BIBLIOGRAPHIE

WILLIAM P. MALM, Japanese Music and Musical Instruments. Charles E. Tuttle Company, Rutland, Vermont-Tokyo, . 254 pages, four appendices, bibliography, index and glossary of terms (45 pages), 89 plates, 42 figures.

This young Californian musician has done some most valuable research in Japanese theatrical music of the Tokugawa period. In the fields of n5 and kabuki, of gidayu and the various other vocal styles of that period no reliable and detailed information in Western languages has been thus far available. It is Mr. Malm's great merit to have tackled a most involved problem with courage and talent. His musical results have been published in some specia- lized papers and the volume here reviewed offers a skillfully organ- ized and complete survey. Mr. Malm's greatest assets are his practical mind, his technical skill, his down-to-earth musicality, keen eye and good ear. Descrip- tions of instruments and their techniques are very careful and by and large quite excellent (p. 92, 120, 122 etc.). Particularly brilliant is his analysis of the geza functions in kabuki (p. 224) which may come as a complete surprise even to Japanologists specialized in these fields. However, a greater number of musical examples would have been appreciated. Even to this reviewer, who has made practical studies of utai, Mr. Malm's explanations of the tonal system of no singing remain a little unclear and an unin- formed reader might face still greater difficulties. A practical musical example-so easy to supply-would greatly have eluc- idated the matter, so that even the uninitiated would have under- stood the occasional shifting of the whole interval system en- 288 circling a tonal centre to the respective u of this centre. Likewise, the detailed analysis of the naga-uta sections should have been supplemented by one musical example for each section, all the more as this material is presented for the very first time in the West and Mr. Malm moreover launches a personal theory con- cerning this interesting musical form (p. 208). With perhaps too much courage Mr. Malm has added to his own research also a survey of all the other musical forms. This was a tremendeous enterprise for a young man who came to Japan for only two years and who, for obvious linguistic reasons, had to rely greatly on second-hand information. Considering these circumstan- ces, he did exceedingly well and it would be cavilling to pin him down on errors and misunderstandings. Suffice it to say that the chapters on music, and are not reliable enough to serve as scholarly reference. The explanations of technical terms are sometimes incomplete, erroneous and occasionally even misleading. But any musicologist familiar with the difficulties

1) A few examples only: Contradictionsconcerning existence or nonexistenceof instru- mental solo music in the earlier periods will not escape the attentive reader (pp. 25, z34, 151etc.). Malm's theory on the most ancient shint5 music, especiallyfor wagon,is shaky. It is positively incorrect that purely instrumental music does not appear in shinto. The definition of mi-kagurais incomplete (p. 42). San and ji are techniques of arpeggio during an accompaniment;the ori, on the contrary, are preludes or interludes: they are instrumental solo music (p. 45). Only in saibara the shakuby5shiis used for regular time beating; in other music it marks the beginning and ending of a section. The bonsan, kansan and wasan of Buddhist service are not correctly defined. The same holds for the interrelationsof gagakuand shomyo,definition of their scales etc. The use of shokoand kakk5in gagakuis describedincorrectly. There are also errors con- cerning the gaku-sõ(p. 94). The most important function of the gakubiwa,the drone, is not made clear (p. 95). The functionsof the shb chords are not clearlyexplained. Why is the inverted drone not mentionedand why must we read instead: "a vein of amber in which a butterfly has been preserved" ? Whenever Mr. Malm has clear concepts, he writes in a refreshingly clear, concisestyle. In case of the contrary, poetic comparisonscome in handy (p. 99). There is no sh5 in komagaku(p. ioo). Page 102 contains grave errors and omissions concerningthe rhythmic patterns of gagaku. Jõ-ha-kyu are misrepresented; so is form and function of the netori.