The Sacred Music Center hosted a special performance event, “Sacred Voices”, in the university chapel on June 4th. Senior Associate Professor Matt Gillan, Director of the Center, planned the event with the university organist and instructor, Ms. Mamiko Iwasaki. The JICUF was honored to provide financial support for this unique initiatve.

The four-hour event brought together the musical traditions of vocal liturgies in Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Performances by the Tokyo choir Cappella Gregoriana, Imam Muhammed Raşit Alas of Tokyo Camii, U.S. Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor at Tulane University Guy Beck, and Kanshokai of the Shingon Buddhist Sect were each followed by discussions.

Cappella Gregoriana, led by Ms. Chikako Hashimoto, Director of St. Gregory House, performed Gregorian chants and invited the audience to join in. Imam Muhammed Raşit Alas presented the call to prayer (Azan) and Qur’anic recitation (Iqra). Professor Guy Beck gave the keynote speech on “Sacred Raga – Vocal Music of India”, and performed with Ms. Ayako Ikeda’s accompaniment on the Tabla. Finally, President Ryukan Kuramatsu of the Buddhist Shingon Sect’s Chisan Branch Kanshokai, gave a presentation on the shomyo*, followed by a performance by the monks of Kanshokai.

The chapel was packed with approximately 450 guests including alumni, current students and the general public. At the end of the event, all participants gathered at the altar, and the audience responded with a standing ovation. It was moving to see the representatives of four religions stand together in the chapel and appreciate the way the human voice is used in each faith to transmit sacred scriptures and communicate within diverse spiritual contexts.

*Shomyo is a classical style of Buddhist chant, used mainly in the Tendai and Shingon sects.

Professor Matt Gillan kindly took the time to share his experience with us.

JICUF: Congratulations on the successful completion of the event! Could you tell us how the idea for this event emerged and developed?

MG: The idea for the event came shortly after I became director of the Sacred Music Center in spring 2015. I have always been interested in the voice and singing, and have been carrying out a kakenhi*- sponsored project that looks at the ways people understand and learn vocal techniques in Okinawa, my main area of research. Several of my classes at ICU also deal with ritual vocal traditions around the world, including shomyo (Buddhist chanting) in Japan, Vedic chanting and later classical singing traditions in India, and koranic chanting in Islam. I am fascinated by the similarities, as well as the many differences, between these traditions, as well as those with the Christian songs and chants I had grown up with. Through talking with Mamiko Iwasaki, one of ICU’s organists, we had the idea to try and create an event where we could listen to all of these traditions together on one stage. Iwasaki-sensei was instrumental in bringing together the shōmyō and Gregorian chant groups, whom she worked with in the past, as well as providing an introduction to the Tokyo Camii mosque. Over the course of about a year we made several trips to each of these groups to learn from them and work out the best way of presenting what they do to a large audience. My connection with professor Guy Beck came through using several of his books in my classes. I contacted him out of the blue, and we were very lucky that he agreed to take time out of a research trip to Kolkata to come to Japan for this event.

*Kakenhi = Grants in Aid for Scientific Research, provided by the Ministry of Education and its affiliated organization, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

JICUF: The event was a resounding success. What were you most satisfied with?

MG: I suppose the most satisfying aspect was that so many people were interested in the event, and came up to me afterwards to say they had been moved by it. None of these traditions were originally intended as ‘performances’ in the same way that we might go and listen to a classical symphony or a jazz concert. For that reason I was slightly worried as to whether people would be willing to sit through four hours of meditative vocal chanting. My worries seem to have been unfounded, though, and the time seemed to go very quickly. From the beginning, we decided that we wanted to combine performances with more educational aspects – hence the talk sessions halfway through each performance where the performers explained what they were doing. These also seem to have been well received.

JICUF: Did you encounter any difficulties while organizing the event?

MG: For the most part, everything went very smoothly, helped by the very able staff at the SMC and the support of the JICUF. The SMC is a fairly small operation, and the staff all put in quite a lot of extra hours over the course of a year to make this happen, in addition to all the regular activities of the center.

JICUF:  What did you take away from the event, and do you have ideas for your next event?

MG: Personally, the event was a tremendous learning experience, where I was able to spend time with the performers and learn more about all the various traditions. As I mentioned before, it also brought home to me the fact that many people are interested in finding out about different cultures and faiths, and I am glad this was something we were able to facilitate at ICU. It would be great to take this forward and have another similar event in the near future. There are a few ideas floating around at the moment, and we will hopefully have something together soon.

Organist Ms. Mamiko Iwasaki sent us the following comment:

“The Qu’ran being recited, the sacred Raga being sung, and the flowers of Sange* scattered by nineteen monks inside the ICU Chapel! Who would have dreamt of such a scene? The organ inside the chapel must have been the most surprised!

When I heard that Professor Gillan, who assumed the post of Director of the Sacred Music Center, specialized in Asiatic music, my heart skipped a beat. In a class on folk music that I took in college (Tokyo University of the Arts), the late Professor Fumio Koizumi suddenly asked us, “Why do you pursue Western music?” I’ve been preoccupied with this question for a long time since then. In his seminar, I studied Indian music and Okinawan musical scale, and was deeply touched by “what is between sounds” which doesn’t exist in keyboard music.

While I have been performing for a long time as an organist, due to this exposure, I’ve always been conscious of the fact that the music I play is only a small part of the music that exists in the world.

In 2011, I had the privilege of getting to know Kuramatsu Ryukan Sensei of the Shingon Sect’s Chisan Branch, who is an authority on Shōmyō. A joint performance of organ and Shōmyō resulted from our meeting. I was honored to perform Minao Shibata’s Rishukyo and Dies Irae from “Man and Death” as well as Jin Shiratori’s “Mandala” (première). These performances were repeated in cathedrals in Germany and France. The merging of organ and Shōmyō attracted many people across borders. The idea of a symposium to appreciate the “sacred voices” of different religions began to take shape, as I recounted these events to Professor Gillan. My only contribution was to introduce Ms. Chikako Hashimoto, Director of St. Gregory House, President Ryukan Kuramatsu and Imam Muhammad Rasit Alas of Tokyo Camii to Professor Gillan. We traveled to Higashi Kurume, Yoyogi Uehara, and to the temple in Kuzuu, Tochigi Prefecture together to explain the concept of the event and discuss the program with them.

We were concerned that some parties might take offense at the idea of four different religions converging on the same stage, but everyone was gracious and agreed that something like this was necessary in present times. More than 500 people applied to attend the event, and we were busy putting together materials and discussing the program. The day before the event, Professor Beck arrived from Kolkata, India. On the morning of the event, the groups took turns rehearsing. The event itself started at 1pm and went on for four hours. We were blessed with good weather and everything went according to plan. It was a magical afternoon when we felt the blessings of different gods. This symposium couldn’t have taken place anywhere but at ICU. We are profoundly grateful to the JICUF for your support.”
*Sange is the practice of scattering flowers in Buddhist ceremonies. Originally, fresh flower petals were used, but they have been replaced by petal-shaped paper.

Thank you, Professor Gillan and Ms. Iwasaki!
Congratulations again on the success of the event and a heartfelt “otsukaresamadehsita.”
We look forward to your next project at the Sacred Music Center.