Late January and early February offer three fascinating hogaku concerts, ranging from the traditional to the contemporary and a world premier of a collaboration of Asian musical styles and dance.

In recent centuries, the West has experienced a growing separation of music from dance and theater, as each has developed into a separate genre. In Asia, however, the distinction between various genres is not quite as clear-cut, and we can still experience the intimate connection between the vibration of tones and the movement of the physical body in such performances as the austere noh theater, the grand Katakali dance of Kerala and the enchanting Balinese Ketcha festival.

Composer Yuji Takahashi

Japanese composer Yuji Takahashi, who strives to revive such ancient connections in combinations meaningful to the present, will collaborate with Javanese dancer and choreographer Sardono Kusumo, Balinese composer I Wayan Sadra, Philippine composer Jose Maceda, shamisen performer Kazuko Takada, koto performer Yoko Nishi and several other musicians, to present an evening of song, music and dance entitled "Setsubun Zenya," or "The Eve of Spring."

The program will include a choral piece by Takahashi, "Mettasutta," Buddha's teaching of compassion and peace set to music, and a piece by Maceda, "Bamboo Music Accompanied by Flute, Bassoon and Voice," which will feature the gamelan group of Tokyo Music College.

Balinese composer I Wayan Sadra

The final piece, "Jomon Java," is the world premiere collaboration with Takahashi, Sardono and Sadra.

"Setsubun Zenya," 6:30 p.m. Feb. 2 at Sumida Triphony Hall, a three minute walk from Kinshicho Station on the JR Sobu Line. Admission 5,000 yen, 4,000 yen, 3,000 yen. For information or reservations call Triphony Hall ticket center, (03) 5608-1212 or Koinuma Music Office, (03) 3404-6890 or see the Web site at www.koinumamusic.com.

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Pro Musica Nipponia (Nihon Ongaku Shudan), a group of professional hogaku musicians dedicated to exploring new possibilities and combinations in hogaku music, continues with its series juxtaposing the works of young composers on the same program with those of more established composers.

Young composers, though lacking in experience, are usually free from preconceived ideas about traditional music and can approach the music in innovative and creative ways. These ideas take hold and become a new standard of hogaku.

Nihon Ongaku Shudan's upcoming concert, "Beyond Space-Time I," will feature works by veteran composers Akira Nishimura and Minoru Miki, along with two premiere works by young composers Takuro Shibayama ("Through the Window" for sho and three koto) and Hirohisa Akigishi ("Topological Space").

"Beyond Space-Time I" with Pro Musica Nipponia, 7 p.m. Jan. 26 at Tsuda Hall (right across from JR Sendagaya Station). Admission 5,000 yen, 4,000 yen, 3,000 yen in advance, 5,500 yen, 4,500 yen, 3,500 yen at the door (all seats reserved). For more information contact the Shudan at (03) 3378-4741 or see its Web site, www.promusica.or.jp.

Sound is an integral part of Buddhist ceremonies in Japanese temples. Time in the temple is structured around a procession of ceremony: rising, praying, giving alms, eating, etc. Each ceremony is accompanied by the sonorities of men chanting sutras in unison, called shomyo .

Shomyo is much more than just a men's chorus. A variety of cymbals, gongs, wooden drums and clappers punctuate rhythms which contract and expand throughout the phrases, adding interesting tonal colors and percussive reference. The mostly unison singing of the chorus is enlivened as individuals add minute changes in pitch and rhythm, and the exquisite wavering and undulation of the sung vowels, called "melisma" in Western musical terminology, held over several beats, soars and fluctuates in a breathtaking manner.

Shomyo has been called the mother of all Japanese vocal music. It arrived in Japan over 1,400 years ago, along with the early Buddhist rites and ceremonies. Indeed, in the melismatic singing one can hear the origins of the love of vowel elongation which the Japanese use in all their traditional vocal music, from the classical to the folk.

Shomyo, like Christian liturgical music, has been sung as ceremony and was not originally intended as "art music." This has changed over the last decade in Japan as musically aware monks, scholars and composers have begun to perform it in public concert halls.

"Sen Nen no Koe (Voices of a Thousand Years)" is the second of a series which feature the Shomyo Yonin no Kai, a group of four Buddhist priests who professionally perform shomyo. They will be joined by 40 monks from both the Tendai and Shingon Schools of Buddhism.

"Sen Nen no Koe," 8:30 p.m. Jan. 30-31 at Spiral Garden, 1st floor Spiral Building, near Omotesando subway station. Admission 3,800 yen in advance, 4,000 yen at the door. For more information or ticket reservations call Kaibunsha, (03) 3643-4960.

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California native John Kaizan Neptune has been a leader in spreading the shakuhachi's popularity around the world. He will give his New Year's concert at the Tokyo Foreign Correspondents' Club Feb. 2, accompanied by guitarist Takao Naoi, with a program including shakuhachi classics and jazz standards.

John Kaizan Neptune and Takao Naoi, 7 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan. Admission 3,500 yen, includes one drink. For information or reservations call (03) 3211-3161 or see the Web site at www.fccj.or.jp/events/social.html.

Christopher Yohmei Blasdel can be reached through his Web site, www2.gol.com/users/yohmei.