Classical Style

Good Friends:

A while back I read The Road to Komatsubara by Steven D. Carter. It is an analysis of Renga in the classical period using a solo Renga by the poet Sogi as the centerpiece. During the period this book covers the 100 Verse Form, known as a Hyakuin, was the norm.

One of the things that struck me was how closely the esthetic of Renga fits with the esthetic of the classical period of music in the west. I came away from my reading thinking that the closest analog for Sogi in the West is specifically the classical composer Franz Joseph Haydn, and the classical period of music in general.

For Sogi, and for the period in which he wrote in general, a Renga is a highly structured form of poetry. Subjects are located in the Renga at specific places and the Renga poet is expected to know these placements and abide by them, and there are many additional regulations as well.

Classical music has a similar structure. Themes are introduced at set places, they last for a given amount of time, or measures. In other words both the Renga poet of Sogi's time and the classical composer of Haydn's pour their creativity into a pre-established formal structures. Listeners of classical music knew what to expect, just as readers of Renga knew the rules governing Renga form.

The overall structure is also similar. The "Jo-Hya-Kyu" or "Introduction - Development - Close" of Renga resembles the structure of the Sonata Form in music, brought to perfection by Haydn. The Sonata Form starts with an Introduction where themes are presented, followed by a develoment section which, like the "Hya" of a Renga, can be relatively free, even experimental, concluding with a recapitulaton. A difference between the two is that the closing section of a Renga is not a recapitulation of the opening. It is more like the end of a journey. The overall feeling of the two forms, however, has many similarities.

There is another similarity between Renga and Classical Period Music; and that is the self-effacing nature of the two arts. By self-effacing I mean that Classical Music and Renga are primarily crafts rather than means for self-expression. It has often been noted that in the classical period it is sometimes difficult to know, upon first hearing, whether a specific piece is by Mozart or Haydn or some other period composer. This is because the formal structure was shared by all composers and its constraints were broadly accepted. Composers didn't think of their job as the creation of new forms for each piece; rather they worked within the formal constraints given to them. Similarly, Renga Poets work within the constraints of the Renga Form. In Renga there is a further self-effacing element; that is that usually Renga are written by more than one person and when this is the case the Renga is not a single person's expression, rather the poem emerges as an interaction among those participating.

This is one of the reasons why I like Renga. Writing Renga is a kind of craft, like a potter making a teacup. Every teacup has a roughly similar shape; but given that basic shape there is ample room for the potter to produce something unique. Similarly, every Renga has a basic strucuture, but given that structure there is ample room for each Renga, and for each Renga poet, to offer something unique. Just as the potter doesn't think of the basic shape of a teacup as a restriction, so also the Renga poet doesn't think of the rules governing renga as restrictive; rather they are an opportunity to shape words into significant form in the way a potter shapes clay, in the way a carpenter shapes wood, in the way a baker shapes flour for bread.

Best wishes,

Jim