William P. Malm - Nagauta: The Heart of Kabuki Music

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Nagauta

plate 1: The full nagauta ensemble on the kabuki stage. A scene from the play Funa Benkei. Courtesy Shchiku Photo Studios

Nagauta

THE HEART OF
KABUKI MUSIC

Recipient of the Monograph Prize
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
for the year 1959
in the field of the humanities

by William P. Malm

CHARLES E. TUTTLE COMPANY: PUBLISHERS
Rutland, Vermont Tokyo, Japan

European representatives
For the Continent:
boxerbooks, inc., Zurich
For the British Isles:

prentice-hall international inc., London

Published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company
of Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan
with editorial offices at

Osaki Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0032

Copyright in Japan, 1963
by Charles E. Tuttle Company

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Catalog
Card No. 62-9362
ISBN: 978-1-4629-1305-3 (ebook)

First printing, 1963

Book design and typography by Kaoru Ogimi
PRINTED IN JAPAN

Table of Contents

List of Musical Examples and Tables

List of Illustrations

Preface

THE KABUKI theatre has long been admired for the artistry of its plays, the skill of its actors, and the brilliance of its decor. Its musical qualities, however, have generally been ignored. Writers on kabuki recognize the fact that the spectacular dramaturgical elements of kabuki float on a variegated but, for the Westerner, generally undifferentiated sea of music. Nevertheless, because of space or specialization, they have been unable to complete their discussions with actual musical analyses. This book is an attempt to fill in this gap by presenting an introductory study of one of its major musical elements, nagauta. In addition, it is hoped that a better understanding of this single form, as it is used both in and out of the theatre, will be a step toward a fuller appreciation of Japanese music in general. At present Japanese music tends to be viewed as a series of exotic pleasantries. With the gradual appearance of detailed studies in specific musics it may be possible to change such a picture to one of a group of historically connected art forms. As in Western music, each of these genres must obey certain general laws of musical logic. At the same time, each displays special solutions to its specific artistic problems. The discovery of how a particular music operates within such general and specific rules is one of the goals of music research. It has been a strong motivation for this work.

In a world as varied as that of Japanese music one could begin to study anywhere with intellectual and musical profit. I have chosen to begin with nagauta because it is a living tradition which grew out of the most recent flourishing period of Japanese music history, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Perhaps more important than this is the fact that I like nagauta. I think it is beautiful, and beauty should be shared with others.

This book of necessity must be addressed to many different audiences; the musician, the Orientalist, the theatre devotee, and the intellectually curious. Because of this, it has been divided in such a way that those seeking specific knowledge can tell from the Table of Contents which sections of the book are germane. However, the book is designed primarily to be read straight through. The transcriptions have been printed separately so that the analytical sections of the book can be studied with the music in hand. I am sure that musicians join me in thanking the editors for providing this important convenience.

In presenting a study of nagauta to the Western reader several severe problems arise. Foremost of these is the lack in the West of a background of Japanese music in general and the kabuki music tradition in particular. Because of this it has been necessary to digress from the main topic at certain points and provide information of a type one could presume as common knowledge when writing about Western music. This problem also causes the study to be replete with Japanese technical music terms. Such a condition is unfortunate for the general reader but unavoidable. A glossary-index has been provided in order that one can follow the discussion without undue discomfort from unfamiliar terminology.