"This book is an attempt to fill in this gap [in the study of kabuki music] by presenting an introductory study of one of its major musical elements, nagauta." Malm believed that other scholars had overlooked many areas of study in kabuki music. He wanted to be the one to fill that gap by providing concrete musical analyses of specific kabuki pieces. One could arbitrarily begin a study of kabuki music in a number of places. Malm chose to start with nagauta because, "it is a living tradition which grew out of the most recent flourishing period of Japanese music history, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."

One of the problems Malm encountered while writing this book was that of the target audience. This study is meant to address a variety of audience types: "the musician, the Orientalist, the theater devotee, and the intellectually curious." It is obviously tailored to Western audiences. In order to try and connect the Western "layman" audiences, in essence non music scholars, with the Japanese culture about which he is writing, Malm arbitrarily inserts statements comparing elements of nagauta to elements of Western art music, even though the underlying concepts are completely different. Most of the comparisons were not backed up by evidence, but were superficial. I thought these references were gratuitous and that Malm would have been doing a service by perhaps narrowing his target audiences.

A second, related, problem was one of language and culture. Since his target audiences were mainly Western, it was assumed that would have no knowledge of the Japanese language, and little or no knowledge of Japanese music culture. Malm wrote that a basic knowledge or experience of Japanese music culture was necessary before reading this book, and recommended recordings for listening.

A third problem was that many of the available recordings were of musicians from the Mochizuki guild. Malm’s experience and transcriptions were from the Tanaka guild of musicians. This was only a minor problem, since the variations between guilds is more superficial than basic.

Malm’s methods of data collection were ideal. While in Japan, Malm learned to play the music he was studying. He studied shamisen and voice with two teachers from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts, Kikuoka Shinobu and Nishigaki Yuzo, respectively. Being teachers of traditional music, they were "committed to upholding the nagauta tradition in as pure a form as possible." They were active, professional performers as well, which meant that they were aware of the most current status of the developments in kabuki music. Malm also studied drumming with the head of the Tanaka guild, Tanaka Denzaemon. Denzaemon was chief percussionist for the Tokyo kabuki theater. Like the other teachers, he was also very concerned with retaining the purity of the guild style. I thought that this method of collecting data was ideal. By talking with active performers and teachers, and by actually learning to play and sing the music himself, Malm was receiving first hand information and a certain insight into this music that only performers have.

Not only was his information first hand, but the Ford Foundation fellowship allowed him to spend an extended amount of time in Japan, thereby gaining the trust and friendship of his teachers, colleagues, and acquaintances. Such a situation is very conducive to learning the intricacies and idioms of music like nagauta.

In organizing and presenting his data, Malm used a very systematic approach. The book is broken up into four parts: History and Theory, Music and Instruments, Analysis, and Transcriptions. Malm also includes an extensive bibliography, and an index-glossary. His systematic approach was especially apparent in Parts I, III, and IV: "History and Theory," "Analysis," and "Transcriptions." The "Music and Instruments" section exhibited a systematic approach as well, but was much less thorough in its investigation of details and specifics.

In the first two parts of the book, History and Theory, and Music and Instruments, Malm presents a stylistic analysis of nagauta music. He uses many comparisons, especially with Western forms, to describe or characterize the repertoire. In the second two sections (Parts III and IV), Malm uses a strictly systematic approach. He sets out to identify all possible aspects of the music, then categorizes them and puts them in tables, so they would be easily accessible. He transcribed and analyzed two particular nagauta pieces. Although this may not seem like much, the transcriptions and analyses are extremely thorough. Malm’s presentation of all of the data that he collected in the analyses is very concise, logical, and accessible.

Malm takes a very realist approach. For the most part, he describes the music and surrounding aspects in an objective, factual way. The only time that Malm resorts to a confessional, or almost impressionistic approach is in describing the plots of the plays whose music he is analyzing. He describes the plots in a very story-like manner, just as one would understand it if they were watching the play themselves. For example,

One of the most important points that Malm makes concerning style description does not deal directly with style. It is the aesthetic theory and driving principle of nagauta music. It is the concept of "jo-ha-kyu," first mentioned in chapter three. In order to reach his diverse array of audiences, Malm likens jo-ha-kyu to Western music in this way: "Thus, the concept of question and answer appears often in Western music as a theoretical fulcrum upon which the musical expressions of each age are balanced artistically. In a similar way, the theory of jo-ha-kyu is used as a frame of reference for the aesthetical explanation of Japanese musical form." This theory existed is Japan as early as the seventh century. The term "jo" refers to the introduction, "ha" the scattering or exposition, and "kyu" the denouement or "rushing to the end." This binding concept is the aesthetic force behind the form, melody, rhythm, and patterns of nagauta music.

In describing the basic nagauta style, Malm feels it necessary to cover much history of nagauta and kabuki forms, which found their beginnings in older forms, such as the noh drama style. This history and evolution of the forms is given in Part I, and diagrams are used frequently to make the history clearer. These diagrams are extremely effective, since the extensive use of Japanese names can be a bit overwhelming to Western audiences, who have no knowledge of the language. An example of such diagrams can be seen in Table 1.

The description of the instruments of the kabuki ensemble begins in Part II. Malm divides this part into five chapters. One chapter each is devoted to the voice, shamisen, drums, flutes, and the optional off-stage ensemble. I found this section barely adequate as an organological study, but just the right amount of information for the lay audiences that Malm was addressing. He wrote approximately one page on the physical description of each of the instruments, only once giving the exact measurements of the instrument. Malm spent most of chapters four through eight on the history of the instruments, their function in nagauta, and most of all, comparing them to their predecessors. Much of this book is comparison of styles. Although this is extremely useful information, I would have liked to learn more about the instruments, for instance how they are made, by whom, and what specific techniques are used in playing them. Basic tunings, functional scales and stereotyped patterns of the shamisen and voice are discussed briefly.

In Malm’s analysis of the two nagauta pieces, Tsuru-kame and Goro Tokimune, he begins by dividing them into the formal divisions that he described in Parts I and II. For example, Malm divides the first transcription, Tsuru-kame, into the jo-ha-kyu divisions stressed in chapter three. These are traditionally divided into the oki, ageuta, mondo, chu no mai, odoriji, gaku, kiri, and chirashi-dangire. These smaller sections are called "dan." Measure numbers are given for each of the sections, and two comparative tables are then made: one to systematically describe the aspects of the shamisen music, and one to describe the aspects of the vocal music. The voice and shamisen are the two most important parts of the nagauta ensemble. There are eight columns to these tables. I. The phrase number, in chronological order; II. Measure numbers for the phrases; III. The number of bars in the phrase; IV. Length of the central motive in each phrase. "The choice of phrases and motive lengths is based on a study of each case and a knowledge of the general nagauta style…one becomes aware of this as a standard procedure after extensive exposure to the idiom."; V. The starting pitch of each phrase; VI. The ending pitch of each phrase; VII. The progression of pitch centers throughout the phrase; VIII. The basic contour of the phrases. "U" indicates up, "D" indicates down, "S" indicates static, and "C" indicates curved. After each table, a summary of the table is given which compares the information in each category. Much of the summary simply gives tallies of the frequency of certain occurrences, for example, in category VIII of the oki section of Tsuru-kame: 5 U, 9 D, 4 S, 3 C. Malm explains the importance of this meticulous information by saying that "From the above information certain tendencies can be noted." At the end of the description of each section, a short, general summary is given, dealing with instrumentation, vocal-shamisen lines, pitch centers, tempo and rhythm, and general remarks.

Malm’s transcriptions of Tsuru-kame and Goro Tokimune, plus the 48 ozatsuma-te, or stereotyped patterns frequently used in nagauta, are treated just as systematically as the analyses of the same pieces. In the transcriptions, Malm mainly uses Western notation, but has tailored it to his needs by making a few alterations and adding his own symbols. He uses staff notation with the shamisen, voice, and flute in treble clef and the drums on a percussion clef. Meter signatures are sometimes used, but when necessary, measures are left free of bar lines and meter. Expressive markings are in Italian, like most Western art music. The symbols that Malm added were mainly for the drum parts. He created ten different symbols to indicate the mnemonic device associated with each drum sound. As was described in chapter six, mnemonic, onomatopoeiatic devices are used to teach and refer to specific drum sounds. For example, the ko-tsuzumi can make four different sounds. These sounds are referred to as "ta," "pon," "chi," and "pu," and Malm assigns them each a specific symbol for use in the transcriptions. The execution of these sounds is explained on pages 76 and 77. Vocal symbols were added to indicate wide vibrato, indefinite pitch, and tones that were slightly higher or lower than tempered pitch. Shamisen symbols included upstrokes and downstrokes of the plectrum, stops, finger slides, and indefinite pitches. Extra flute symbols included slightly higher and lower than tempered pitch, and glissando markings.

Malm mentions using a "Stroboconn" to check pitches in the transcriptions. I do not know exactly what this is, but it seems to be a device to measure the exact frequency of pitches. His conclusion from this was that the pitches and intervals recorded rarely exceeded ten cents sharp or flat from the tempered pitch. The greatest variations were found in half-step upper neighbors, which tended to be flat compared to half-step lower neighbors and raised in a cadence.

In addition to the musical transcription, Malm included the text to each of the plays. However, he did not translate them into English. He wrote, "The paraphrase of the text which begins each sectional discussion of the nagauta piece does not attempt to capture the heavy formality of the language." Perhaps it is for this reason that he did not attempt to include a translation of the texts, but it would have been helpful to be able to read the texts, rather than relying on Malm’s very brief summaries of the plots.

My impression, after having read this book thoroughly, is that it is very skillfully put together, and thoroughly and carefully researched. The information provided covers not only all aspects of nagauta, but is presented in a concise manner as well. Malm takes a very systematic approach to this formal analysis, and while this may not be enjoyable reading, it is an ideal book for scholarly study.

Brandon, James R. et al. Studies in Kabuki: Its Acting, Music, and

Historical Context. University Press of Hawaii: Center for Japanese

Studies, University of Michigan, 1978.

Gunji, Masakatsu. Kabuki. Kodansha International: Tokyo, 1985.

Malm, William P. Nagauta: The Heart of Kabuki Music. Greenwood

Press: Westport, CT, 1963.