KotoJazz 7: Water, Water Everywhere

“Water water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink. Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner). Famous poets the world over find inspiration from the simple element we call water (see Famous Poets and Poems or Haiku poems about water. So much poetry and music is written about water and the movement of water. What it is about water that inspires so much creativity?

Water is not a new moving subject of our inspiration [see Smetana’s The Moldau or Kiyoko Miyagi’s Haru No Umi (The Sea in Springtime); for MP3 download, see a version by Fumie Hihara]. Water images and music about water are nearly boundless. To name a few, there’s:

Ameritz Sound Effects , Slow Boat on the Yangtze, Music of Japan;

Ayaha’s Kaze No Oshaberi, Sounds of Kyoto: Maboroshi;

Yuka Honda’s haunting Cycle of Water, Water on Mars or Hydrosphere;

Geoffrey Castle’s enchanting Waterfall, Float Downstream or Mist on the Mountains,

Riley Lee’s soul searching Spring Rain,

George Winston’s celebratory dancing Sea or Spring Creek,

Wind Machine’s steady rythm of Distant Shores, and

Davol’s meditative Mystic Waters or Cascade.

My most recent koto jazz piece, Ripples on Stones (short excerpt), borrows a few common koto chords combined with the ebb and flow of ripples on creek rocks. With Ripples, I depart from my koto and western jazz and rhythm and seek to follow the more free form of new age styles. Each musical work possesses in common the peaceful, free flowing meditative qualities of water.

Japanese and Chinese gardens feature water – still water and more often than not, moving water. Whether a trickle from bamboo water feature onto a stone basin or a cascading waterfall from cathedral rock cliffs, water is a powerful, enchanting spiritual theme. It is a key energy source that sustains us physically, emotionally & spiritually.

The serenity of the moment lies in the stillness of water, reflecting every part of who we are- reflecting the sun, the moon, the stars and the world around us. It is able to settle & calm every part of our mind and body if we are present to it. It may inspire emotions but is free of all emotions and through its stillness or its movement, it can lead our souls to that same place of freedom from thought, give us a reprieve from the chaos of our day and nourish our souls. Meditation in the presence of water, still or moving, connects us with the cycle of life of which we are a part.

Again, it requires one thing — our presence . … not just physical, but our awareness and connection to the life it offers.

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