Piercing the Structure of Tradition : : Flute Performance, Continuity, and Freedom in the Music of Noh Drama / / Mariko Anno.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• VerfasserIn: Anno, Mariko,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (366 p.) :; 21 b&w halftones

What does freedom sound like in the context of traditional Japanese theater? Where is the space for innovation, and where can this kind of innovation be located in the rigid instrumentation of the Noh drama? In Piercing the Structure of Tradition, Mariko Anno investigates flute performance as a space to explore the relationship between tradition and innovation. This first English-language monograph traces the characteristics of the Noh flute (nohkan), its music, and transmission methods and considers the instrument's potential for development in the modern world. Anno examines the musical structure and nohkan melodic patterns of five traditional Noh plays and assesses the degree to which Issō School nohkan players maintain to this day the continuity of their musical traditions in three contemporary Noh plays influenced by Yeats. Her ethnographic approach draws on interviews with performers and case studies, as well as her personal reflection as a nohkan performer and disciple under the tutelage of Noh masters. She argues that traditions of musical style and usage remain influential in shaping contemporary Noh composition and performance practice, and the existing freedom within fixed patterns can be understood through a firm foundation in Noh tradition.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- List of Examples -- List of Tables -- Notes on Romanization and Notations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter One. History and Construction of the Nohkan -- Chapter Two. The Nohkan and Oral Transmission -- Chapter Three. The Role and Melodic Patterns of the Nohkan in Relation to Structural Principles -- Chapter Four. The Nohkan’s Part in Atsumori as Planned, Prepared, and Performed -- Chapter Five. The Continuity of Tradition Today -- Reflections and Directions -- Appendix A. Teaching and Playing the Nohkan in the United States -- Appendix B. Recordings of Issō Yukihiro on the Nohkan -- Appendix C. Shōga and Transcription of the〔Chū no Mai〕 Hagakari: Kanze School Length, San-dan (Three Divisions) -- Appendix D. Transcriptions of Shōdan from Atsumori -- Appendix E. Yubitsuke (Fingerings) for the〔Shidai〕and the〔Issei〕 -- Appendix F. Text for Yokomichi’s Taka no Izumi (1949) -- Appendix G. Text for Yokomichi’s Taka no Izumi, Shu-gakari (2004) -- Appendix H. Text for Yokomichi’s Takahime (1998) -- Appendix I. Contemporary Noh Play Performances and Their Casts, by Location and Date -- Appendix J. Kanze School Utaibon for Atsumori -- Appendix K. Nohkan Pitches Used for Theoretical Transcriptions -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index