Introduction to Database of Traditional Japanese Singing with Examples of Comparative Studies on Formant Shifts and Vibrato Among Genres

Acoust. Sci. & Tech. 29, 1 (2008) #2008 The Acoustical Society of Japan PAPER

Introduction to database of traditional Japanese singing with examples of comparative studies on formant shifts and vibrato among genres

Ichiro Nakayama1; and Masuzo Yanagida2;y 1Osaka University of Arts, 469, Higashiyama, Kanan-cho, Minamikawachi-gun, Osaka, 585–8555 Japan 2Faculty of Engineeering, Doshisha University, 1–3, Tatara-Miyakodani, Kyo-Tanabe, 610–0321 Japan ( Received 28 February 2007, Accepted for publication 9 September 2007 )

Abstract: Introduced is a database used for research consisting of songs sung in traditional Japanese and western styles to clarify the acoustical diﬀerences between them. Seventy-eight top-class singers covering 31 music genres are recorded in this database including 18 ‘‘Living National Treasures’’ singing in traditional Japanese styles. The database includes the ﬁve vowels of Japanese uttered naturally and sung by the singers in the style of their genre. Recordings were made in anechoic chambers using a digital tape recorder. The database consists of 18 CDs and an explanatory book. Shown in this paper are examples of comparative studies on the acoustical features of vibrato in traditional Japanese singing and bel canto, together with studies on formant shifts from natural utterance to singing.

Keywords: Traditional Japanese singing, Bel canto, Fundamental frequency, Vibrato, Formant frequency PACS number: 43.75.Rs [doi:10.1250/ast.29.58]

required are songs performed by the same professional 1. INTRODUCTION singers in both western style and traditional Japanese style, Since the Meiji era, when a new government was set but it is almost impossible to find singers who can sing in up after the end of the Tokugawa feudal government, the both styles at a professional level, except a few extraordi- Japanese music education system has taken western singing nary cases such as Keiko Aoyama [1] and Ruriko Uchida as the nominal way of singing even for songs with Japanese [2]. Thus, the most important point in the compilation of verses. Comparing Japanese verses sung in western style this type of database is to employ excellent singers as and those sung in traditional Japanese style, however, subjects. people perceive a clear difference in singing. The authors We introduce a database consisting of the same songs have investigated the acoustical differences between tradi- sung in both traditional Japanese style and western style tional Japanese singing and western bel canto, on the basis recorded on 18 CDs. Seventy-eight top-class singers were of their doubts about adopting western singing styles to employed, including 18 ‘‘Living National Treasures,’’ to Japanese verses. sing songs covering 31 music genres including traditional For comparative studies it is necessary to have Japanese styles. Singers were asked to sing common verses controlled materials having the same features except for in the style of their professional genre, and provide the point to be investigated. However, there are no suitable samples of the five Japanese vowels utterred naturally materials allowing such a comparison between western and in singing style. Recordings were made in anechoic music and traditional Japanese music. Thus, song data on a chambers using measuring microphones and a digital tape common verse sung in western style and in traditional recorder. Japanese style are required. The songs should be properly In the second half of this paper we discuss examples of sung by reliable singers of the genre. Most urgently comparative studies on formant shifts from natural utterance to a singing voice for singers of western music and e-mail: [email protected] Noh actors, and a comparison of the acoustical features of ye-mail: [email protected]. vibrato between traditional Japanese singing and bel canto.

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2. BACKGROUND TO RECORDING To investigate the differences between genres quanti- tatively, intraclass variance among singers should be investigated as well as interclass differences. Thus, song data obtained from amateurs and beginners are required for statistical discussion in addition to song data obtained from excellent singers of various genres. It is not, however, so difficult to find amateur singers and beginners of any music genre, to willingly participate in recording in anechoic chambers without copyright problems. Thus, the database does not contain songs by amateurs or beginners, but includes only those sung by excellent singers of the genre, including 18 Living National Treasures renowned for traditional Japanese singing. Some of the singers are regarded as the last survivors of the genre, among them Haru Kobayashi, who passed away in 2005 at the age of 105, was ‘‘the last Goze’’ (a blind Fig. 1 Shibun Uji (Itchu-bushi) and Buncho Uji female street singer/player), Musashi-Daijo Wakamatsu, (Shamisen), Living National Treasures, in anechoic chamber of the former Institute of Industrial Research, who passed away in 1999, was the last performer of University of Tokyo, Roppongi, Tokyo, taken on Sekkyo-bushi, and Hojun Nagata, who is the last living September 21, 1999. blind Biwa-Monk. Ten singers included in the database have passed away since recorded for this database. Thus, the recording was the last chance to construct this typed of and reciting Japanese language’’ [3], consisting of 18 database to preserve examples of Japanese singing. CDs containing 900 tracks with a total duration of 19 hours and an explanatory book 172 pages long. The database was 3. RECORDING published in December 2002. Singers were asked to sing a common Japanese verse, Excerpts of movie recordings taken along with the and all recordings were made in anechoic chambers with sound recording are now being edited to be summarized only the exception of Haru Kobayashi. Her singing was on a DVD to be published in 2008 with an attached recorded in a Japanese style room in a sanatorium with explanatory booklet in English or Japanese according to absorbing materials placed on the floor and walls. The the buyer’s preference. The DVD itself will be helpful for frequency characteristics of the recording system were kept understanding traditional Japanese singing. flat by employing measuring microphones (B&K Type Table 1 shows all the singers or players included in 4190 (1/2 inch) 2) and a digital tape recorder (DAT, the database classified by music genre. Recorded songs Sony TCD-D10). marked with ‘‘#’’ can be heared at the home page of The main microphone was placed 50 cm in front of the the Japan Arts Council [4] as audio samples of various singer and 10 cm below the horizontal line. Although a traditional Japanese singing styles. Singers marked with submicrophone was placed parallel to the main microphone ‘‘ ’’ are Living National Treasures and ‘‘—’’ indicates that and 5 cm apart, recording using the submicrophone was not the person is deceased. used in the final CD. The loudness of singing was left up to 4. FEATURES OF THE DATABASE the singers’ preference to allow singers to sing naturally, and the recording level was adjusted according to the The database has the following features or merits: loudness of singing so that the level meter of the recording (1) Both intergenre and intragenre comparison of singing DAT remained between 6 and 3 dB during rehearsal. style is possible by employing a common verse. The final recording level on the CD was adjusted to a (2) The common verse, written by Tsutomu UEHATA, is maximal level of 3 dB for each track to avoid saturation, ‘‘ Kaede irozuku yama no asa wa,’’ meaning ‘‘Colored even of impulsive sounds by accompanying instruments. by autumn leaves, mountains in morning are ...,’’ The recording took place over five years from where ‘‘irozuku’’ should be ‘‘iroduku’’ in orthographic December 1996 until December 2001. Figure 1 shows a Roman expression but is written as above in consid- photograph of the recording, where the main microphone is eration of English speaking readers, because the the lower one in the photo. The result of the recording is sound for /du/ is the same as that for /zu/ in current the database introduced here, titled ‘‘Singing, chanting Japanese. The verse was sung in an arbitrary but

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Table 1 Singer List (#: included in HP of Japan Arts Council, : Living National Treasure, —: Deceased)

Genre School/Sect JAC Singer LNT Dec Notes Shinto prayers Norito ASAKAWA, Hajime Tanzan shrine Ancient Songs Imperial Agency # BUNNO, Hideaki Shomyo Hosso sect MATSUKUBO, Shuin Yakushi-ji Tendai sect AMANO, Denchu — Jikko-in Shingon sect # KOJIMA, Yusho Konzo-in Shingon sect WADA, Yushin Sainan-in Shinshu sect OTANI, Ennei E. Hongan-ji Johdo-Shinshu INOUE, Sonmei W. Hongan-ji Nichiren sect HAYAMI, Nisshu Honmyo-in Sohtoh sect NARASAKI, Tugen Zuio-ji Ohbaku sect UEMI, Yuji Mampuku-ji Noh Kanze school KANZE, Tetsunojo — Shite Kita school # AWAYA, Kikuo — Shite Hosho school HOSHO, Kan Waki Kyogen Okura school SHIGEYAMA, Sensaku Okura school SHIGEYAMA, Sennojo Izumi school NOMURA, Man Biwa-gaku Mohsoh Biwa NAGATA, Hojun Blind monk Heike Biwa # IMAI, Tsutomu Heikyoku Satsuma school MORINAKA, Shisui Chikuzen school YAMAZAKI, Kyokusui — Chikuzen school OKUMURA, Kyokusui Jiuta Nogawa school KIKUHARA, Hatsuko — Rel. Ikuta sch. Nogawa school KIKUHARA, Koji Rel. Ikuta sch. Kyushu FUJII, Kunie — Ikuta school Yanagawa school TAKAHASHI, Kaname Rel. Ikuta sch. Yanagawa school # HAYASHI, Mieko Rel. Ikuta sch. So-kyoku Yamada school MUROOKA, Shoko — Yamada school # HAGIOKA, Shoin Yamada school HIRAI, Sumiko — Gidayu-bushi # TAKEMOTO, Sumitayu Joruri TOYOTAKE, Shimatayu Joruri Kabuki Kamigata NAKAMURA, Ganjiro Kamigata KATAOKA, Hidetaro Male actress Edo NAKAMURA, Tomijuro Edo BANDO, Mitsugoro Edo NAKAMURA, Shikan Male actress Shamisen-gaku Nagauta # Toon-MIYATA, Tetsuo Utaimono Tokiwazu TOKIWAZU, Ichihadayu Joruri Kiyomoto KIYOMOTO, Yoshijudayu Joruri Itchuh-bushi UJI, Shibun Joruri Shinnai SHINNAI, Nakasaburo Joruri Kouta KASUGA, Toyoko Vulgar Hauta-Zokkyoku IMAFUJI, Chotomi Vulgar Sekkyo-bushi WAKAMATSU, Musashi-Daijo — Rohkyoku HARUNO, Yuriko Naniwa-bushi Shigin NODA, Gaei Ryukyu-clasico # TERUKINA, Choichi Kuchiyose ‘‘ Itako’’ NAKAMURA, Take Osore-zan Goze-uta ‘‘ Goze’’ KOBAYASHI, Haru — Folkmusic # KAMATA, Eiichi ITOH, Takio Kiyari-uta NISHI, Sadayasu Nagano Owara-bushi UEKI, Akinori Etchu Owara-bushi TOMIKAWA, Junji Etchu Amami folksong TAKESHITA, Kazuhira Amami island Old child song Warabe-uta # KAWAGUCHI, Kyoko New J. pop WATANABE, Machiko UEDA, Masaki J. style pop Enka MAKIMURA, Mieko Comic story Rakugo KATSURA, Beicho Shingeki NISHIYAMA, Tatsuo Announcer NHK MORIMOTO, Takeshige Male NHK NAKAGAWA, Midori Female Soprano TAMAI, Hiroko # HIBI, Keiko KAMAHORA, Yuko OOMIYA, Keiko KIMURA, Mika Mezzo-Soprano AOYAMA, Keiko AOKI, Michiko Alto MITANI, Aya Tenor KANDA, Shiro SUZUKI, Kan’ichi SANO, Shigehiro Baritone MIHARA, Tsuyoshi FUCHIWAKI, Kazunori TAKAHASHI, Keizo

60 I. NAKAYAMA and M. YANAGIDA: TRADITIONAL JAPANESE SINGING

typical singing style of each singer’s genre. The verse has the following features: . It contains the five Japanese vowels. . The same vowel /a/ appears several times sand- wiched by consonants in /yama no asa wa/. . It is designed aiming at the free generation of melodies of each genre. (3) No level calibration or frequency characteristic com- pensation is required for acoustic comparison among recorded songs, although the average recording level is set somewhat lower than that of conventional CDs to avoid saturation, even of impulsive sounds. (4) In addition to the singing of the common verse in the style of the genre, the five Japanese vowels were Fig. 2 Trajectories of F1 and F2 of allophonic /a/ in uttered naturally and in a singing voice, and a short Noh. singer = Tetsunojo Kanze. conversation with the first author of this paper was recorded for each singer. In the case when the song is 5.1. Trajectories of Formant Frequencies in Noh accompanied by musical instruments, the song with- Singing out accompanying instruments was also recorded Figure 2 shows typical trajectories of the first and separately. second formant frequencies of /a/ sung by a famous Noh (5) Some typical or representative excerpts of the genre singer. These two formant frequencies are too low for those selected by each singer were also recorded. Thus, this of natural /a/ utterance, but are close to those of natural database contains recordings of artistic value as well /o/ utterance, which coincides with the perceptual im- as having academic value for research in acoustics. pression. Although Noh and Kyogen are performed on the (6) This database can be used as educational materials for same stage, their voice qualities are considerably different, traditional Japanese music under the new policy of as shown in Fig. 3, which compares spectral envelopes of Japanese music education, which started in the 2002 /a/ uttered in Noh and Kyogen. The spectral envelope of academic year, and can provide voice samples to train the Noh utterance for /a/, the upper figure in Fig. 3, shows teachers of traditional Japanese music. that the F1 and F2 of /a/ are close to each other similar to (Traditional Japanese music has been removed from those of /o/, while those of Kyogen are much more similar the Japanese education system. Thus, Japanese teach- to those of the natural /a/. Comparing the formant ers of music are only trained to teach western music, frequencies of Noh and Kyogen utterances, the formant but not traditional Japanese music. Traditional Japa- frequencies of Kyogen are much more similar to those of nese music is taught by masters or mistresses called the natural utterance to allow the sound to be correctly ‘‘ O-ssho-san’’ in small private lessons, independently perceived, and the spectral envelope around 3 kHz is raised of school education.) to make the perceived sound louder by adding the singers’s (7) This database contains recordings of singers of some formant [7] to the natural spectrum. genres having only one survivor, for example, Haru Kobayashi in ‘‘Goze-uta,’’ Musashi-Daijo Wakamatsu 5.2. Formant Shift from Natural Speech to Singing in ‘‘Sekkyo Joruri,’’ and Hojun Nagata in ‘‘Biwa by Voices blind monks.’’ Ten singers have passed away since The differences between singing and natural voices can being recorded for this database. Thus, this database be compared using the formant frequencies of the five can be regarded to contributing to the preservation of vowels. The upper figure in Fig. 4 shows formant shifts in Japanese traditional music. the five Japanese vowels of 10 bel canto singers, while the lower figure shows those of 7 Noh singers, among which 4 5. EXAMPLES OF ANALYSIS [5,6] are taken from the previous database [8]. Two-dimensional Japanese singing can be analyzed in comparison with standard deviation among singers of each group is shown western singing in various ways using this database. by an ellipse for each vowel. The axes depicted on the Presented in this paper are examples of various analyses: ellipses represent the principal axes of distribution. ‘‘+’’ the formant shift from natural utterance to singing utter- represents the average point of (F1; F2) for the five vowels ance for bel canto singers and Noh actors, and comparative uttered naturally, while ‘‘’’ represents that of singing studies on vibrato in bel canto and traditional Japanese utterances. A formant shift appears mainly in F1 for /u/ in singing. bel canto singers, while it appears mainly in F1 and F2 for

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Fig. 3 Comparison of spectral envelopes of /a/. Upper: Fig. 4 Formant shift from natural speech to singing Noh, Tetsunojo Kanze, Lower: Kyogen, Sensaku voices. Upper: bel canto, Lower: Noh. +: Average Shigeyama. (F1; F2) for natural utterance. : Average (F1; F2) for singing utterance. !: Formant shift from natural to singing utterances. /a/ for Noh singers. There are 6 Noh singers, 3 singers from previous data [8] and 3 singers from this database, F0 [Hz] among them five are main singers (4 from the Kanze school 350 d d and one from Kita school) and one is a submain singer 340 1 3 330 (from the Hosho school). There are 14 bel canto singers, 320 among which 5 are sopranos, 2 mezzo-sopranos, one alto, 3 310 d2 300 Vibrato depth Dv=1200*log (d d /d 2)1/2 tenors and 3 baritones. 2 1 3 2 290 S Vibrato rate Rv=1/(t - t ) 280 3 1 Build-up time 270 Build-up time S conditioned by d /d <θ 5.3. Comparison of Vibratos between Bel Canto and 260 3 1 S 250 Traditional Japanese Singing t1 t2 t3 16.5 176 336 495 655 815 974 1134 1294 1453 1613 1773 1932 A typical vibrato pattern of bel canto for /a/ is shown Time [ms] in Fig. 5, where vibrato builds up starting from the beginning of voicing reaching a stable vibrato with a width Fig. 5 Typical vibrato pattern of bel canto for /a/. of a whole tone. The vibrato depth and vibrato rate noted in Abscissa: time [ms], Ordinate: F0 [Hz]. the figure will be explained in the following subsections. 5.3.1. Vibrato depth Japanese genres show very shallow vibrato. To investi- As observed in some Japanese song genres, such as gate the situation more precisely, the instantaneous Noh Shomyo t ¼ t ; and (Buddist prayers), vibrato in traditional vibratopffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi depth at 2 in Fig. 5 is defined as 1 200 Japanese singing shows a much wider range of changes log2ð d1 d3=d2Þ [cents], expressing the width of the in F0 than bel canto. The ratio of the highest F0 to the change in F0 within a vibrato period. ‘‘Cent’’ is a unit for lowest F0 within a vibrato period reaches 4/3, or a perfect expressing a frequency ratio in a logarithmic scale and is fourth, for traditional Japanese singing, while that of bel defined such that an octave corresponds to 1,200 cents, and canto is about 9/8, or one whole tone, although some other one semitone corresponds to 100 cents. Figure 6 shows

62 I. NAKAYAMA and M. YANAGIDA: TRADITIONAL JAPANESE SINGING

Fig. 6 Average vibrato depth [cents], standard deviation Fig. 7 Comparison of build-up time [ms] between [cents], and maximum and minimum depths [cents] of Japanese singing and bel canto. vibrato for each genre including bel canto for comparison. the average vibrato depth, its standard deviation, and the maximum and minimum values for the genres mentioned above including bel canto for comparison [9]. From Fig. 6 we can recognize that the maximum vibrato depth of traditional Japanese singing is 500 cents, i.e., a perfect fourth, while that of bel canto is much smaller than 300 cents, i.e., three semitones. 5.3.2. Vibrato rate The instantaneous vibrato rate at t ¼ t2 in Fig. 5 is Fig. 8 Examples of vibrato in traditional Japanese defined as 1=ðt3 t1Þ [Hz], expressing the average speed of singing of /a/. Abscissa: time [s], ordinate: F0 [Hz]. the change in F0 from t1 to t3. We observed that the average vibrato rate is from 4 to 5.5 Hz independent of the less sharp. Kabuki also shows a similar trajectory although it genre, including bel canto. lacks the sharp change at the beginning of the F0 trajectory, 5.3.3. Build-up time of vibrato and the vibrato depth in the last half is only a semitone. Biwa We can also observe differences between Japanese and Nagauta show stable vibrato of a semitone or a whole singing and bel canto in build-up time S, defined as the tone starting immediately after the beginning of voicing, time required for F0 to reach the first peak after which while Kyogen shows an unstable F0 trajectory. d3=d1, the ratio of adjacent local peaks in the F0 curve, Although the above-mentioned features of vibrato are becomes less than a threshold, 1.2 is used as a preliminary described as if they were characteristic to genres, these value here, as depicted in Fig. 5. features might be attributed to individual singers, because The situation is shown in Fig. 7, which indicates that the number of singers in each genre is small. the build-up time in traditional Japanese singing is usually Figure 9 compares bel canto, Shomyo and Noh singing longer than that in bel canto. Noh, Shomyo and Kabuki, of /a/ by their waveforms of vowels (top), F0 (second from in particular, show average values of more than twice that top), short-term power and mid-term power (the second of bel canto, with an extremely long build-up time as the from bottom) and normalized short-term power (bottom), longest value. where short-term power means sum of the squares of the 5.3.4. Synchronization of vibrato and power waveform through 20 ms long Hanning window and mid- Some examples of vibrato in the isolated singing of /a/ term power is that of a 100-ms-long window, Normalized in traditional Japanese singing are shown in Fig. 8, where short-term power is the short-term power normalized by the the abscissa represents the time and the ordinate, F0, for mid-term power. Noh, Kyogen, Biwa (Heikyoku), Shomyo, Kabuki and It is recognized that the vibrato in bel canto, tenor in Nagauta, taken from the CD database [3]. The F0 trajectory this case, builds up rapidly, and shows a regular temporal of Noh begins with an initial spike-like sharp change, passes fluctuation both of F0, as shown in the second-from-top through a constant pitch part, and then reaches a stable graph of Fig. 9(a), and of short-term power, as shown in vibrato with the width of an almost perfect fourth. Shomyo the second-from-bottom graph of Fig. 9(a), or of its also shows a similar trajectory although the initial change is normalized short-term power, shown in the bottom graph

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ing field. We think that the Japanese should promote research to reflect on their past policy of music education and to investigate how best to sing a song in the Japanese language. This problem is related to the basic issue of how to communicate using spoken language, which has con- nections with phonetics, phonology, cognitive science, neuroscience as well as music and public entertainment. Research activity in singing should be extended to involve the related areas mentioned above. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research has been supported by Toyota Founda- tion, Suntory Cultural Fund, Tsukamoto-gakuin, a Grant- (a) bel canto (b) Shomyo (c) Noh in-Aid for Scientific Research by MEXT and an Academic Frontier Project by Doshisha University. Fig. 9 Comparison of synchronization between F0 and REFERENCES power in singing /a/. Top: Waveform, Second row: F0 [Hz], Third row: Short- and mid-term power, Bottom: [1] K. Aoyama, Practical research in singing Japanese songs — Normalized short-term power. The contact point to traditional music, discussions and practices— (Doctoral Dissertation, Tokyo University of Arts, 1987). of Fig. 9(a). Figure 9(b) shows an interesting example [2] R. Uchida, Songs and Music of Okinawa (Daiichi-shobo, Tokyo, 1989). observed in Shomyo, where no vibrato is observed in F0, [3] I. Nakayama, Singing, Chanting and Reciting Japanese Lan- but a temporal fluctuation is observed in power, as seen in guage (18 CDs and an explanatory book in Japanese), Ad the bottom two graphs in Fig. 9(b), though the periodicity Popolo, NKS-00010018, JASRAC R-02906960290698 is not clear as in (a). It can be stated that Shomyo shows a (2002). (Sold out in September 2006. Contact M. Yanagida, type of amplitude modulation, but not vibrato. [email protected] for academic purchase.) Figure 9(c) shows the singing of a vowel from Noh.In [4] Japan Arts Council, http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/dglib/ [5] K. Kojima, M. Yanagida and I. Nakayama, ‘‘Variability of this case, one strong peak is recognized in the F0 pattern vibrato — A comparative study between traditional Japanese immediately after build-up, and then F0 remains flat for a singing and bel canto —,’’ Proc. Speech Prosody 2004, Nara, while, then strong but nonstationary vibrato emerges at the pp. 151–154 (2004). end of the utterance. Temporal power variation is very [6] K. Kojima, M. Yanagida and I. Nakayama, ‘‘Acoustic features of vowels and temporal features of fundamental frequency in wide for this case reaching 80%, as is shown in the second- traditional Japanese singing,’’ ISMA 2004, Nara, 2-S2-6 (2004). from-bottom graph of Fig. 9(c), although the vibrato depth [7] D. Deutsch, Psychology of Music 2nd ed. (Academic Press, San of F0 is about a perfect fourth. Diego, 1999), p. 182. [8] I. Nakayama, Singing Japanese songs and western songs (CD, 6. CONCLUDING REMARKS DB on singing), Scientific Research in Priority Areas ‘‘Inves- tigation and education in prosodic features of Japanese We have presented an exhaustive database of tradi- language’’ for 1996, headed by M. Sugito, 1992). tional Japanese singing styles compared with western [9] M. Yanagida and I. Nakayama, ‘‘Comparative studies on classical singing, together with exsamples of studies on traditional Japanese singing and Bel Canto,’’ Forum Acusticum formant shifts and vibrato using part of the database. Sevilla, MUS-03-002-IP (2002). The vibrato of several genres of traditional Japanese Ichiro Nakayama singing is compared with that of western bel canto. The graduated from Osaka Uni- versity in 1964, and received M.E. degree and vibrato of traditional Japanese singing appears to be much Doctoral degree in 1966 and 1980, respectively, deeper and takes much longer time to reach a steady state both from Osaka University, Japan. He was than that of western bel canto, although there seems to be working with the Institute of Scientific and no significant difference in vibrato rate. The vibrato of Industrial Research, Osaka University, from 1969 till 1991. In 1991, he moved to the bel canto builds up rapidly and shows regular fluctuations Department of Musicology, Osaka University of in both F0 and short-term power, while the vibrato of Arts, and since 1996, he has been Professor. He traditional Japanese singing is more diverse. The maximum published several databases on Japanese traditional singing such as vibrato depth in traditional Japanese singing is a perfect one introduced in the current paper. He received the Grand-Prix in Recording Section at Art Festival 2005, promoted by the Agency fourth, while that in bel canto is roughly a whole tone. of Cultural Affairs, Japan, for ‘‘Moso-Biwa; Hojun NAGATA’s This database was realized by the collaboration of a World.’’ He is a member of ASJ, ASA, JSMPC, MSJ, SRAM and researcher in the artistic field and another in the engineer- PSJ.

64 I. NAKAYAMA and M. YANAGIDA: TRADITIONAL JAPANESE SINGING

Masuzo Yanagida graduated from Osaka separated from the So-kyoku ‘‘Ikuta school.’’ On the other University in 1969, and received M.E. degree hand, the So-kyoku ‘‘Yamada school’’ was established by and Doctoral degree in 1971 and 1978, respectively, both from Osaka University, Japan. He kengyo Yamada, independently of the Ikuta school. In shortly worked with Japan Broadcasting Cor- Table 1 it is thus classified as So-kyoku whereas Shamisen poration and returned to Osaka University in music is classified in detail as Nagauta, Tokiwazu, 1972 as a research associate at the Institute of Kiyomoto, Itchu, Shinnai, Kouta, Hauta-Zokkyoku, Scientific and Industrial Research. He was Sekkyo-bushi and Rohkyoku. working with ISIR, Osaka University for 9 years from 1978 and moved to Radio Research Laboratory (now, Appendix 2: Supplementary Comments NICT-MIAC after CRL-MPT), Japan, in 1987. He has been working with Doshisha University since 1994. He received the Sato Paper The database has some minor defects. These are as Award from the Acoustical Society of Japan in 2004, and Society follows: Award from Information Systems Society of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Japan in a. There are some genres that have only one singer. In 2006. Dr. Yanagida is currently the Chair of Musical Acoustics these cases, we cannot deccide whether the extracted Group, Acoustical Society of Japan, and is a member of ASJ, IEICE, features are to be attributed to the genre or to the IPSJ, JSAI, JCSS, SOFT, IEEE and ASA. singer, even if we find some features in the singing of interest. This difficulty, however, is unavoidable in Appendix 1: On the ‘‘Ikuta school’’ in the case when we have only one singer, the last JiutaÁSokyoku and ‘‘Yamada school’’ in Sokyoku survivor, in that genre. In the booklet of [3], Jiuta (local song) is combined b. The common verse employed here is somewhat nearer with so (13-string koto) and is written as JiutaSo-kyoku to traditional Japanese lyrics than the Japanese trans- ‘‘Ikuta school,’’ although Jiuta is singing while playing the lation of western lyrics, although we assume that it is shamisen or san-gen (three strings). However, it seems to equally acceptable as a verse of both Japanese lyrics be reasonable to classify Japanese music by its accom- and western lyrics if we think that the autumnal panying instruments such as Shamisen music and So-kyoku coloring of leaves is deeply connected to Japanese or So music, so, Table 1 classifies Jiuta as an independent culture. Thus, Japanese bel canto singers may feel genre, and the Ikuta school of So-kyoku is omitted from the some incongruity, although singers of traditional list leaving only Yamada school as So-kyoku. Japanese genres may feel anything unnatural. The reason why the JiutaSokyoku ‘‘Ikuta school’’ is c. Unfortunately, there are some singers that are unable counted as a music genre in the booklet of [3] is that the to maintain their singing quality at its peak. In such a classification there is by the type of singing. Jiuta emerged case, the problem was avoided by rerecording until in the last half of the 16th century in Kamigata (Kansai the singer was satisfied with his/her recorded voice. district) with the shamisen as its accompanying instrument, d. As was noted in the ‘‘Background,’’ the singing voices and gained popularity as it became closely related to the of amateur singers are not included in this database. So-kyoku ‘‘Ikuta school’’ which was established by kengyo Although a comparative study within a genre requires (the top person among blind monks) Ikuta in Kamigata the voices of amateurs or beginners, we expect that (Kinki district) in the end of the 17th century, Jiuta researchers who want to carry out such a study can accompanied by the So appeared later. Thus, the booklet easily make recordings of those singers without of [3] counts JiutaSokyoku ‘‘Ikuta school’’ as one genre copyright problems. in traditional Japanese music, because Jiuta cannot be