As Niibori guitars have their origins in Japan, the expectation would be that NUS Guitar Ensemble (GENUS), Singapore’s first Niibori guitar ensemble, would have a strong Japanese resonance. However, each presentation by GENUS in recent years has taken on a broadly international and contemporary flavour.

In an effort to blend cultures and test the range of Niibori guitars, Horizons, returns GENUS to its Japanese roots with an unprecedented collaboration with the NUS Koto Ensemble (KotokottoN). The guitar and the koto (a traditional Japanese zither) will showcase seamless transitions between Japanese and Western classical pieces, and celebrate the ability of music to bring us new ways of seeing and experiencing culture.

As part of our exploration into the NUS Arts Festival 2020 concept Ways of Seeing, we had the opportunity to interview Dr Robert Casteels and the students from GENUS to ask them how they approached this challenge and what led them to this unusual collaboration.

What was the rationale behind the pieces you selected for this performance and how do they support the Festival’s theme; Ways of Seeing?

The pieces I selected to include in this production had to meet three criteria. They had to:

• fit with the our three-year plan and the Festival’s theme;
• be challenging whilst remaining within GENUS’s technical abilities; and they must
• be varied in style and emotional content so as to sustain audience interest.

The final repertoire includes pieces for guitar orchestra, for koto ensemble and for both instruments together. It demonstrates how civilisations as far apart as Europe and Japan have taken as a departure point the same reality of a plucked string producing sound, yet they reach completely different outcomes.

Ways of Seeing is firstly about ways of understanding.

What are the techniques used to enable the student musicians to demonstrate the theme/message effectively?

The whole range of guitar and koto techniques are being used, such as the choice of fingering and strings, types of digital plucking, precise location of the plucking on the string, balance between the sections, textural and timbral variations, tempo fluctuations, etc.

In what way do you want the audience to engage with Horizons?

I hope that the audience will see the carefully rehearsed and precisely executed stage movements, body language and facial expression of the players, note the content in the programme, the Emcee’s verbal transitions, the technical achievements, the sheer sonic beauty and, above all, the artistic sincerity.

For music making to be meaningful, engagement with the audience is key. Otherwise it would be a waste of resources, money, time and energy!

What do you hope to learn from this collaboration with KotoKottoN?

While GENUS is not new to collaborations, we hope to venture out of our comfort zone and explore new forms of collaboration with KotoKottoN. Beyond just working together during the rehearsal and performance process, we are looking at ways to interweave the guitar and the koto right from the start of the process of designing the repertoire. Rather than simply tapping into existing works, our production features new arrangements that blend guitar and koto parts, as well as modified versions of existing Niibori pieces to explore how the koto can be incorporated to complement the textures of the guitar.

Another learning point we hope to achieve is a greater consciousness of the importance of cultural influences in the music that we play. Our choice to collaborate with a koto ensemble, pays homage to the Japanese cultural influences that the contemporary guitar ensemble scene – one that originated in the West – has been infused with. We are excited to explore the cultural diffusions and divergences that have characterised the history of music, and reflect more deeply upon the ways Japanese culture has influenced the music we play.

Which piece in particular showcases the juxtaposition and fusion of the guitar and koto?

I believe that this is demonstrated most clearly by the centrepiece of our concert, which brings together selected movements from two classics in Japanese and Western repertoire: Rokudan no Shirabe, one of the most widely-known Japanese koto pieces, and Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 in F Major, one of the most highly-acclaimed works by influential Baroque composer J.S. Bach. Our rendition will feature KotoKottoN and GENUS performing our respective parts in an alternating structure with seamless transitions between the movements.

These pieces were selected for our performance because they were composed in the same period but in two distant parts of the world. By playing them in this way, we hope to showcase the equivocal contrasts and commonalities that blend the two pieces together, in line with the aim of Horizons to showcase a cultural celebration.

Would you be disappointed if your audience views Horizons as an entertaining showcase of Western and Japanese compositions and not as intended; to showcase a cultural celebration?

Definitely not! We believe that the ways of interpreting and appreciating music varies with the audience, and, in line with the NUS Arts Festival 2020 theme, Horizons hopes to celebrate the many different ways of seeing.

What Horizons seeks to offer its audience is a diverse musical experience that brings together a thoughtful selection of pieces from various cultural influences. Being able to appreciate both Western and Japanese music, as well as recognise that the two categories often diffuse into each other and are rarely performed in silos, is a stepping stone to realising the full potential of music to help us see, experience, and celebrate culture, and hopefully to inspire the audience to explore more diverse types of music.

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Horizons by NUS Guitar Ensemble with Dr Robert Casteels and featuring NUS KotoKottoN (sub-club supported by both Centre For Language Studies and Department of Japanese Studies) is part of the NUS Arts Festival 2020: Ways of Seeing. Visit the festival online for more details.