Is This a Good Use of the Miyako-Bushi Scale?

A mountain range of the far east.

The flute is the winds, the piano is the ice.

Cello moves between plucked and bowed.

They all come to sound as far eastern as possible.

I you think so, it's good. I think it is because it souns very nice.

I seems exotic, of course, but it's hard to take the mood of a traditional music. Not only is the scale needed, but rhythms, instruments, etc...

Anyway, I am a total fan of using any kind of scale.

Rabbival507

Sorry that I am coming to this posting late. (I had not previously looked in this forum.)

The fragment is delightful, and there are many aspects of it that I like very much. In particular, I like the path taken by successive notes: it is not a well-worn path, and sounds wonderful. I guess that this is due to the Miyako-Bushi scale (of which I had not previously heard, but have since read about online).

However, in my almost completely untutored opinion, I associate the piece more with 1960s jazzy flute music (which I like) than with traditional Chinese or Japanese music that I have listened to (and which, if I am honest, I have found rather demanding). I think that my opinion is coloured both by your use of a piano, which gives the piece a richness (that I like), and by the rhythms of the piece, which are attractive. The 'ending' resolution sounds very western to my ear. A Japanese aesthetic would have it as feeling more melancholy and less resolved. Here are two YouTube uploads that are unalloyed Japanese music:

Whilst the lyrical flute does evoke the wind, the trilled flute sounds like birdsong. (I might use that idea myself, as I have a longstanding interest in birdsong.) At least on the equipment I am using, the sound of the cello is not clearly distinguished from that of the piano. My humble opinion would be that if you want some of your music to sound more Far Eastern, then you may need to write for appropriate instruments, such as the shakuhachi and koto. On the other hand, I like what you are doing with this fragment, and I should very happy to listen to more.