Local musician explores spirituality through Japanese flute

Vlastislav Matoušek is no stranger to readers of The Prague Post. As we reported earlier this year, Matoušek was one of a group of music lovers who built their own guitars during communism.

From those makeshift beginnings, Matoušek's musical tastes broadened to embrace many instruments and genres from rock to European folk as well as oriental influences. Today, Matoušek is one of the world's leading shakuhachi players.

The shakuhachi is a traditional Japanese bamboo flute, long associated with the Buddhist monks of the Fuke sect, for whom the instrument was principally a means of practicing a type of meditation called Suizen. They would also travel around medieval Japan playing the instrument for alms, their faces covered by the distinctive wickerwork helmet, which resembles an upturned basket.

In more recent years, the shakuhachi has become increasingly incorporated into Western music. Both avant-garde and soundtrack composers have employed the instrument's distinctive sound. Synthesized shakuhachi sounds were also popular with '80s performers like Echo and the Bunnymen and Peter Gabriel.

In contrast, Matoušek's approach to the instrument is avowedly spiritual. When asked what first attracted him to it, he said, "It was this connection to spiritual life, especially Buddhism."

"At first, it was spiritual practice. Not music, or music in the second place," he added.

Given Matoušek's already wide musical palate, the addition of the shakuhachi to his repertoire is not surprising. He was familiar with it from contemporary art music, but a performance of traditional Japanese music at Branické divadlo cemented his love for the sound and, more importantly, what it expressed.

"This man came on stage in a kimono with this big piece of bamboo, and stood for half an hour and played these long tones. Nothing changed. It was some kind of mystical ritual. It was something which I had never heard before, and it very deeply moved me," he said.

Matoušek quickly started playing the instrument and even tried making his own, having some experience with making his own fujara, the traditional Slovak shepherd's pipe. Soon after, Matoušek was given the opportunity to study the shakuhachi in Japan under two of its most esteemed teachers.

Being a multi-instrumentalist provided him with some foundation in the basics.

"Every wind instrument has its own character and tradition," he said. "The principles are similar, and if you play one flute, you can play another, but the shakuhachi is one of the most difficult to play."

When asked about this difficulty, he pauses for a moment and said, "It's very similar to studying Zen Buddhism. Only a few people are so brave and patient to do such a thing."

As for its use in compositions, Matoušek spoke enthusiastically about the instrument's unique tonal color.

"The tone color is very special," he said. "From the first tone, you can recognize it is shakuhachi. This special tone production is so characteristic, it can't be produced by another instrument."

Matoušek then demonstrated that character, cross legged on the floor of his apartment, which is something of a shrine to music with its walls of CDs and scores and instruments placed randomly about.

The piece he played was one of his own compositions called Inside the Circle, the score of which is circular, the player following the bars around as they would do with the hours of the clock. The notes are arranged both palindromically and symmetrically, so it sounds the same played in both directions. It is a musical representation of Matoušek's views of the circularity of life. The music itself was richly textured, quivering and rolling. It is an almost perfect union of music and sound.

"I'm in such a phase of my life in which music that is not spiritual does not interest me. I never do things which are not connected to any kind of spirituality. It has to be some sacred text," he said. "That is why I don't write operas or musicals anymore because I'm not satisfied with this world of drama. All of my latest compositions are looking for some kind of spirituality."

While Matoušek's concerns are metaphysical, he does not restrict his playing or compositions to traditional styles. His piece Waves, performed at this year's fifth Prague Shakuhachi Festival, demonstrated his modern sound and sensibility.

Scored for shakuhachi and theremin, Waves presented the flute as more than an instrument adding exotic flavor. The two instruments formed not so much a soundscape but a sound tapestry, tightly woven, but the texture of each distinct. Moreover, the sound of one emphasized a particular characteristic of the other. The theremin sounded almost organic while the shakuhachi's range was fully coaxed out.

If this year's festival was any indication, shakuhachi playing is a broad church. This simple bamboo flute evokes both a timelessness while simultaneously opening composers, players and audiences to new aural horizons.

Ryan Scott can be reached at
features@praguepost.com