"Malm's scholarship is impeccable... Of equal importance is the fact that he is an excellent performing musician who has studied extensively in Japan." -Choice

This interesting and authoritative book includes essential facts about the various forms of Japanese music and musical instruments and their place in the overall history of Japan. Japanese Music and Musical Instruments has three main orientations: The history of Japanese music Construction of the instruments Analysis of the music itself. The book covers in a lucidly written text and a wealth of fascinating photographs and drawings the main forms of musical expression. Many readers will find the useful hints on purchasing instruments, records, and books especially valuable, and for those who wish to pursue the matter further there is a selected bibliography and a guide to Tokyo's somewhat hidden world of Japanese music. It will be found an invaluable aid to the understanding and appreciation of an important, but little-known, and fascinating aspect of Japanese culture.

The purpose of this book is to survey the basic kinds of music and musical instruments found in the major oriental civilizations and in the island cultures of the Eastern Hemisphere. It is also intended as an introduction to the basic attitudes, techniques, and nomenclature of the discipline of ethnomusicology. Presents a romanization of the book of vocal examples along with a translation or explanation of their meaning. A sonic glossary index at the end of each chapter shows all non-western terms in alphabetical order including a unique prononciation audio cassette. The inclusion of human figures in all new drawings add information about playing positions as well as instrument designs. Contains a unique cassette of pronunciations by noted and qualified speakers.

This study of Japanese music explore Nagauta or literally "long song"—the delicate and complex music that accompanies kabuki theater—in great detail. The Kabuki theater of Japan has achieved a growing reputation as one of the world's most brilliant achievements in the field of theater. And the number of studies made on the subject in the West has been considerable. Yet, in spite of the fact that so much of the unique brilliance of the kabuki stage depends on the character of its music, the manner in which it is used, and its integral connection with the development of the dramatic impact of the plays, very little has been written on this phase of the genre. Of particular interest are the attempts to explore the various approaches to form music in the vast repertoire of this living art music. The playing techniques of the instruments are explained, and the relations of each instrument's music to the vocal line and to the overall design is shown. The analysis is accompanied by two compete transcription of nagauta in Western notation. These transcriptions are the first complete scores of nagauta ever printed. Additional musical examples, bibliography, discography, and glossary-index add value to the text.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This book is the first attempt to examine Bunraku in performance and to bring together musical, dramatic, and historical analyses into one study. The three authors focus on the famous "Mountains Scene" (Yama no dan), the third scene of the third act of Mt. Imo and Mt. Se: An Exemplary Tale of Womanly Virtue (Imoseyama onna teikin, 1771) by Chikamatsu Hanji. The book with its articles, translations, text, glossary of terms, and cassettes of the performance, is a complete guide to Bunraku as a performing tradition and will be useful to anyone interested in music or theater.