During a course on classical Japanese (kobun 古文) last semester, we were introduced to a particularly well-known Heian-era poem titled Iroha – famous for using all characters of the Japanese syllabary exactly once².

Attributed to Kūkai (founder of the Japanese Esoteric sect of Buddhism), the layered meaning of the poem (and the fact we had to be able to recite it for my exam) struck a chord with me. I wrote a short melody to help me memorize it properly and, after my exam period, spent some time getting acquainted with electronic music composition in order to further expand upon that melody.

いろは歌

I begin most of my compositions by playing the piano. I tried to create an otherwordly, esoteric vibe through constant shifts in modulation and relying on ninths and dissonance in the melody. Once I had my base backing track done, I spread the different lines across piano, pan drum and some ambient pads, wrote a sparse drum-track using chimes, woodblocks and taiko and practically drowned the whole in reverb.

The vocalist’s thin, airy voice works especially well for the kind of setting I hoped to express. The second half in particular used heavily distorted samples of her voice in an attempt to derail and build up tension in similar fashion (hopefully) to the original poem. It also allowed me to become better acquainted with filters and techniques commonly used in electronic music.

Several authors debated a hidden message in the original Man’yō-gana version of the text, by putting together the last syllable of each line, which could be read as toka [toga] nakute shisu (咎無くて死す, ‘die without sin’). I tried to incorporate this in the song as some form of hidden message, using distorted whispers.

For the YouTube video I created a wallpaper using a photograph I once took at the grave of Tokugawa Ieyasu in Nikko. At the time of the picture, a typhoon rapidly approached our region and due to heavy rainfall, we were practically alone. Nonetheless, the storm’s influence on the ancient cryptomeria forest and the bronze urn of Tokugawa Ieyasu left for a breathtaking and very humbling sight.

I did a bit of editing and used several free Japanese calligraphy fonts to display the contents of the poem. I found the english translation, by Esoteric Buddhist specialist Prof. Dr. Ryūichi Abe, to be particularly poetic and fitting for the kind of atmosphere I tried to create.

That’s it for now! I’m in the process of rearranging and mixing several compositions in my spare time so I’ll be sure to post here when I have something new tangible. I’m still really new to composing music digitally, so all feedback is welcome!

Further reading

• The Japanese Page: Iroha: aside from providing further insight in the history of the poem, the writer made an interesting in-depth analysis of each phrase of the poem, definitely worth reading!