The soundscape of Lost in Shanghai
Q&A with composer and musician Dr Terumi Narushima (and some audio too) as we continue our regional tour of Australia in February and March 2024
Terumi, how do you see your role in Lost in Shanghai?
Terumi Narushima: I see my job as supporting your storytelling through sound. I provide short musical excerpts at particular points in your performance to highlight special moments or perhaps enrich the presentation. There are a lot of interesting shifts in time and place as you tell your story of your family and so I think of the music working as a transition or providing a moment of reflection on something you’ve just said. Music also plays a more prominent role in supporting the photo montage sections where there is a break in your narration and the audience can enjoy looking at the images while listening to the music.
What’s your ‘day job’ when you are not performing in Lost in Shanghai?
Terumi Narushima: I'm a lecturer in music at Wollongong University. Teaching is one part of the job, but the other is my research which is about musical tuning theory. And there is performing, which is a form of publication if you like. Actually, performing is a great way to present my research to a wider audience.
Tell me a bit about your childhood, Terumi. Where did you grow up?
Terumi Narushima: I was born in Melbourne the eldest of four children. My parents are both Japanese but they met in Australia and married in Australia. They were both from Tokyo and their childhood homes would have been maybe a fifteen minute walk away. Sounds a bit like your parents, Jane, but they didn’t meet in Tokyo. Their paths didn't cross until they came to Melbourne.
I went to school in Budgewoi on the Central Coast of NSW. But my siblings and I were always told that we were going to move back to Japan eventually. So we had to learn to speak and write Japanese because, we were told, that's the future. And we did move to Japan when I was twelve.
Did your parents always intend to return to Australia?
Terumi Narushima: They intended to stay in Japan for good! But my parents realised they had become too westernised in their thinking. We kids actually loved it in Tokyo; it’s a very exciting place. But the first chance my dad got offered more engineering work back in Australia he took it up. I think by then my parents thought Australia would offer a bit of a future for us kids as well. So we only lasted a year in Japan.
Your research thesis was on ‘microtonality’. What does that mean?
Terumi Narushima: In western music, we take for granted the instruments that we make music with, like the piano. But a lot of non-western music sounds different to western music because of the tuning. For Lost in Shanghai, the instruments I use are actually microtonally tuned. Part of my research is about inventing new scales, in the hope of creating sounds that are different to what already exists.
Another way to think of it is to compare it to black and white photography. There's a lot of beautiful images you can make with just black and white, but once you realise there's a whole spectrum of ‘colours' or notes that you can actually play around with, it's hard not to be tempted by that beautiful palette of possibilities. - Tarumi Narushima
Tell me about your musical training. You trained as a composer…
Terumi Narushima: One of my teachers was (renowned Australian composer) Peter Sculthorpe. Peter Sculthorpe encouraged me to look to my Japanese background. Both my parents are Japanese, but they're not musical at all. So strangely, it was through books that I learned about traditional Japanese music.
I also had some lessons with Satsuki Odamura, a Sydney-based koto (Japanese stringed instrument) teacher. I also think there are a certain set of aesthetic values that I've picked up just being brought up in a Japanese family. So it's funny, I've composed things without consciously thinking of anything Japanese, but someone will say to me, ‘oh, that sounds very Japanese!’
As we were about to graduate, another teacher at Sydney University Professor Ann Boyd, said it doesn't matter even if it's just one or two pieces you write a year. If you're a composer, you're a composer. Just keep doing it!
By the way, I’m not an expert in the instruments that I use for the show, but I wanted to use particular instruments for their ‘sound colours’.
So take me through the instruments you use in Lost in Shanghai.
Terumi Narushima: We've got temple blocks and a couple of singing bowls. These are Buddhist instruments. The singing bowl is rubbed on the rim to make a high pitch sound that I use in the show to create a jarring undertone, like a warning signal. And I know it can be really quite piercing! (Jane nods) The larger singing bowl belonged to my partner Kraig's father so it has sentimental value.
What are some of the other instruments?
Terumi Narushima: I've got a frame drum, some wooden clappers and a couple of cymbals. My favourite is a Chinese opera gong! I've always loved that instrument. And so this show Lost in Shanghai was my excuse to source one and it's used only once in a very key moment!
Then there’s the koto.
Terumi Narushima: A koto is a Japanese thirteen-stringed instrument, which is related to the Chinese guzheng. I had a personal creative dilemma about how to provide music to suggest scenes in China, but with my Japanese instrument and Japanese musical background. In the end, I decided to pay homage to the beautiful Chinese guzheng, but on my Japanese equivalent instrument.
Talk us through the vibraphone.
Terumi Narushima: My instruments are tuned a little bit differently to standard instruments and the vibraphone was actually the first instrument that determined the tuning that I use in the show. Each metal bar of the vibraphone has been re-tuned to a microtonal scale developed by my partner Kraig Grady. He's given me his blessing to use his tuning. For microtonalists, the scale is part of their composition, part of their setup.
It took a number of years before Kraig was happy for me to use his instruments. It’s interesting, sometimes people just say, “Oh, can I borrow your instrument?” and they don't have any respect or understanding of what has gone into the tuning of Kraig’s instruments. It's very personal to him. - Terumi Narushima
I've also got a bowed psaltery, an unusual stringed instrument. Each string is tuned to a particular note. And that matches the tuning of the vibraphone.
So tuning the instruments is really a key part of how this show sounds?
Terumi Narushima: Yes. An hour before every show, Kraig and I check the tuning of each note using a high precision tuner. It's interesting, we've both observed, the more precisely tuned the instruments are, they just seems to resonate better. And when things sound better, I think that encourages you to play better as well.
There are times when you actually play several instruments in quick succession. You're bouncing around a little bit on stage. Is that tricky for you?
Terumi Narushima: This requires is a bit of choreography and so far, I haven't stumbled! But yeah, there's a couple of places where I go, ‘Okay', I'm just gonna grab that mallet and stick it under my arm beforehand. So I'm listening to your words and your delivery. The difference between having pre-recorded audio to a live performance is that I can offer some flexibility in timing. As you know, audiences react differently, so it’s good to be able to take account of subtle things that can happen in live performance.
There are two other instruments that I forgot to mention as well. When we were developing the show, William Yang, the co-director said, ‘we need music for the Middle East’. I wondered, ‘oh, the Middle East, how do I do that?’ My solution was to use the hammered dulcimer, another string instrument with a trapezoidal shape that originally came from the Middle East but is also found in European and Chinese music. It’s played by striking the strings with mallets or ‘hammers’.
And oh, that's right. There’s also a 3D-printed recorder.
What’s the significance of the recorder being 3D-printed?
Terumi Narushima: It was part of a research project. I had to get a wind instrument that could play in non-standard tuning. The standard recorders that you might have played as a school child are tuned to play western European music. But we used 3D printing to experiment with different designs, like making different-sized holes and placing the holes in different positions to get different notes. It’s a bit of an experimental instrument.
Jane Hutcheon: Very interesting and exciting! I just want to end on the various themes you've composed for Lost in Shanghai. How did you decide what to create for the show?
Terumi Narushima: One of the starting points was your mother's name, Bea. I used the three musical notes B, E, A as a short theme, and from there, I added two more notes to get a five-note ‘pentatonic’ scale. Pentatonic scales are often associated with Asian music and so I thought this would represent the Chinese side of Bea’s heritage. I also infuse the scale with other notes to suggest her mixed Eurasian identity. Out of this grew what I call Bea’s resilience theme…
…which appears in various guises throughout the show to represent Bea’s inner strength and determination.
And then I've got my own theme too. Baby Jane’s theme.
Terumi Narushima: This is one of my favourites! I wanted it to convey joy and innocence and purity. It’s played on the vibraphone, which is one of the main instruments in the show.
The koto is the other instrument that’s used quite a bit. I enjoy playing the koto to accompany your speaking, for example, when you talk about the tea shop or the cooking school. When you first mention Keemun tea, I give a little flurry to add a little sparkle so it hopefully sticks in people’s minds until later on when Keemun tea is mentioned again.
I often describe what you do in the show as creating a soundscape. Does that resonate?
Terumi Narushima: I’m really happy that you see it like that.
I've experienced films where for whatever reason, they put music underneath everything. I get really annoyed because it feels as though the director just doesn't trust the story. And I find that really distracting. - Terumi Narushima
I hope I got the right balance for this show. I hope the music helps to create a space for people to just ponder your words. Some parts of the story are very exciting and then at other times it's quite reflective. And it’s not just the words, but the incredible photos as well. It's a rich, dense, multi-layered story so there's a lot for the audience to give their attention to at any moment in time. Hopefully, the music provides a sound world to enhance the audience’s experience of the show.
I found this really interesting ... coming from many years of musical training. Thank you for sharing this conversation with Terumi.
Thanks Jane. I'm really enjoying your emails. All the best with the show!