Old Japanese music performed in Moscow

Music lovers in Russia can find a wide range of musical styles, including quite unusual ones, to please their ears. If you like the sound of the Far East, a concert of Japanese “music from the Middle Ages” has been performed in Moscow.

The concert was organised in the museum of Nikolay Rerikh, also known as Nicholas Roerich, who was a famous Russian painter and spiritual teacher in the first half of the 20th century. He was highly interested in Eastern culture.

Two musicians from companies called “Wa-on” and the “Pan Asian ensemble” played traditional Eastern musical instruments. One of them is the shakuhachi, a Japanese end-blown wooden flute. Another is the koto, a stringed instrument, originally introduced to Japan from China.

“The Koto has 13 strings, which symbolise the thirteen months of the moon calendar,” explained Dmitry Kalinin, the koto player. “And the whole instrument can be regarded as a model of a microcosm, the upper part of it symbolising the sky, while the under part is the earth.”

Before the concert began the audience had been warned that the compositions performed would not sound that tuneful and melodious.

While composing these musical pieces, Japanese creators try to speak about images they've seen, to reproduce their impressions and memories. This music may seem strange when you heard for the first time, but then it often fascinates listeners. More and more people become interested in its magnetising and seductive style.