Tanabata: Star Festival of the Seventh Night
by Kento Watanabe

Performed by Reigakusha (ryūteki, hichiriki, shō), Momenta Quartet (string quartet), and Cris Ryan (narrator).



“Tanabata” is a musical representation with spoken narration of the folklore surrounding the Japanese star festival called “Tanabata”. Tanabata means “evening of the seventh”, and celebrates the annual intersection of the stars Vega and Altair. The folklore is a romantic telling of this astrological event, where Vega and Altair are personalized as the Princess Orihime and the Cow-herder Hikoboshi. The story is about star-crossed lovers who are only allowed to meet once a year in the heavens. Orihime is represented by the Japanese flute “Ryuteki”, and Hikobishi by the bright, oboe-like “Hichiriki”. Orihime's father, who is the ruler of the heavens is represented by the Japanese mouth-organ “Sho”. Each of these instruments represent each of these characters behind a background of the string quartet, representing the space of the heavens. Narration of the folktale itself accompanies the whole piece, guiding the listener through the whole folktale.

Tanabata: Star Festival of the Seventh Night

An electronic piece I wrote using sounds from a recording of "In Dreams I go to You" in "Heian Dreams": http://soundcloud.com/wkento2/in-dreams

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