This year it is not so cold right now and there will be no white Christmas in Vienna. Back when I first came to Vienna, I was riding the streetcar and heard two girls talking about white Christmas. According to them, there absolutley must be snow at Christmas. On that day I was indeed snowing heavily and in that year there was really a white Christmas. But recently there have not been white Christmases. On TV they said that snow for Christmas in Vienna is actually rather rare historically. However, we would like to dream about white Christmas, how about your city…?
Ever since I was a child, I listened to Samson François’ (pianist) music with passion. Back then I could not exactly understand my fascination with his music. Also when I was studying the piano, besides my fascination I always asked why he played differently than what was written in the scores. Later I changed my major from piano to voice and the beginning was quite difficult becuase in my head I was still in an instrument mindset. After continuously studying and also with good teachers, I understood bit by bit what singing is and what voice is. When I watched the video above, I felt deeply moved by it and something within me felt as though a big riddle had been cleared up. Out of joy I almost feel like crying. I want to ever more deeply study voice and because of watching this interview I think that I have not been “singing” enough. I feel motivated to “sing”.
Here is a brief overview of what he is saying:
He is not looking for virtuosity, speed or technique necessarily. He is constantly looking for the melodic curve. Rhythm must not be ignored, that is anti-musical. When one sings, one does not think about rhythm, rhythm comes after melody. Rhythm is a function of melody. As examples Beethoven and Schumann are architecturally constructed pieces. He seeks to go from note to the next note. In order to find the melody it is allowed to ignore a little bit the rhythm. When he sees a piece, he thinks about how he would sing it. He tries to sing with the piano. In order to feel music, one has to sing it.
It has gotten cold and I heard that the flu season has already started. “You will go to the peak of En Vogue” my doctor in Japan said to me when I was a child. He knew me very well and he meant that not in the sense of clothes but my being the first to get influenza. I think that I always take good care of my health but this winter it seems that I am “En Vogue” again. I am feeling better now but still cannot practice singing just yet, which is very hard for me. In Japan many people wear masks against influenza but here in Austria that is forbidden by law. The current government decided that this is considered “hiding your face” (meant as a law against terror). In Austria there is no custom of wearing a mask in everyday life. In different countries there are different customs. Nothing can be done against that. In Japan it is common to gargle, which is not “illegal” in Austria but maybe not as common (in German it is called “gurgeln”). I alwas gargle when I get back to my apartment but still once a year I catch something. My Austrian husband seldom gargles and seldom gets sick, I find that unfair！ Usually I only use water or slightly salted water to gargle. When one already has a sore throat, then it is of course good to use some medicine to gargle. In my experience this is quite effective against a sore throat. A long time ago in Japan I read a tragic story about that topic. A small child used salted water and accidentally swallowed it. This child then died because of it. I feel so sorry because gargle is meant to be beneficial for health but such an accident happened. This child used way too much salt and being very young it was fatal. When I gargle, I often think about that child and that I should be careful.
I don’t know why but I like this picture. I have never noticed such a cleaning vehicle. Maybe some time in Italy I did in fact see it but especially in front of a sexy mannequin it caught my attention. Three wheels and small. How cute! Thanks for doing a good job! 何故かわからないけど私はこの写真が好きです。私はこんな清掃車に気がついたことがありませんでした。多分、イタリアですでに見ていたのでしょうけど、セクシーなマネキンの前でとても目をひかれました。3輪で、なんだかかわいい…。清掃車の方、お疲れ様！
Yuka Simeno – Soprano 示野由佳 ソプラノ Hina Oono – Piano大野日菜 ピアノ Ryutaro Hirota – Composer 弘田龍太郎 作曲 Meishu Kashima – Lyrics鹿島鳴秋 作詞 From the CD “Japanese Songs” (2011) CD「日本の歌より」（2011年）から My hometown of Aki in Kochi prefecture is the birthplace of Ryutaro Hirota.私の故郷、高知県安芸市は弘田龍太郎の誕生地です。 Synopsis of the contents: On the shore in blue moonlight, chirping birds are looking for their parents and are born out of the land of waves. Silver coloured wings. The sadness of the birds chirping in the night. Looking for their parents, they traverse the sea. They disappear into the land of the moonlight. Hamachidori with silver wings.
今日、ウィーンは雪が降って、とても寒いです。こんな日には、この曲を思い出します。この曲を歌う時、私は、祖父、示野米次郎を想います。Today it is cold in Vienna and it is snowing. On a day like this I remember this song. When I sing this song, i think about my grandfather Yonejiro Shimeno.
When I was a child, I had a small stuffed toy dog named Patrasch. This name comes from the novel “A dog from Flanders”. I found this toy dog at a school bazaar and my mother bought it for me. Because some schoolgirl had made it, it was not stuffed properly and therefore could not sit properly. In this novel, the dog was mistreated, almost died, and was subsequently saved by a boy and his grandfather. Not being able to sit properly, it reminded me of the dog in the novel and so I gave him the same name “Patrasch” as in the novel. Oh how much I loved this novel! This is a very famous story and I suppose I do not have to explain it. When I started living in Vienna, often there was on TV the Japanese series of this novel. I had not seen it in Japan but my Japanese friend in Vienna was a big fan of it and she said that the name of the boy is different in Japan than in the German translation. In the German version the title is “Niklaas, a boy from Flanders”. As a child, this friend had seen it on TV in Japan every time and every time she cried and she always took it to heart that she should be a “good child” like this boy. I think the “good child” aspect is an important part of this novel. The boy had the talent of drawing but his house was very poor and still he used to draw when he had the time. His wanting to draw is his naive urge of expression coupled with talent. Like his character “good child”, his art was also “naive”. I think every artist should never lose this “naivety”. Not only the title and the name is different, also the ending of the series is different. In the German version, instead of the boy and dog dying in a church, a narrator says they are being found by a friend and later this boy becomes a big painter. I think one of the most important points in this story is the death of this boy. Because he stays naive and pure. In this story there are different points to contemplate such as social problems, inequality, etc. For me the most important is naivety and purity. Naturally, all artists have the feeling of wanting to be sucessful and famous. However I think at the very beginning there is always the naive and pure urge of expression. This story is a support for my heart.
子供の頃、「パトラシュ」という名の犬のぬいぐるみを持っていました。「フランダースの犬」の物語からの命名です。ある学校のバザーで売られていたのを、母が買ってくれました。生徒さんの作品なので、しっかり中身が詰めれておらず、足がぐにゃりとして、ちゃんと座ることができませんでした。この物語では、乱暴に扱われ、死にかけていた犬を、少年と彼のおじいさんが救います。座ることのできないぬいぐるみに、この弱った状態の犬、パトラシュを連想させられたことから、同じ名前で呼ぶことにしたのです。それに、何と言っても、私はこの物語が大好きだったからです！ とても有名な物語なので、私が内容をここで述べる必要はないと思います。私がウィーンに住み始めた頃、テレヴィでこの物語の日本のアニメシリーズをよく放映していました。私は日本で見る機会はなかったのですが、ウィーンで知り合った日本人の友達はこのアニメの大ファンで、日本のオリジナルと吹き替えのドイツ語版は、主人公の少年の名前が違う、と言ってました。ドイツ語版ではタイトル名も違っていて「フランダースの少年ニクラース（Niklaas, ein Junge aus Flandern）」といいます。この友達は、子供の頃、このアニメが放映される度、号泣して、主人公の少年のような「いい子」になろう、と思ったそうです。 この物語は、主人公の少年が「いい子」であることが、重要な点だと思います。少年は絵の才能に恵まれていて、家はとても貧しいけれども、時間のある時は絵を描いています。少年の絵を描きたいという純粋な欲求は、彼の才能と結びついた表現です。少年の性格である「いい子」と同様に、彼の芸術も「純粋」です。私は、芸術家は皆、このような「純粋さ」を忘れてはならないと思います。 主人公の名前とタイトル名だけでなく、ドイツ語版はこのアニメの最後も違います。パトラシュと少年が教会の中で亡くなるのではなく、「友達に発見され、少年は大画家になります」というようなナレーションが入るのです。私は、この物語の中で少年が亡くなることはとても重要と思います。なぜなら彼は、それにより、永遠に「純粋」なままだからです。 この物語には、社会の問題や不平等他、様々な考えさせられる点があると思います。その中でも、私にとって、最も大切と受けとめていたいのは「純粋さ」です。芸術家は誰でも、成功したい、有名になりたいという気持ちがあると思います。しかし、もとの始まりは、「純粋な表現への欲求」だったのではないでしょうか。 この物語は私の心の大きな支えです。
At Vienna City Conservatory (now MUK) I had to take “Sprechen” as a compulsory course. Those are lessons for actors and singers with the aim of developing beautiful German pronounciation for our work. My teacher was Prof. Ferdinand Kaup, a famous actor, who appeared in plays at Burgtheater Wien and Television series. After studying the basics, he told me to bring a book or a text of my own choice for studying. One time I studied the childrens’ book “Frederick” with him. This book I found by chance at a bookstore. It is a childrens’ book with illustrations and it is about a mouse named Frederick and his mice friends. I thought that I could read it with my teacher. As I had thought, Prof.Kaup’s interpretation was quite interesting. Of course it was very difficult for me but it was a lot of fun impersonating a mouse. Recently in Japan I found a Frederick figure and for the first time I heard that it is in fact a very famous story. I think Frederick stands for all artists. While other mice were working and collecting food for winter in their shed, Frederick enriched his inner inspiration and artistic seeds. And in winter in the shed when the mice were bored, Frederick let his artistry unfold and told a story. The other mice were happy about that. Because I am a singer, if I could somehow make people happy through my music, that would be wonderful. This story always serves as my support. Since I have a cold right now, I cannot practice and have to recover from it, but I am saving my imagination for study…
Right now I am in northern Italy to have voice lessons from my teacher. For the first time I am staying at an agricultural property. Here at this property I am amazed that it was constructed with wheelchair accessibility in mind since it is almost barrier-free inside the rooms and also between the buildings. It is very nice that people have such considerations and I think that there should be more and more such buildings all over. There is also a playground for children, a large garden to take walks and it is for everyone. Surely in summer there will be many guests enjoying this property during their vacation. We all are sharing this earth and together we should aspire to a better future…
When I sarted to live in Europe, I saw Advent calendar for the first time. There are different sizes, ranging from postcard size up to poster size, and others are even the size of parts of buildings (for example the one in front of City Hall in Vienna). Today I saw this one in the centre of Torino, Italy. Often it is some kind of painting with windows that show the day-date on the outside and are opened on that day. Inside the windows are some decorations such as paintings or words and I heard that also there are those which have sweets hidden behind the windows. From the first of December, every day another window is opened and people look forward to Christmas. In Japan there is a childrens’ song “How many more nights do we sleep until New Year…”. In Japan, the first day of January is a traditional big event. Families gather, special foods are served and children receive money as gifts from older people. The time of crossing over to the New Year has deep religious meaning in Japan. Temple bells are rung 108 times, many people visit temples or shrines and it is a time of introspect contemplating the new year and wishing for good things to come, etc. I think it is a little bit like Christmas, when families gather and some go to church. By the way, recently in an American sitcom it was shown as though Japanese people celebrate the arrival of the New Year with fireworks. This is totally incorrect.
It is often said “My life is only once”. I totally agree with that. Every life is precious because everyone is unique. Because life is only once, I think it is very important to make the best of it. I do not criticize those who may decide to end their own life, but if there is any possibility at all, we all should try to live. Maybe soon the perspective changes and becomes totally different. And the thing I absolutely categorize as bad is when someone prevents, damages or intentionally limits someone else’s life (not in case of accidents). I think those people really do not understand the precious value of our unique lives, which are only once…
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