TORSTEN OLAFSSON: The "STANDING WAVES" STORY
The 'shakuhachi' Japanese bamboo flute album "Standing Waves - Zen Shakuhachi Meditations"
was recorded over midnight, from April 4 to 5, 1983, at Sweet Silence Studios on the island of Amager, Southernmost Copenhagen, Denmark.
Producer was Finn Olafsson. Sound engineer was Flemming Rasmussen. Released in 1983 as the Olafssongs label's 1st production: OLP 001/OMC 001.
This special website section will focus on the story, the background, of the album, retold by Torsten Olafsson, the shakuhachi player himself, in his own words.
Standing Waves LP 1983 and CD 2001
Left: 'Daisen-in', Kyōto, dry garden photo by Torsten Olafsson, 1977, and LP cover design by Torsten Olafsson & Mikkel Scharff, 1983.
Center photo by Mikkel Scharff, "shot" in Tisvildeleje Forest, Northern Sealand, Denmark, in Spring, 1983.
Right: CD booklet, 16 pages, designed by Tao Design/Fønix Musik, Denmark, 2001.
In 1984, kindly responding to the Spring, 1983, release of the "Standing Waves" Olafssongs LP/MC 001 album, the then British Shakuhachi Society's Geoff Duckworth commented as follows - selected quotes:
" - - - Listening to the music one is immediately struck by its starkness in terms of tonal variation, decoration, vibrato etc.,
that one hears in the music of players from the Kinko, or Tozan schools.
If you have developed your shakuhachi listening with the music of Yamaguchi, Reibo, Yamamoto, or Yokoyama, for instance,
the music here may be a shock." - - -
" - - - You may, or may not like the music on this record. But I think this would miss the point,
that this record adds to the richness of both one's personal store,
and the whole body of shakuhachi music. - - - "
Link to a scanning of the complete then printed 1984 Geoff Duckworth review, PDF
Here follows the full, unabridged review by Geoff Duckworth, published in July, 1984:
"Torsten Olafsson is a Danish shakuhachi player. He has produced this record himself.
The record consists of solo shakuhachi music, and all the pieces are from the Meian-ryu honkyoku collection, played according to the Meian way.
Listening to the music one is immediately struck by its starkness in terms of tonal variation, decoration, vibrato etc.,
that one hears in the music of players from the Kinko, or Tozan schools.
If you have developed your shakuhachi listening with the music of Yamaguchi, Reibo, Yamamoto, or Yokoyama, for instance, the music here may be a shock.
The total emphasis is on allowing the passage of music unpatterned from the identity of the player.
The Meian school tradition purports to be the encapsulation of the old Fuke traditions, with its base in the monastic way.
My interpretation of this music is that each piece has an existence accumulated to it through the years of repetitional playing, by men following the same path, and it is only necessary to set ones feet on this path to breathe life into that piece.
At the same time the player is enhanced.
Taking one or two of the pieces, and listening to them being played by other players is in itself most interesting.
As an example, Kyushu Reibo, played by Aoki Reibo. Here, Reibo adheres to the general structure of the piece (as notated in the Meian edition), but introduces variations on some of the phrases.
Also he uses his own style of 'atari' on, for example TSU-RE. TSU is played as a brief, sharp, attach to the RE, which is played with considerable range of dynamics.
Olafsson, in accord with Meian style, plays a longer, relaxed TSU, leading to RE being played unshaded.
The whole range of colour used by Reibo, constrasts [sic] with the straightness of tone used by Olafsson.
By comparing these two players, I do not wish to use this comparison as a value judgement of one player being better than another.
Each player expresses the piece in the way he has chosen to approach the shakuhachi, and consequently the direction his own development on the instrument, and the relationship to the music, has taken.
This is, in particular, one of the reasons why I, and, I expect, many others have chosen the shakuhachi as an ideal means of self-expression, simply because it does allow such a range of possibility.
You may, or may not like the music on this record. But I think this would miss the point, that this record adds to the richness of both one's personal store, and the whole body of shakuhachi music.
Geoff Duckworth"
The British Shakuhachi Society Newsletter, July, 1984
Geoff Duckworth's "Standing Waves" review, July, 1984
2001: The Danish Fønix Musik "Standing Waves - Zen Shakuhachi Meditations"
(Olafssongs, 1983) CD version: The CD booklet
Standing Waves 2001 CD booklet pages 12 & 1
Correction: Read 'Mu-ku-teki suizen', not 'Mukō-teki Sui Zen' :-)
Standing Waves 2001 CD booklet pages 2-3
Standing Waves 2001 CD booklet pages 4-5
Standing Waves 2001 CD booklet pages 6-7
Standing Waves 2001 CD booklet pages 8-9
Standing Waves 2001 CD booklet pages 10-11
Standing Waves 2001 CD jewel case back
'CHŌSHI' ANALYSIS: The Very First 'Taizan-ha Suizen' Shakuhachi Piece
to be Experienced, Internalized ...
L: 'Chōshi' notation by Tanikita Muchiku, no date.
C: 'Chōshi' notation by Ozawa Seizan, 1977.
R: 'Chōshi' notation by Nishimura Kokū, no date.
'Chōshi': The names of the melody tones.
Western 5-staff system transcription of 'Chōshi'; by Torsten Olafsson, 1981.
'Chōshi', melodic characteristics: Stepwise pitch changes and gliding pitch changes, 1981.
The basic, most important pitches, their scale functions and their pitch and sound names in Japanese, notated in so-called 'kata-kana' script:
Step 1, the fundamental: 'Ro'
Step 3, the minor 3rd: 'Tsu'
Step 4, the quarter: 'Re'
Step 4.5, the half tone lowered 5th: 'U'
Step 5, the pure 5th: 'Chi'
Step 7, the 7th: 'Ha'
Step 8, the octave: 'I'/'Ro'
'Chōshi' form and tension-release analysis, 1981.
Myōan Taizan-ha 'Shakuhachi' tonal pitches and their Japanese names, February 18, 1981.
Myōan Taizan-ha: The first 9 'Kyoku' pieces, "Melodic Contour Typology" analysis, February 18, 1981.
L: 'Chōshi' notation by Kobayashi Shizan (?), no date.
R: 'Chōshi' notation by Higuchi Taizan, no date.
'Hon shirabe', a.k.a. 'Chōshi', modern Kinko-ryū Shakuhachi Tradition.
Source: Yokoyama Katsuya c/o Tai Hei Shakuhachi, Willits, California.
L: Photo of Matsumoto Kyozan; picture meta info says "March 3, 2014",
but the actual year of the announced event, "Tuesday-Wednesday November 5-6",
can so far not be determined precisely.
Source: https://www.mahoroba-jp.net/newblog/?p=11046
R: Matsumoto's 'Tani-ha' tradition notation of 'Chōshi', dated 1985.
To be continued, expanded ... Cheers :-) Torsten Olafsson, Denmark, late 2025.