Kabuki

Leading Soloists of Japan - Music from the Kabuki

Originally posted on July 18, 2006

Write-up by muse1453:
I wish to make it clear that I actually know very little about this artform. I bought this at a garage sale last year because it looked very interesting and I was not disappointed when I played this. After a couple of plays, this record has been shelved and forgotten until recently when I went through my collection searching for some interesting things to post on my blog. I am sorry to have neglected this record for about a year, but I hope to find some time to learn more about this music and the kabuki theater. Meanwhile here are the liner notes from the back cover that gives out helpful information. This turned out more interesting than I anticipated especially considering the origins of this artform.

"Kabuki, the popular theatre of Japan that combines music and drama, has not been embraced by the Western visitor because he has not yet understood it. In 1930, the German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld took a trip around the world and spent much time in the Orient. In Tokyo he attended the Meiji theatre for a kabuki performance that lasted from 4 to 11 p.m. with a one-hour intermission. Dr. Hirschfeld remained for the entire performance, but observed that most Europeans had enough of the show after two hours and that most Americans were bewildered and exasperated in less than one hour. That such apathy was still true of 'foreigners' ten years ago is testified to by Aubrey and Giovanna Halford, who tell us ('The Kabuki Handbook,' publ. Chas. E. Tuttle Co., 1956) that visitors to Japan 'see Kabuki' for half an hour in the same way that they drop in and out of a night club. However, it is unlikely that this ignorance of a great art form will prevail with us for another ten years in view of the enlightenment provided by accelerated international communications, and interest in Eastern music-fostered in large measure by the LP record.

Kabuki exists beside the courtly noh theatre and the puppet, or doll, theatre, and is a combination of vocal and instrumental music, dancing, pantomine, drama, and costumes on a stage. This record provides examples of geza (off-stage) music, chiefly of kabuki, but in some cases adapted from noh drama. In addition to the on-stage musicians in kabuki-shamisen, flutes, drums, etc.-there is a small room separated from the stage by a bamboo curtain painted black. In this room are a variety of instruments, especially percussion, that provide accompaniment for the performers and sound effects for the stage. As an offshoot of the aristocratic noh and the puppet theatre, kabuki had its origin at the end of the 16th century. It is traced to a Shinto princess, Okuni, who in 1596 to gain support for her shrine went to Kyoto and danced in public. She started with a pious prayer dance (nembutsu-odor) but soon branched out into erotic dances that delighted her middle-class audience. From its origin, kabuki was associated with sex. The word 'kabuki' was derived from 'kabuku' - meaning 'to incline'. (Later the word was written with Chinese characters of the same phonetic value, but meaning 'song-dance-acting'.) At the time of her death in about 1610, Okuni had expanded her dance into a form that embraced actors or singers, popular songs, and instruments of the noh theatre, such as flute and drums. The musical aspect of kabuki that developed from kouta (short songs) was known as nagauta (long songs).

In the early part of the 17th century, with no forceful talent to direct its esthetic progress, kabuki was content with sexual exploitation. Onna (female) kabuki - later called 'Pleasure Woman's Kabuki' - chose its singing actresses largely on the basis of their permissiveness as companions for wealthy patrons. One element of progress at this time was the introduction of the shamisen to the musical forces of this art. Moralists did not fail to condemn the kabuki theatre for its wickedness in corrupting the warrior caste, which had become so dissolute that its members preferred making love to killing their fellow man. This 'degeneracy' was combated in 1629 by banning women from the theatre. Young men then took over their performances (wakashu kabuki) and sodomy was not only a frequent subject on the stage - where its humorous aspects were relished - but also off-stage between the actors and their military spectators. As a result, in 1652 'Young Man's Kabuki' was forbidden by the authorities. Finally, older men - lacking physical beauty and sexual attractiveness - became the kabuki performers (Yaro kabuki) and developed it into its modern form. In Osaka in 1664, the kabuki play was extended to several acts, and soon the stage had a curtain and scenery. From that time to the present, kabuki has flourished; most of the plays and music of today's repertoire date from the 19th century.

Geza music is played almost continually throughout a performance as an accompaniment to the narrative, and for sound effects and tone colors. As with the Wagnerian Leitmotiv, musical themes are associated with ideas, so that to appreciate the music and the drama fully one must recognize this extra-musical role of the music. With the masterworks of Wagner, motifs in themselves suggest what they represent. For the Japanese, however, musical themes are not naturalistic but abstract; they make, usually, no attempt to illustrate in musical sounds a natural object or idea. Recognition of this non-musical significance of themes is, therefore, purely a matter of association and, at least for the foreigner, involves conscious application and study. Geza music is interesting in itself but the fact should not be overlooked that its full meaningfulness depends upon the action of the stage and the play which it serves to accompany."

Tracklisting:

Side One

1. Music of Downtown (The Ginza) {7:32}

2. Festival Music {6:02}

3. Aikata {7:25}

4. Dance Music {4:18}

Side Two

5. Sound Effects {3:52}

6. Shrine Music {2:56}

7. Interludes {4:33}

8. Voice {5:45}

9. Aikata {7:32}

(1)