Hotaru Koi – Learning Tracks

An arrangement of a traditional Japanese Children’s round about a fire fly on the water.  The round itself is a little challenging, as the second section comes in on the offbeat of beat one and the third part on beat 2. A useful trick is when sitting down to pat the thigh on the beat and have a hand facing down above your leg which catches your moving hand for the off beat (like a clap but with both palms facing down).  Gitika has added a second section that continues with the theme of the original round with two extra parallel parts (with no words) in the soprano and tenor section, so this can be more of a performance piece. The words can be can be taught by ear very easily as there are just 4 short lines of words. Japanese is simple  to pronounce as there are no dipthongs (double vowels stuck together) so pronounced the same way as swahili or Italian.  A as in Mat,  E as in Met, I as in Bit, O as in Not, U as in soot ( but a little shorter)… A very haunting and effective piece.

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