Thesis--University of California, Los Angeles. / Vita. Photocopy of typescript. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International, 1978. -- 22 cm. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 214-219).

Gagaku, ancient Japanese court music and dance, known today as a traditional performing art, has over a thousand years of history since its introduction from the East Asian mainland. Despite the fact that the study of Japanese musicology, history and classical literature has attracted scholarly attention for many years, much fundamental research in the historical records and documents still remains to be done. In fact, the most important primary source used in this study, the Kyōkunshō, composed in 1233 by Koma no Chikazane (1177–1242) is known as the oldest Japanese synthetic treatise on music and one of the three major treatises that relate to Japanese court music. Although the Kyōkunshō is such a valuable resource, detailed research has commenced recently, but it has produced noteworthy achievements in the field of Japanese traditional music and its history. Nevertheless, the study of gagaku in the Insei period (from the late eleventh to the late twelfth century CE) has not yet fully succeeded in clarifying the nature of Japanese medieval music, and the lack of analysis of its role in the body politic needs to be addressed. Against this background, this study aims at answering the relations between gagaku and politics from the late Heian to the early Kamakura era. Building on existing studies, this thesis adopts a quantitative method of textual analysis combined with a close reading of the Kyōkunshō and pertinent texts. The methods used for this research entail abstracting data pertaining to historical performances that are described in the Kyōkunshō and analysing this corpus both quantitatively and in the context of contemporary textual and other sources. This reading of the Kyōkunshō reveals that gagaku had an important ritual function as shōgon 荘厳 (“adornment, embellishment, spectacle”) of the nation; that is, throughout the period in question performances of music and dance in gagaku are an integral part of the body politic, both its political activity and its understanding of itself as a metaphysical entity. The study further indicates that the significance of gagaku developed from the political sphere to the social and popular spheres. Study of the pertinent textual corpus has shown that Kyōkunshō was composed during a transitional period when two further understandings of gagaku developed. Firstly, a concept known a posteriori as ‘ongaku ōjōshisō 音楽往生思想, the concept of attaining heaven by playing music’ (Minamitani, 2001). Here, gagaku functioned as a medium for bonding the person who has mastered the music, to the Buddhist Pure Land (jōdo, understood as a kind of paradise); popular belief in the power of music played an important role. Secondly, there evolved the (similarly a posteriori) concept of ‘geidōshisō 芸道思想, the philosophy of the way of performance’ (Ogi, 1977). In this understanding, music was regarded as independent of any political or religious influence and mastered for its own sake. Certainly, a critical reading of key episodes in the Kyōkunshō furnishes evidence that it had been performed as musical amusement since the middle of the Heian period at the latest. Thus the thesis demonstrates that gagaku retained a strong connection to politics during the period in question but surely fulfilled other functions outside the political framework, and that these non-political functions also had their roots prior to the medieval period. The thesis’s critical apparatus includes a transcription of the whole text, rendering the mainly classical Chinese (kanbun) original into modern Japanese readings (kakikudashibun 書き下 し文), an exercise which requires crucial interpretations of Chinese syntax. An English translation of the first scroll of the Kyōkunshō is also provided.

Sammanfattning av uppsatsen: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka ett nytt alternativt sätt för mig att närma mig improvisation med flygeln som medium utifrån givna byggstenar hämtade ur traditionell japansk musik. Genom att välja ut byggstenar baserade på traditionell japansk musik skapar jag ett ramverk som tillåter nya idéer och impulser att ta plats. Byggstenarna namnges: sinnestillstånd, sound och struktur. Dessa fokuserar på filosofiska, tonrelaterade och strukturella idéer. I undersökningen använder jag byggstenarna i fyra fria improvisationer som analyseras vartefter och förbättras till nästa kommande experiment. Arbetet resulterade i en improvisationsteknik som öppnade upp för nya impulser och ett närmande som skilde sig från hur jag vanligtvis musicerar. Den krävde aktivt närvarande och acceptans över det som klingade i stunden samtidigt som musiken strävade framåt och hela tiden utvecklades. Arbetet visade på hur gamla musikaliska idéer från en annan kultur kan generera inspiration för nya musikaliska idéer. Arbetet gav även en mersmak för vad denna teknik kan leda till i framtida forskningsprojekt inom exempelvis komposition, ensemblespel och pedagogiskt närmande till improvisation.

This text outlines recent developments in my artistic practice. The two underlying themes of this work are my intonation practice, with and emphasis on just intonation, as well as the Japanese mouth-organ shō, which I am currently learning to play. The text discusses these topics, along with four of my recent works: Hypothermia for bass drum (2020) for gran cassa and electronics; Stycke för cembalo och elektronik (2021) for harpsichord and electronics; Breathing, bowing (2022) for viola da gamba and electronics; and Solo #1 (2022) for shō and unfiltered sawtooth waves. In these four pieces, I have explored different ways for the electronics to relate to and interact with the respective acoustic instruments with regards to intonation, spectromorphology and timbre. Both the pieces and the two underlying themes have not only been ventures into new aesthetic and technological areas, but they have also shaped my outlook on composition and the relationship between composer and musician. / <p>The presentation refers to my graduation concert, where two of the pieces discussed in this text were presented: <em>Breathing, bowing</em> and <em>Solo #1</em>. Along with these pieces, during the concert a newly composed ensemble piece was presented with me playing the shō alongside Johan Arrias (soprano saxophone), Gard Nergaard (hardingfela) and Vilhelm Bromander (contrabass).</p>

Imagined Sceneries is a work written by composer Dr. Koji Nakano of Burapha University, Thailand for two sopranos, koto, light percussion, narrations, soundscapes recorded in Kyoto, Japan in December 2015, and digital projections of Ebina Masao’s 1953 print series Tale of Genji. Imagined Sceneries’ reimagining and “re-sounding” of Heian Kyoto relies on a balance between what is imagined and what is experienced in performance. Its many elements collectively explore multiple layers of Japanese histories, soundscapes, environments, and sensibilities. Using Michel de Certeau’s concepts of the city, this thesis journeys through Nakano’s imagined spaces.