Noël J. Nickson - Böcker

This volume brings to an end the transcription and historical description of items from the Court Entertainment Music of the Tang found in two collections of zither and lute scores from the end of the twelfth century. They are from two mode-key groups: twenty-three in the mode-key Ichikotsu-cho and eight in Sada-cho. Of particular interest is a tune that fits a birthplace-ode by the Taizong Emperor, composed in 632, and also music for a collective spear-throwing exercise and a piece perhaps imitating calls between sexual partners in a flock of geese. Important appendices discuss stylistic differences between music of the Tang and imitative Japanese compositions; relationships between Tang compositions with noble and military associations; and evidence of inter-relatedness between movements in suites from the Tang.

From the oldest surviving Japanese manuscripts in tablature (ninth- fourteenth-centuries) the book provides transcripts into staff-notation of (largely) entertainment-music, played at banquets at the Chinese Court in the Tang period, borrowed by the Japanese not later than 841. The music has never been transcribed before and has not been heard for 800 years or more, so drastically has it been transformed in Japanese performance. The history of each piece of music, as given in Chinese and Japanese historical sources, is investigated. The music itself is subjected to formal analysis, revealing its structure, its modal dynamics, and the methods of composition. For much of the music, ballet-scores survive from the mid-thirteenth century, and it is hoped that these may be associated fascicles with the music as transcribed in future fascicles. Fascicle 5 offers one immense suite, the origins of which lie in sixth-century China: 'The King of the Grave-Mound' (Ryo-o), together with single-stave versions and analyses of upwards of twenty items from previous fascicles and a summary essay restating views on the nature of 'Tang Music' (Togaku).