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gackt_army2009-07-13 05:17 pm
To celebrate the successful finish to the RnRII lives
THAT VIOLIN DUET
In many fan reports of the RnRII lives, the unaccompanied violin duet which Gackt plays with You is mentioned as special. I thought I would try to describe something about this duet as, for me also, it was notable – in fact, it was probably the one single item I enjoyed most in the whole concert.
Gackt himself talks about the duet fairly extensively in the “Ghost keyword” interview appearing in the February 2009 issue of Arena 37C. However, he doesn’t say anything about the inspiration for the music itself (more of that later).
What he does say is that the visual impact was so important that he and You had to de-nature themselves as violinists and use counter-intuitive bow strokes; specifically, where a musical phrase would naturally be played in one long bow stroke, they deliberately chose to use maybe two or three strokes to play the same number of notes. The effect of this was to increase the amount of arm movement in the sight of the audience, which exhibits a heightening in passion, in emotion, in the interaction of and sympathy between the two players.
With a violin, each player both puts into and draws out of the instrument, creating a voice unique to that player and that violin.
The player puts in with arm energy and by the amount of bow hair which s/he chooses to allow to make contact with the string. The player draws out sound by the same bow hair and by the subtle use of body contact with the same string, most commonly by vibrato (a shaking in the wrist to make miniscule variations in pitch). In the Arena 37C interview, Gackt says that he has become very struck by the violin and how the production of sound from the violin, including by vibrato, can teach him more about how to sing.
The passionate and intimate nature of the duet is emphasized to the audience by the settings of volume and stage.
Considering volume, two single lines of music, each drawn from an acoustic violin, contrasts significantly with the studio-mastered and loud nature of the prerecorded sound-track that accompanies most of the rest of the concert; this creates a dramatic climax despite (because of) the reduction in volume and through the concentration of audience attention on these two twined musical “voices”.
The stage setting is again a contrast with the rest of the concert, as the preceding piano solo (“Sayonara”) allows the lights to be reduced to a small focus on the middle of the steps which link the higher stage area (where the piano is) with the lower floor level. Meanwhile, a large soft-coloured moon rises behind the windows which are the back-drop. You (the more experienced violinist) stands on a higher level, with Gackt slightly nearer the audience but lower. The rest of the stage is in darkness; your eyes have no choice but to be filled with Gackt and You and the moon.
The music itself displays the passion of French Romantic music, which Gackt has said, in interviews much earlier in his career, was a powerful influence on his musical taste and on his compositions. That the duet shows a similar emotion and drama is not surprising, as I believe that its theme comes from the 19thC French composer Saint-saens; the start of the duet seems to be taken from the opening bars of “Le cygne” (the swan) from Saint-saens’ Carnival of the Animals. The original is scored for solo cello and orchestra and is in 6/4 time (that is to say, it has a steady beat but a swaying rhythm); the original time signature gives the quality of grace and stateliness. Gackt seems to have changed the time signature (possibly to 4/4 or 2/2 – on a single hearing back in March, I’m not too sure!) in a way that allows greater movement both physically and in terms of the emotional dialogue between the two musicians. My take on the significance of this dialogue is that its passion represents a personal confession of the loyalty, commitment and affection that humans are capable of, beyond war, beyond circumstance, beyond science.
Gackt finishes his Arena 37C interview by emphasizing that the communication by the violinists to even the person in the furthest seat at the back (I think that might have been me!) has to be by physical gesture as well as by the sound of the music. The essence of a concert, he says, is in performance rather than noise. With the RnRII violin duet, he certainly gave a very magical performance to convey much of the humanity which was a core message of the rest of the concert.
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Gackt himself says that the production of a note from the violin is more similiar to singing than to striking a note on the piano, where the pitch cannot be varied by the player. He goes on to explain how he uses flat-ness or sharp-ness of tuning to emphasize the minor or major quality of tonality. This, of course, is not possible with a piano where the piano-tuner fixes the pitch of the notes for you! It IS possible on a synthesizer/electronic keyboard with a pitch-bender.
Yes, that duet performance was quite riveting - and I was so impressed that the audience went as silent as a rock - not even breathing! - for its whole length.
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I really wanted to give this explanation so that people can watch that item on the DVD knowing more about what Gackt is doing with these two little acoustic instruments, singing alone into his RnRII night.
[ Such a clever icon you have there, btw! ]
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But your post just almost made me feel, see and hear it all again, as clear as if it was now... and made me cry T_T
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As you know, it's taken me a long time to untangle and unstrangle my thoughts on this concert. Without that (being able to un-hook the emotional grab from the objective content), I really don't have any coherence and anything I write will not be intelligible. It has taken a long while (for me - usually I can sort my thoughts out fairly instantly!) and, now, I have other little points that I'd like to make about the concert - some information, some ideas, some pieces of critical reaction.
Well, if you can replay your RnRII memories, that is good. Gackt's work is never usually disposable - even he recycles and replays his own themes, no? If you have cried during your RnRII replay, I hope that it is in a good way - to deepen the etching of the message and not to strengthen anything negative about yourself. Gackt's RnRII messages were so big and so serious that I really admired the way that he managed to put the furry cats and the dancing into the same programme! (It's something that probably impossible for anyone but Gackt and Shakespeare!)
Thanks for reading the post and for leaving your comment.
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I would give everything to hear that!
Yeah I could expect that Gackt will make violin look even better in his hands.Multiple hand movements are always more interesting and make you wanna say I wanna play this!Makes your adrenalin go high! (cause sometimes violin movements can look boring)
I play piano so I don't really know the difference in the voice context due to a different strings that are being used (I've just heard about in in the classes) but I did try to play once (since I can read the notes) but it was extremely hard and I gave up in a second.
So that's why I'm amazed by ppl who can play more than one instrument because when you get used to one of them it's hard to think about how things work on another.But if you practice hard I guess that's fine.
Still Gackt is a hero for me.(it's a normal thing now XD)
Every time I play something on piano and I have troubles playing it I think of Gackt and how he pushes himself to be perfect and it goes easily.It's great to have an supporting idol. :)
Great analysis!
It's good to know that some ppl watch on that duet from the other side.With a passion and some knowledge too!
Gosh I'm dieing to hear that!
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I think Gackt really has practised very, very hard at the violin and this duet (he must have driven poor You half-crazy!). He has clearly THOUGHT about the violin and how it works very deeply but that (thinking) just doesn't help your muscles converse with the wood - there is no way to avoid the "instrument training": repeating the movements time and time again until will and result are simultaneous and a mistake becomes nearly impossible. The violin is like a weapon: you need to practise until there is no luck involved in hitting the target!
I'm pleased that you found the post useful - hopefully it will help more people when the tour DVD comes out.
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Thanks Col. Wongkk for the good job.
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You make me ache to see this performance... I wonder when he is going to release a DVD of this tour.
I love the violin (classical instruments in general, btw) and I love Gackt. Having Gackt playing the violin (or the piano, etc...) is like heaven to me.
That put aside-- No, seriously, thank you for this analysis! I loved the way you described it and how you used facts to underline your points.
I understand very well why and how much you loved this!
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I agree with you that there's nothing quite as genuine as watching Gackt playing solo (or duet) on an acoustic instrument. I still find the duets with Kami (particularly the one called in English "concerto of the ripple") completely electrifying: the timing and co-ordination is un-human!
I'm glad that you found the post interesting; I didn't want to be too academic about the topic but, from various comments and emails during the RnRII run, I was aware that quite a few fans wanted to treat the music (particularly this music) as more than just entertainment.
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I've just come back from the Saitama shows and was lucky enough to see this twice and it was a real highlight of the concert. I don't know anything about violin playing but even my untrained eyes could see how much thought and effort had been put into not only making it sound good but look stunning as well.
The duet itself was beautiful. The way their playing followed each other and then melted together was so expertly done that it was breathtaking.
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Yes, lucky you! I would have loved to have seen one of the Arena concerts but you know how unfriendly the UK-Japan exchange rate is and I can't ask for any more leave from the office at the moment so my (wonderful) memories of the Fukuoka live will have to do.
Actually, to write about the concert is now another way for me to enjoy it again so thank you for receving the post kindly.
I'm sure GACKT would be delighted to know that his hard work on the visuals of this duet paid off - and it's so good that you found it beautiful even without having any particular interest in the violin.
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The exchange rate makes me cry. I remember ordering nine*nine when it first came out and then having to pay an extra £40 for it because the exchange rate had dropped so far just in those few months. I was trying my hardest not to convert things while I was out there because I wouldn't have bought anything!
I think it would have been impossible for anyone to not appreciate the beauty of how Sayonara was staged. From beginning to end it was simply out of this world and something nobody other than Gackt would even attempt, let alone succeed at. Gah. It's giving me shivers just thinking about it and I'm sure Gackt would be happy to have read your post and the thoughts you shared with us all.
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But honestly, I think he'd be glad that his hard work is being appreciated.