Performance. Before the actual performance starts i thought i would say a few brief words about what Japanese Chamber music means. There are quite a Different Number of Japanese Chamber music. What you will hear today however is a musical form that was transmitted by a specific group of musicians. All of the musicians by definition were blind males. The significance of this genre is perhaps at most notable for the aesthetic quality of its pieces of some of the great art works of this period and are represented by these artists which will appearing in the second piece. Despite of this high aesthetic quality or the value of the repertoire itself the musicians were professional musicians and expected to perform a wide variety of pieces, and as such this does not represent one genre. Rather this is a collection of different genres that were practiced by different musicians and within this group of different pieces you have everything from extraordinarily silly pieces and for example the first piece to the great art works of 18 19th century japan. The first piece this is very much a comic piece, and i do hope that you had type to look at the text of the program. I apologize for the formatting however my talents do not lay in the area of design. What i had hoped to do so you have line by line happening and the english equivalent and those of you that have not had a chance to look at the text very briefly this is a parody of buddhist ritual. A priest decides he is going to show the powers of mystic buddhism and he appears and on the alter with different sorts ofornmen of owns and then progresses through profound things and all of these are tongue twisters but its the first round of tongue twisters nothing happens and the priest is very upset and blushes extraordinary red and he tries again. The second time the chants are much shorter and he begins to lose his patience and again nothing happens. Third time nothing happens and he basically says how much time to turn to the wonderrous powers of the lotus set raand he does chanting and the parody is Something Like if anyone is old enough to remember and the mouse before vatican two and you dont understand anything and its mumbo jump bow and this is a parody of that. The second and third pieces before the intermission i will not introduce. I think the Program Notes are sufficient and rather than lecture i would much rather you enjoy the performance. The one thing i would like to emphasize about the first piece this is indeed a comic piece and in most instances westerners have a great problem when they come to a concert of Classical Music and view it as this is supposed to be serious music. This is not serious music and i would ask to you laugh. You are welcome to laugh. You may laugh. You need to practice laughing. We can progress all right. Now, for those of you that find laughing difficult ladies and gentlemens you can at this timtiter in a nice way andf you want to be butch about it do the manly thought. Please this isnt a work of aesthetic value it should be seen as humorous. As i of practicing this piece i can assure you and my ability for tongue twisters in english is limited let alone in japanese so if you see me stop and the priest turn extraordinarily red its because i had a booboo. If you will excuse me. music this is the sort of thing you dont normally see. This would be a curtain and the oil makes it easier to play. music speaking japanese