.
00:21:05.236 --> 00:21:09.169
My problem is where to put the hope.
00:21:09.910 --> 00:21:14.868
Where? Where is the hope?
It’s really difficult.
00:21:15.306 --> 00:21:16.986
-What do you think now?
00:21:17.388 --> 00:21:22.514
-It’s difficult to talk
concretely about hope,
00:21:23.826 --> 00:21:29.561
but I think I’ve found a way to find
hope in small ways, second by second.
00:21:32.553 --> 00:21:38.809
As I told you once before, Yo-Yo,
I’m not a person with much hope.
00:21:38.976 --> 00:21:41.696
I’m a tragic human being.
00:21:42.246 --> 00:21:46.500
Someone who finds it hard
to think optimistically,
00:21:47.161 --> 00:21:54.161
but by accepting that in myself,
I’ve also found a way to accept hope.
00:22:03.511 --> 00:22:10.511
[music]
00:22:12.207 --> 00:22:13.540
-And reaches up,
00:22:17.239 --> 00:22:22.269
but you’re always falling down.
00:22:23.520 --> 00:22:26.473
I was thinking that this movement,
which is very short,
00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:29.070
is not unlike a Haiku,
00:22:31.260 --> 00:22:35.520
the distilled essence of the suite.
00:22:36.161 --> 00:22:39.750
It’s the heart of the suite,
the emotional center.
00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:47.079
Let’s just listen for the
lines going downwards.
00:22:47.246 --> 00:22:54.246
[music]
00:22:54.804 --> 00:22:56.590
You’re reaching up,
00:23:00.344 --> 00:23:06.460
but it always comes down,
and I just ran out of tape.
00:23:08.976 --> 00:23:11.723
-For example, we start like this.
00:23:12.270 --> 00:23:15.657
As if I, myself,
have become this piece of cloth.
00:23:16.011 --> 00:23:18.617
Looking at the stage, you’ll see
00:23:18.784 --> 00:23:21.573
something swelling
up from the darkness.
00:23:21.740 --> 00:23:27.213
Softly, sweepingly, it begins.
00:23:30.051 --> 00:23:32.651
-It’s fantastic. Let’s try this.
00:23:32.818 --> 00:23:34.458
-Yes.
00:23:35.886 --> 00:23:42.886
[music]
00:24:21.450 --> 00:24:24.991
-It’s more uneven sounds,
also, I think.
00:24:25.703 --> 00:24:27.243
[background conversation]
00:24:27.410 --> 00:24:33.752
[music]
00:24:35.062 --> 00:24:37.415
So far,
I like the first take better.
00:24:37.582 --> 00:24:38.937
What do you think?
00:24:39.802 --> 00:24:41.333
-[nods]
00:24:42.098 --> 00:24:43.978
-All right.
Remember, this is the one,
00:24:44.145 --> 00:24:49.540
when I played and I really
looked at you, right?
00:24:50.310 --> 00:24:52.839
Eye contact, tremendous eye contact.
00:24:57.611 --> 00:25:04.611
[music]
00:25:24.115 --> 00:25:27.840
The next one,
I was trying to look at you,
00:25:28.080 --> 00:25:30.768
but you were looking up into the sky,
right?
00:25:31.410 --> 00:25:34.363
But that’s also interesting
because you were saying, earlier,
00:25:34.530 --> 00:25:37.003
whenever you perform, you like
to think that there’s somebody
00:25:37.170 --> 00:25:41.310
there that you’re performing for,
but then if there’s nobody there,
00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:45.330
sometimes you feel like
you’re playing for heaven.
00:25:46.380 --> 00:25:49.273
I knew that’s what you were thinking,
but I was trying to think, also,
00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:52.590
something less personal.
00:25:55.530 --> 00:25:58.813
In that sense, less Dionysian,
and what you were talking about,
00:25:58.980 --> 00:26:01.437
I was thinking of
something less personal.
00:26:01.604 --> 00:26:03.854
I don’t know how you would say that.
00:26:05.696 --> 00:26:08.079
-No need to think so much.
[chuckles]
00:26:08.246 --> 00:26:09.602
-I can’t translate that
term you’re saying.
00:26:09.769 --> 00:26:10.833
-Okay, it’s too American? [laughter]
00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:14.832
-Oh, no.
What he says is don’t think too much.
00:26:15.163 --> 00:26:18.118
-Thinking too much is not good.
00:26:18.285 --> 00:26:20.345
-If you think too much,
it doesn’t really [crosstalk].
00:26:20.512 --> 00:26:22.971
-Don’t worry,
I don’t know how to think too much.
00:26:23.138 --> 00:26:26.245
[laughter] It’s not a big problem.
00:26:26.412 --> 00:26:33.412
[music]
00:26:51.450 --> 00:26:55.230
I think this music emerges
from the depth of despair,
00:26:56.700 --> 00:26:59.790
and maybe that’s why
it’s a cathartic work.
00:27:00.660 --> 00:27:03.043
Tamasaburo and I have
spoken about this.
00:27:03.210 --> 00:27:06.793
I guess we both feel
that’s why this work
00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:09.023
is so powerful and communicative.
00:27:10.680 --> 00:27:14.550
That’s why Tamasaburo chose
to choreograph this work,
00:27:15.060 --> 00:27:18.240
why I love it so much,
why my father loved it so much.
00:27:18.960 --> 00:27:23.653
Maybe that’s also why the
Sarabande of this suite is the very
00:27:23.820 --> 00:27:28.080
last piece I played for my father
just before he passed away.
00:27:30.485 --> 00:27:34.228
The Sarabande, for me, is a prayer,
00:27:34.661 --> 00:27:38.160
and I think Tamasaburo
instinctively understands this.
00:27:38.708 --> 00:27:45.708
[music]
00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:19.160
[background noise]
00:28:32.894 --> 00:28:39.894
[piece begins]
00:53:09.022 --> 00:53:11.022
[piece ends]
00:53:13.773 --> 00:53:20.773
[end credits]
Distributor: Bullfrog Films
Length: 55 minutes
Date: 1998
Genre: Expository
Language: Not available
Grade: 7-12, College, Adult
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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