Stories & Music on Stage in Edo, Meiji, Taisho, Showa

When “Classical” becomes “Popular” and Vice Versa Questions:

• What happens when “classical” becomes “popular”? • What happens when “popular” music becomes “traditional”? • How do we “preserve” music? William Malm (1928)

The “musical” in ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology and “Traditional” music – fitting the world into boxes • The Rise of "Japanese Music" - The World of Music (2004) • Japanese Music' Can be Popular - Popular Music (2002) • Impressions of Japanese Music -The Musical Quarterly (1927) • Report on the Third German-Japanese Symposium on Traditional Japanese Music in Cologne - Asian Music (1981) • Japanese Music: A Brief Survey - The World of Music (1978) • The Documentary Sources of Japanese Music - Fontes Artis Musicae (1996) • The 'Rokudan Cadence' in Japanese '' Music: A Semiotic Approach to Interpretation - Music Analysis (1994) • Spirituality as a Universal Experience of Music: A Case Study of North Americans' Approaches to Japanese Music - Journal of Research in Music Education (2011) • Japanese "" Music - Journal of the American Musicological Society (1957) • Personal Approaches to the Study of Japanese Art Music - Asian Music (1972) • That `Howling' Music: Japanese Hogaku in Contrast to Western Art Music - Monumenta Nipponica (1985) • Tonality in Japanese Court Music - Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (1983) • Groupism and Individualism in Japanese Traditional Music - The World of Music, (2004) • A Short History of Japanese Nagauta Music - Journal of the American Oriental Society (1960) • Confluence of Spiritual and Aesthetic Research in Traditional Japanese Music - The World of Music (1983) • The Present Condition of Japanese Court Music - The Musical Quarterly (1953) • Mode and Scale, Modulation and Tuning in Japanese Music: The Case of Kiyomoto Narrative - Ethnomusicology (1996) Search = “Japanese Music” – First 4 pages of JSTOR Average Year of Publication = 1981 In music-drama….

• Music acts as a sponge; it absorbs the emotions (and the meanings) of the narrative with which it is associated

• Music acts as an amplifier; it amplifies the impact of the emotions in the narrative 1. 2. In Japan, music-drama In Japanese music- forms that developed as court (classical) genres drama, stories & have become the basis characters reappear in for later mass audience multiple forms & (popular) genres. genres Those forms have subsequently become “traditional” and have 3. changed as they’ve Music in music-dramas moved away from the comes from multiple ephemerality of popular sources and reflects the culture. history of those sources. It’s all there for a reason; but those reasons are often historical or dramatic. 3. Kabuki Three Forms: 17th C >>

1. Noh 13th-15th C>> 2. Bunraku 17th C>> Three Ensembles (Hayashi) Hayashi Noh

Gidayu Nagauta Kabuki

Bunraku Noh (talent, skill): 13th – 15th Centuries An emergent elite (classical) music- drama for an emergent elite: Samurai - warrior aristocracy

• Elite/Classical Music-drama • Origins in religiousSamurai (Shinto) as potential performance patrons and as • Highly theorizedperformers (internally) – Shinto, Buddhism • Increasingly abstracted content The oldest continuously performed music-drama tradition on the planet

Though noh was designated a masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2001, it is not hugely popular with the public. Its stylized, poetic language and deliberate movements are confusing even to native Japanese speakers without some background knowledge of the art form. Actor, Sakio Hashioka (2006) Funa Benkei Kanze Kojiro Nobumitsu [Benkei in the Boat] (1435-1516) The Genpei war: A late-12th Century civil war between two large (national level) coalitions of aristocratic samurai families

Musashibo Benkei

Taira no Tomomori

Minamoto no Yoshitsune The Noh Hayashi

O- Ko-Tsuzumi

Taiko The family/guild system of artisans: / Noh Kan musicians, composers, actors, etc., An exercise in musical timbre and uncertainty

Nohkan: the world’s only conical Japanese drumming – exercise in space (ma) - with interlocking patterns

- tsuzumi 0 – – the Ko - “dance drum” Michiyuki: Travel / Entrances Space /Dramatic Effect / Convention • Entrance music • Musical, narrative and physical event

Noh as the foundation for other music-drama forms Kakegoe – filling the spaces between the notes

• A performance aid that becomes part of the performance • As the music becomes slower, the spaces become larger Benten Kozo Act IV -Imasegawa no ba - Michiyuki (Kawatake Mokuami, 1862) • Michiyuki in the Kabuki theatre Shizuka no Mai - dance

Ji – a key performance practice in Japanese music-drama • halfway between singing and speaking Jiutaikata – the chorus Tomomori no dan Class in Japanese Music-Drama

Noh – serious stories of samurai

Kyogen – comedy, stories of peasants (and priests) – no music The emergence of a middle- class/merchant class 17th- 18th Century / Edo/ Tokugawa Japan

• The largest city in the world by mid- 18th C • The “shadow” capital • A city with a thriving merchant class culture Public Urban Culture Chonin-do

• Sophistication, often in small things • Poetry, theatre, art, sex, food, fashion • Merchant class Shamisen – The Musical Heart of Chonin-do (Urban popular culture_

Imported and transformed from Chinese models

Probably 16th C. Two music-drama forms

The live stage: Kabuki

The puppets: Bunraku Story-driven music-drama Jidaimono – stories of: • the elite/samurai class • the historical past • Sometimes allegories about the present • Often originating in Noh

Sewamono – stories of: • the merchant/urban/middle class • Love and loss in the world of courtesans & merchants • Contemporary Bunraku – Puppet Theatre The music of Gidayu • Formalization of popular narrative traditions • The popularization of “classical” stories • The creation of new stories for the middle class • “the experience of hell” Gidayu - The music of Bunraku

• Ji - Sung speech, • Heightened speech • Singing Sesshu Gappo ga Tsuji [Gappo and his daughter Tsuji] (Suga Senshu, 1773) • Sacrifice • Deception • Incest Sesshu Gappo ga Tsuji [Gappo and his daughter Tsuji] (Suga Senshu, 1773) Kabuki – Public Culture

Large scale spectacle

BIG gestures BIG ensembles BIG costumes

A space where gendered, class, and regional differences are exaggerated Kabuki & Bunraku The beginnings of “mass audience” popular/public performing culture

• Building on older “folk”/”traditional” forms • Borrowing stories • Often “transgressive” • Connected to both religion and sexuality • Government attempts to control “public morality” Izumo no Okuni (b. circa 1571) Shinto priestess Stylised Performances

• Public dance performances • Removed from religious or ritual context • Cross-dressing • Associated with kabuki (social misfit) culture Nagauta (Kabuki) Hayashi

Naga-uta [long song] the music of kabuki • [long song] • Variable, dependent on play • Borrowing from other music dramas Three Kinds of Music

2. Katarimono 1. Utamono (song (narrative style) style) • Accompanies action, • Lyric music, • Sets the scene, accompanies • Gidayu dance or other scenes 3. Geza (1 + 2 + • Played by nagauta sound effects) ensemble Battle noises, Background music, etc, etc, Yoshitsune & Benkei – Kanjincho [The Subscription List]

Noh Kabuki Bunraku Kanjincho

A jidaimono story: • adapted from Noh • Performed as • Yoshitsune kabuki in 1840 • Benkei • Togashi Kanjincho

Uta mono - nagauta Benkei (& Yoshitsune) before the Boat Yoshitsune sembon zakura (Takeda Izumo, Miyoshi Shoraku, Namiki Senryu, 1747) Daimotsu Ura no ba Written for the puppets – Youshitsune • Katarimono (narrative style) Benkei • Tayu speaks for the actors Tomomori • Gidayu music Emperor • + sound effects Antoku Suke Kagotsurube Sato no Eizame Naka-no-cho no Yoshiwara (Act 5) (Kawatake Shinichi III, 1889) Onna [woman] gata [form] Kagotsurube Sato no Eizame

• A First Class Geisha named Yatsuhashi meets a humble merchant from the country named Jirozaemon. He is wealthy, but because of the way he looks, has never thought that it would be possible to have a woman. He and his servant go sightseeing in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters. Yatsuhashi smiles at Jirozaemon and he falls in love. Tamasaburo Bando Kagami jishi (Fukuchi Ochi, 1893) The end