A Concert in Matsushima Coffee in Nagoya Japan

The other day, we held a concert by melodica and guitar, at Matsushima Coffee in Nagoya. Since relocating to Japan from the UK, it was our first full program performance in a long time. Initially, another melodica player was supposed to join us, but due to an unexpected illness the day before, we had to change the program at the last minute.

Along with the songs we've previously performed, we also played some pieces that, for various reasons, hadn't been showcased before. Each song holds a special place in our hearts, and we had a wonderful time sharing our music with the audience.

We hope to continue performing little by little, and we appreciate your ongoing support.

Date: 22 Jun 2024 Start 16:00

Venue:松島珈琲 (Matsushima Coffee) 〒464-0073 名古屋市千種区高見2-11-2シンワビル
Admission: Donation

Performer: Ayumi Toyama (Melodica) Ryusuke Koarashi (Guitar)

Programme:

Part I

1. M. Mirzayev - Lyrical Piece & Dance No.1 (from Six pieces based on Azerbaijani Folkloric Materials)
2. Bulgarian Folk Song - Vida Vido Byala Vido, Dilmano Dilbero
3. Templeton - Mozart A La Mode
4. Crimean Tatar Folk Song - Bahçalarda Kestane
5. Aşık Veysel - Uzun Ince Bir Yoldayım

Part II

1. A. Khachaturian - Two Funny Aunties Argued
2. R. Koarashi - A Bird Flying Over Mountains
3. G. Gasanov - Seven Lyrical Pieces based on Dagestan Folk Themes
4. R. Sakamoto - The End of Asia

After the Concert, "Music for a while"

Date: 12th May (SUN)
Time: 19:30～
Venue: East Finchley Methodist Church
High Rd., London N2 8AJ (opp.Creighton Ave)
Admission: Free Collection in aid of Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice

Programme:

Part I

1. Music for a While - H.Purcell (Vo, M & G)
2. Notturuno Op.37 - F. Molino (Vn & G)
3. Abendempfindung - W.A. Mozart (Vo & P)
4. An Chloe - W.A. Mozart (Vo & P)
5. Violin Sonata no.5 (Spring) - L.V Beethoven (Vn & P)

• I. Allegro
• II. Adagio Molto espressivo
• III. Scherzo: Allegro molto
• IV. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo

Part II

1. Pastime with Good Company - Attib. Henry VIII (P, A, U & C)
2. Frog Galliard - J. Dowland (M & G)
3. Fine Knacks for Ladies - J. Dowland (Vo, M & G)
4. Se Florindo e Fedele - A. Scarlatti (Vo, M & G)
5. Elegie - E. Satie (Vo & G)
6. La Statue de Bronze - E. Satie (Vo, M & G)
7. Pastorale - I. Stravinsky (Vo, M & G)
8. Sari Gelin - Folk Song (M & G)
9. Schafe Können Sicher Weiden (from Hunting Cantata) - J.S. Bach (M, Vn, Vo & G)

A=Andes, M=Melodica, G=Guitar, U=Ukulele, Vn=Violin,  Vo=Voice(Mezzo Soprano), C=Cajon, P=Piano

Performers:

Viola da Cunha (Mezzo Soprano)
Ayumi Toyama (Piano/Melodica/Andes)
Junko Ishigaki (Violin)
Ryusuke Koarashi (Guitar/Ukulele)
Satomi Hori (Cajon)

After the Tea Time Concert at AGE UK

Pocket Penguin(s) performed for a tea time concert at AGE UK. There were about 50 elderly people and we could play in a very warm and nice atmosphere. We especially enjoyed their participation with singing for Hymn from Jupiter. Thank you very much and we hope to come back again.

Date: 14th Feb, 2019 (Thu)
Venue: AGE UK

Performers:
Ayumi Toyama (Piano/Melodica)
Ryusuke Koarashi (Guitar/Melodica)
Junko Ishigaki (Violin)

Programme:

Part I
1. Sonatine Op. 70 - A. Diabelli (P, G & V)
2. A Bird Flying Over Mountains - R Koarashi (G & V)
3. Romanian Folk Dances - B. Bartok (G & V)
  i. Stick Dance
  ii. Sash Dance
  iii. In One Spot
  iv. Dance from Buscum
  v. Romanian Polka
  vi. Fast Dace
4. Four Short Pieces for Violin and Piano - F. Bridge (V & P)
  i. Meditation
  ii. Spring Song
  iii. Lullaby
  iv. Country Dance

Part II
1. La Cumparsita - G.M.Rodriguez (M, G & V)
2. Hymn from Jupiter - G. Holst (M, M & V)
3. Pachelbel Canon - J. Pachelbel (M, G & V)
4. Libertango - A. Piazzolla (M, G & V)

M=Melodica, G=Guitar, V=Violin, P=Piano

After the Concert at St Mary Church in Finchley

Thank you for coming all the way. We really had a great time to perform and hope you all enjoyed as well.

Date: 9th Feb (SAT）
Venue: St Mary Church at Finchley
Hendon Lane, London N3 1TR

Performers:
Ayumi Toyama (Piano/Melodica)
Ryusuke Koarashi (Guitar/Melodica)
Junko Ishigaki (Violin)

Programme:

Part I

1. Sonatine Op. 70 - A. Diabelli (P, G & V)
2. A Bird Flying Over Mountains - R Koarashi (G & V)
3. Le Montagnard - N. Coste (G & V)
4. Four Short Pieces for Violin and Piano - F. Bridge (V & P)
  i. Meditation
  ii. Spring Song
  iii. Lullaby
  iv. Country Dance

Part II

1. Jangi - U. Hajibeyov (M & G)
2. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring - J.S. Bach (M & G)
3. La Cumparsita - G.M.Rodriguez (M, G & V)
4. Romanian Folk Dances - B. Bartok (G & V)
 i. Stick Dance
 ii. Sash Dance
 iii. In One Spot
 iv. Dance from Buscum
 v. Romanian Polka
 vi. Fast Dace
5. Londonderry Air - Irish Trad. (M & G)
6. Hymn from Jupitar - G. Holst (M, M & V)
7. Pachelbel Canon - J. Pachelbel (M, G & V)
8. Libertango - A. Piazzolla (M, G & V)

M=Melodica, G=Guitar, V=Violin, P=Piano

Pocket Penguin(s) Concert on 9th Feb 2019

Pocket Penguin will be performing with a violinist, Junko Ishigaki. Hope to see you there.

Date: 9th Feb (SAT）
Start: 6:30pm　
Venue: St Mary Church at Finchley
Hendon Lane, London N3 1TR
(please do not go to church hall it will be held in CHURCH!)
Admission: Free (donations are welcome)

Performers:
Ayumi Toyama (Piano/Melodica)
Junko Ishigaki (Violin)
Ryusuke Koarashi (Guitar)

Programme:　
Trio for Violin, Guitar and Piano Op 70 (A. Diabelli)
Romanian Folk Dances for Violin and Guitar (B. Bartok)
Four Short Pieces for Violin and Piano (F. Bridge) Canon in D for Violin Guitar and Melodica (Pachelbel)
and more.

Melodica Club Concert in May, 2015

Melodica club is going to have a concert in next month. The programme will include repertoires in quite diverse styles as Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Film, Jazz, Bossa nova, and more.

Fee: Admission Free (Donation Only) Free drinks will be provided.
No under 5s.

Performers: Ayumi, Ryusuke, Rika, Yumiko, Satomi (Melodica, Guitar, Vocal)

Date: 17th May 2015 (SUN) 14:00 -15:30

Venue: Holy Trinity East Finchley Church
Church Lane, East Finchley
London N2 0TH

Contact: ukmelodica@gmail.com

Arrangement Score of ‘The Merry-Go-Round of Life’

The score of ‘The Merry-Go-Round of Life’ also became available to purchase from here (Japanese). This piece is asked to arrange by a member of Melodica club to include in the ensemble’s repertoire. I arranged it rather polyphonically as well as Carrying You, to make it idiomatically more effective and enjoyable for all the players. Three parts seem to work very good for melodica ensemble, when the register of the instrument is quite limited and the timbre is very sharp and prominent—that can crush in their overtones making a dissonance, whilst three is the minimum number that still can keep “triadic structure”.

Please feel free to ask us if you have a problem for purchasing with their translation of Japanese.

Related Article - Joe Hisaishi – The Merry Go Round of Life, for Three Melodicas

Arrangement Score of Carrying You

The score of ‘Carrying You’ became available from here (Japanese). I initially started to arrange this piece for our students (kids) to play, but as it eventually became a little more complex beyond their ability, it is played by Melodica ensemble that we organise in London. The original texture by the composer, Jo Hisaishi is rather monophonic—melody + accompaniment, but I made it more polyphonic using devices such as counterpoint, imitation that seems idiomatically more effective for melodica ensemble. And that might be more enjoyable for multi-players. Please feel free to ask us if you have a problem for purchasing with their translation of Japanese.

Related Article – Carrying you, for three melodicas

Wooden Melodica

From the end of 2014 to the beginning of 2015, Ryusuke was back in his hometown in Japan after two years. It was snowing heavily there. After finishing concerts in Aichi, he spent his time for making melodica’s cover of wood with his fathers help. We have been very interested in using different material, especially wood, for melodica, Ryusuke once tried to make a wooden cover in London in 2013, however we did not have enough tools and good material either, so he eventually stopped just before completing. Wood is probably the one of the most popular and general material for making musical instrument, even in when we can choose from most diverse materials. Currently (Jan 2015) most of the melodica on the market are made of ABS, but on the other hand, the wood pattern design on Hammond 44 or PRO-32 V2 by Suzuki seems to represent an admiration for the material by the maker or performers.



There were several wooden boards propped against the wall of his father’s studio, the wood we chose for this time was probably around 100 years old counting its dense grain, perhaps a kind of Hinoki—a Japanese (or taiwanese?) cypress, but it does not have Hinoki’s characteristic fragrance very much. According to Ryusuke’s father, the material has been there in the studio when the town was flooded in 2004, so at least for ten years.



It is very hard to make melodica from the scratch, so this time we just made the outside cover with ready-made one(inside). The working process eventually took 5-6 days. The first thing the sound tells us is that the reed decisively determines the timbral tendency that is not changed fundamentally by the outside cover. The second thing is that the wood may not always produce good, or desirable tone, even plastics might do better (here we are not saying the result of wood was bad). The tone heavily depends on what wood it is (obviously wooden material is hugely diverse), and its structure. Mere 1mm can make considerable difference on harmonic structure. Perhaps Using wood as a single material is not enough, but perhaps mixing different material is needed to reduce unnecessary harmonics. Such thing is presumably obvious for maker/player of concertina—an free reed instrument belonging in same family with Melodica, they have been making very much elaboration to acquire their desirable sound.

Throughout making, there remains many subjects on structure and material, but the timbre came to close to what we want, so we are satisfied as the first work. Regarding its timbre, we heard several people resembles it an organ (Reed organs were used for music class in primary school in Japan).



The details about its timbre will be in later article.

—Ryusuke Koarashi

El Cóndor Pasa for Melodica Trio

El Cóndor Pasa is a famous Peruvian song composed by Daniel Alomía Robles. The transient modulation in the last section is an idea from Raúl Mercado’s version.

Arranged by Ryusuke Koarashi

Performers (London Melodica Club):

Yumiko Shiratori
Ayumi Toyama
Ryusuke Koarashi

Numbness in left hand

We have not mentioned to anyone, but actually Ayumi suffered from an idiopathic numbness in her left hand for a long period in 2014. She recovered only recently. As we would have some performances around the end of the year, Ryusuke had to make repertoires which do not sacrifice her hand in the trouble.

The repertoire of Pocket Penguin—Duo Penguinistan has been made for two hands basically. Playing various kinds of music in Duo—a minimum format of ensemble—often requires many notes/voices that are not capable by just one hand. There is a way to hold the instrument vertically as many melodica players do for satisfying audience’s eyes by showing their hands and keys, but we don’t. In most cases we prefer to hold it horizontally such as a piano player, since it enables much more flexibility for both hands and it can respond to technical demands in our repertoire.

Melodica is a polyphonic instrument that is able to produce multi voices simultaneously. However, the independency of voices is limited. For instance, when one plays two notes, Each volume of them is different—the lower note is always louder. Releasing one key while playing two notes, the volume of another note gets suddenly louder. And of course using more keys needs more breathing. These characteristics of melodica has been often annoying us on playing and especially arranging, requiring to find notes which does not impair the balance of volume, and to ensure the space to breathe.

By the way, last year we started melodica ensemble club in London. There we can play multi parts together easily which I had to do alone. Thus we can overcome the technical limitation, get more options on arranging. Moreover the separation of each voice part is desirably clearer.

Throughout the experience in ensemble, and the trouble of hand, we are getting to see the limitation and character of solo playing or playing in duo. If music has a space for many people to join in, it is better to do so, one does not need to do everything alone.

WE ARE! by Melodica Trio

We mentioned in an article before, we are running a melodica ensemble in London. One year has just passed since we started. The piece uploaded this time, ‘We Are’ is one of the ensemble’s repertoires, an opening song from a Japanese animation ‘One Piece’ (by the way, we are not playing only animation songs, in case you think so). One of the members suggested to include the piece in the repertoire and Ryusuke rearranged for three parts. For melodica that has only a limited register and strong harmonics—often crush in harmony, three may be an appropriate number of parts, that gets a richness in sound and can still keep a clarity in texture.

We Are!

Lyrics: Syoko Fujibayashi
Composed by kouhei Tanaka
Arranged by Ryusuke Koarashi

Performer:

Yumiko Shiratori
Satomi Hori
Ryusuke Koarashi

2014 Christmas concert at Komorebi Hall in Obu-city

Duo Penguinistan successfully finished a Christmas concert at Komorebi hall in Obu-city Aichi, Japan. Komorebi hall is brand-new—it was opened only in last July, we feel privileged to be the first guitarist and melodica player there. The venue is formal, but still cozy and has a lovely acoustics for our small instruments. We are very grateful for the audience to be in the concert, the help of the truly great staff, and the director who gave us this great opportunity.


Programme:

Part I

1. Christmas Carol : We Wish a Merry Christmas
2. Catalan Christmas Carol : 1. El Noy De La Mare 2. La Nit De Nadal 3. La Filadora
3. Bela Bartok : Romanian Christmas Carols Series I
4. John Frederick Coots & Haven Gillespie : Santa Claus is Coming to Town
5. Robert Wells & Mel Tormé : The Christmas Song
6. Vittorio Monti : Czardas
7. Ryusuke Koarashi : Foreign Hill

Part II

1. Bulgarian Folk Song : 1. Vido, Vido, Byala Vido　2. Dilmano Dilbero
2. Christmas Carol : Silent Night
3. J.S. Bach：Jesus, Joy of Man’s Desiring
4. Irish Traditional : 1. Irish Medley (The Road to Lisdoonvarna, The Swallowtail Jig and The Swallowtail Reel) 2. Londonderry Air
5. English Christmas Carol : The First Noel
6. Ryusuke Koarashi : Çok Güzeller

Encore

1. Yoshihide Otomo : The Opening Theme of Amachan
2. Johnny Marks : Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Performer:

Ayumi Toyama: Melodica
Ryusuke Koarashi: Guitar, Melodica

— 23th Dec, 2014

A Mini Concert at Aichi Children’s Health and Medical Center

We had a mini (Christmas) concert for children at Aichi Children’s Health and Medical Center. It was only 30min, but we did enjoy the nice, intimate atmosphere with them.

1. Yoshihide Otomo : The Opening Theme of Amachan
2. Irish Medley (The Road to Lisdoonvarna, The Swallowtail Jig and The Swallowtail Reel)
3. （The Road to Lisdoonvarna, The Swallowtail Jig and The Swallowtail Reel）
4. Christmas Carol : Silent Night
5. Polish – Clarinet Polka
6. English Christmas Carol : The First Noel
7. Johnny Marks : Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Performer:

Ayumi Toyama: Melodica
Ryusuke Koarashi: Guitar, Melodica

 

Christmas Concert at a Primary School

Duo, with a wonderful vocalist & melodica player—Rika Legum, had a Christmas concert for kids and their parents at Parkfield Primary School. Thank you all for coming, we really enjoyed the performance.

Programme:

1. We Wish You a Merry Christmas — English Carol
2. Jingle Bell — James Lord Pierpont
3. Rondeau — Henry Pucell
4. A Hymn from Jupiter — Gustav Holst
5. Santa Baby — Joan Javits & Philip Springer
6. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen — English Carol
7. Silent Night — Franz Xaver Gruber

Performers:

Rika Legum (Vocal, Melodica, Drum)
Ayumi Toyama (Melodica)
Ryusuke Koarashi (Guitar, Melodica)

— 11th Dec, 2014

 

Announcement for Concert at Holy Trinity Church, 6th Dec

Duo Penguinistan is going to perform next week in London.

Performer:
Ayumi Toyama (Melodica)
Ryusuke Koarashi (Guitar, Melodica)

The Programme will include:
Thomas Morley, Christmas Songs from Catalonia, Irish traditional pieces, and others.

Date: 6th Dec (Sat) 7pm
Venue: Holy Trinity Church, Church Lane, London N2 0TH
Admission: Free (Donation)

Free Drinks will be provided.

Rain Dance by Ross Edwards, Played on Melodica

Rain Dance, composed by Ross Edwards in 1978, originally for two recorders. This short piece features Hemiolic rhythm—juxtaposition of 3/4 and 6/8, and uses pitch materials similar to a Japanese scale called Miyako-Bushi Onkai. For more information regarding the composer & the piece, please click here.

Ayumi Toyama & Ryusuke Koarashi: Melodica

Carrying You, for Three Melodicas

Carrying You, theme song from a popular animation film ‘Castle in the Sky’, arranged for 3 Melodicas.

Composed by Joe Hisaishi
Arranged by Ryusuke Koarashi
Melodica perfomed by Ayumi Toyama

Score: We Wish You a Merry Christmas, for 2 Melodicas & Guitar

We Wish You a Merry Christmas, arranged for 2 melodicas and guitar, became purchasable from here (English) or here (Japanese). For those who are looking for a novel repertoire of Christmas, this may be what you want. The arrangement was originally requested by our student, so technical difficulties were mostly avoided. The point for arranging was an interplay between instruments (especially two melodicas) with changing textures, avoiding just to repeat same material many times. So the theme is played differently each time. Melodica parts can be played alternatively by violin. The sample movie is available on youtube.

Joe Hisaishi – The Merry Go Round of Life, for Three Melodicas

We have been running a club called ‘Melodica Club’ since January. The club is dedicated to enjoy melodica ensemble in multiple parts, and to find different capability of the instrument.

We have been working a lot on arranging and searching for new repertoire for this club, and gained considerable numbers ranging from Renaissance to contemporary. ‘Merry-Go-Round of Life’ is one of those repertoire of us, a theme from an animation film called ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’, included by a member’s request in the club. Ryusuke arranged it for three parts, and Ayumi performed all the parts for this recording. We hope you will enjoy it.