Dialogue - Miho Ota -
Miho Ota is a musician who sings from a variety of venues, including the choirs CANTUS and Chorus Project Uta, as well as her solo activities arranging choruses and holding workshops using her voice.
Ever since childhood, I have been fascinated by the limited world of church music, and I pursue the beauty of sound beyond religion.
This time at Utsushiki, a vocal workshop and a solo concert, the first of its kind for "Ota Miho", were held.
How is it that Ota's singing voice is able to touch the mental images in the hearts of listeners, as if drawing on sensations that cannot be put into words?
I spoke with Ota immediately after the concert, while still basking in the afterglow as a listener.
Encounter with Church Music
Ota, who loved singing from a young age, discovered church music when he joined the Tokyo Boys and Girls Choir in the second grade of elementary school.
When you think of church music, some may imagine powerful, soulful gospel music, but the choir played quiet, solemn Catholic music, including Gregorian chants.
Speak softly as if breathing, and rather than each person asserting their individuality, let your ego melt and layer upon layer to become one.
The choir is a special space where elementary school students from different schools and denominations are united by the desire to sing. The sounds of church modes and the overlapping voices were their formative experiences, and they were baptized into church music and Latin.
Ota : When I was a child, I didn't even understand the Latin words, and I sang hymns like I was chanting a spell. It's the sound of the voice that matters more than the meaning of the words. I don't think that children who sing hymns are trying to convey a concept. Rather than delving deeply into the meaning of the words, they simply sing with an emphasis on the sound of the voice. And yet, listeners are moved by the pure sound of the voice. Rather than delving deeply into the meaning of the words, they sing with an emphasis on the sound of the voice.
Spreading the beauty of hymns to the world
After a busy time as a student member of a choir, in 2005 she formed the girls' choir "CANTUS" with her friends from the Tokyo Boys and Girls Choir.
"We feel it would be a shame to keep such beautiful hymns within the small world," says CANTUS, and the core of their activities is spreading hymns that are not very familiar to the general public to the world as purely beautiful songs.
As a traveling choir, we do not limit our concerts to churches, but also hold concerts in buildings with good acoustics such as important cultural properties and underground spaces.
Ota has a certain reason for taking an unprecedented approach to church music.
"For example, when you see a religious painting of an angel descending, you think it's beautiful even if you're not a church member. In the same way, our songs, which transcend religion and pursue the beauty of sound, hope to be the first gateway to church music."
This feeling has spread to many artists, including haruka nakamura, Miu Sakamoto, Tabito Nanao, and fishmans, and they have continued to collaborate through "chorus."
To speak out is to become naked
With hymns as its backbone, Ota's activities are expanding to various fields.
One of these is the "Voice Workshop" that I started after being invited by a shop in Omotesando.
Participants were asked to sing, close their eyes and listen to the voices of their hearts, and then let the sounds of the piano guide them as they sang together.
Having strangers listen to your singing voice can be embarrassing, regardless of how good or bad you are at singing.
It is said that after participating in the workshop, participants who were strangers just a few minutes ago suddenly become closer.
Ota : Perhaps speaking in front of strangers is the same as being naked. Hearing each other's voices is a moment when the communicator and the listener face each other properly, share their hearts, and each feels what is being conveyed. By letting people speak in a way that they normally don't, they can see into their own hearts, and as their voices combine to complement each other, they become one piece of music. Whether it's a chorus or a concert, it's important for the venue itself to become one through music.
Go with the flow of the moment
This is Ota's second time performing at Utsushiki. At the third anniversary event held in September 2018, he performed alongside baobab and Hayato Aoki, accompanied by live painting by Arisa Kawai.
This was his first solo concert. "It is precisely because of the space of Utsushiki that we can have deep conversations and become one with the space," he said, and based on the melody that emerged from the space of Utsushiki, he performed an improvised concert, going with the flow of the moment.
It's a live recording, in which the piano sounds and vocals that were born in the moment are recorded, and then played back while further sounds are layered on top of it, creating a one-man chorus.
The place becomes one through music
As she says, "I was so nervous until the day before the concert that my stomach hurt with anxiety," it is not hard to imagine that she has made a lot of preparations for this new challenge.
Voices are layered over and over again to a simple piano accompaniment, and while the voices seem clear and transparent at the start, each time they overlap they resonate and become more powerful, showing a variety of vocal expressions.
"When singing in the chorus with CANTUS, we make it a point to erase our individuality and aim for harmony with the singer so that the singer can take the spotlight," says Ota.
How did you approach your first solo concert as "Ota Miho"?
Ota : In order to convey the harmony that has made Ota Miho my solo concert, I cast aside all shame and appearances. Rather than simply gaining an artist's identity, I hope that people who think "I'm nothing" will feel positive when they see me singing with my heart bare, and experience the feeling of "becoming one" through music.
After this dialogue, just as each person's voice is different, so are their ways of thinking and living. It may not work out at first, but the important thing is to live true to your own voice, and I felt like I was being given a push through Mr. Ota's concert. The pieces performed at Utsushiki this time were given titles, and the title of the musical group work is "Resonance." The performance, which was only born on the spot, will be sold as a CD in stores. I hope you will pick it up and listen to it.
Interviewer and writer: Yoshiaki Ono
Miho Ota Concert Date: Saturday, June 15, 2019
