Eileen Gilligan Flute Daniel Le Piano – Joe Hisaishi – Ashitaka and San

Expressing hope and love in tone and performance. How do we develop the skill set of empathy and deep thought behind our practice.

Ashitaka and San is the theme from Princess Mononoke an anime movie. The word anime is a shortened form of the Japanese word animēshon, which means “animation.” It is characterized by stark colourful graphics depicting vibrant characters in action-filled plots often with fantastic or futuristic themes. One of the unique features of anime is its ability to convey complex emotions and themes. Unlike conventional animation, anime can be thought-provoking and emotionally charged, exploring themes that range from love and loss to social justice and political commentary. This one deals with love and hope.
Joe Hisaishi is a favourite of mine. He writes beautiful and very expressive melodies. Hisaishi ranks among Japan’s greatest composers of all time and is famed worldwide for his collaborative work with Oscar-winning director and Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli, Inc is a Japanese animation studio based in Koganei, Tokyo. Joe Hisaishi also wrote “Spirited Away One Summers Day” from “Spirited Away,” a Studio Ghibli film that also has a deep message – never be motivated by greed.
Ashitaka and San is a beautiful melody that can develop tone and expression in a player as well as versatility. If practiced without background knowledge the chances of getting a depth of emotion in the tone and colours is so much less than if there is a deep understanding of the composer and the message or story behind the composition. The other huge benefit of this melody is the dynamic level and what is required by playing softly for so long. Playing softly on the flute with depth, quality of tone, expression and projection requires finding the speaking point and keeping it.
Ashitaka and San is a wonderful melody for this. There are many videos and tools on theflautist.com In the Foundation Tools and Vocalisations that deal with this. Finding the speaking point can be the easier step often but holding that point over the full range of the flute enabling the tone and expression to resonate and project with quality and expression is the difficult part.
The bulk of Ashitaka and San is P (soft) dynamic level. If the player is not on the speaking point and harmonics in tune, the tone will be thin, have a dull edge and not project. This melody will test this skill set.
The other half of tone and expression is context.
Ashitaka and San is a soundtrack from the anime film Princess Mononoke. It is an instrumental dedicated to the relationship between San and Ashitaka and is played at the end of the film.

The Story:

When San was a baby, the wolf goddess Moro attacked her parents, who were found damaging the forest. Her parents threw San to her feet and ran away. Moro raised San as her own daughter, and in turn San treats Moro as her mother and Moro’s two natural pups as her siblings.

San’s primary concern is protecting the forest and the animals she lives with. San rejects her own humanity and even thinks of herself as a wolf. She has suicidal thoughts and attempts to assassinate Lady Eboshi of Irontown many times, as San believes that Eboshi’s death will result in the end of Irontown and human growth into the surrounding, untouched forest. It is only by Ashitaka’s affection to her that she slowly comes to acknowledge her human side as well.
After the battle for the Forest Spirit’s head, San tells Ashitaka that he is very dear to her. However, she cannot forgive humanity for what they have done to the forest and will continue to live apart from them. San returns to the forest while Ashitaka remains in Irontown. Before separating, Ashitaka promises that he will always be near, and he will visit her in the forest whenever he can. San reciprocates his declarations and leaves.
San is a beautiful young woman of average build who wears ragged clothing, a dark blue dress, and a cape made of a wolf’s fur, and has what appears to be amaranth red war paint on her face. She wears a head necklace with a single small gem in her front. She also bears short, straight, shoulder length olive brown hair and has dark blue eyes with bangs slightly parted in the middle. She has a medium necklace with several fangs tied across her neck. She wears long, dangling, oval shaped earrings during the whole film. She is also very agile, fast, fairly strong and appears to be really good at using daggers and spears. She wears a mask which is her iconic feature. The mask is red with ears and white wavy lines and three sunshine yellow holes for a mouth and eyes.
Albeit a literal warrior-princess, San is fundamentally defined by her appreciation of nature. Being adopted by the wolf goddess Moro when she was but an infant, the “Wolf Girl”, as expected, develops a wild personality. However, despite her (justified) coldness towards humans, she is highly capable of compassion.
This is initially a quality she only exhibits towards the inhabitants of the forest (animals, gods, and other beings), but as later shown throughout the movie, by the slow and gradual, but real progress of hers and Ashitaka’s bond, she is also able to accept and develop admiration, and even affection for a fellow human – a process that also helps her accept her own humanity. When Ashitaka’s bullet wound was healed by the Forest Spirit San recognized that he was not an enemy of the forest and defended him from the Boars.
She is stubborn, short-tempered, aggressive, courageous, and protective, her primary concern being to protect the forest and animals she lives with. At first, San rejects her own humanity and seems to be quite misanthropic, also thinking of herself only as a wolf. Despite this, she eventually comes to accept Ashitaka, who was the first to see her humanity.
Ashitaka and San” represents the peace times which must be remembered to move forward; even in harmony, human nature inevitably turns to conflict. The story is one of love and hope. This beautiful melody is an excellent way for players to develop their tone, colours, and musical line. A big component of tone and colour is knowledge and empathy. The more information and context we have about what we are performing affects our interpretation and the way we choose our approach, tone, colours, and expression. This melody was chosen for this reason and because it is through playing melodies, we find our musical voice and identity.

Joe Hisaishi playing Ashitaka and San

Join the happy members of The Flautist, to find out how to play this beautifully. To get the sheet music, guide and develop a beautiful tone and expressive style as well as finding the speaking point.