[drumming] [soft flute music] when the texture of music is monophonic, what can add richness to the singlepan, the shakuhachi, an end-blown flute, has a long history as a solo instrument. in the honkyo ku, or meditative style, great emphasis is placed on the tone color, or timbre of each and every note. (woman) the roots of shakuhachi music lie in zen meditative practice. this sect of buddhism--they believe playing the shakuhachi, playing even a single tone, was a means or vehicle for enlightenment. [soft flute plays] shakuhachi has such a palette of different color sounds. for example, if we want a very strong round sound, more like a western flute, very hard-edged sound, we have [hard-edged flute sound] very, more strong kind of shakuhachi sound. then we also want a very airy sound so the same kind of [airy flute sounds] (narrator) when another instrument and voice are added to the shakuhachi, what kind of texture results? (hahn) when shakuhachi plays with the ensemble, with koto and with vocalist, these kinds of lines together are heterophonic in nature. the same melody is being played,