BANJO PLAYING

Evening Star, Issue 22526, 19 December 1936, Page 1

BANJO PLAYING

MYSTERY Of JAPANESE MUSIC I have often spoken of the Japanese “ samisen,” a curious, long-shafted Oriental banjo of Japan, writes Philip Nesbitt, in the 1 San Francisco Chronicle.’ It is everywhere evident .in Japan. Every little cafe off tho Ginuza has two or three kimono-cladj women ready to play it at a moment’s notice, in Tokio and in every other Jap* anese city, town, and hamlet.. Every beggar, given over,to a talent for what is called £< gaku ” on “ music,” lugs his battered samisen about with him, plucking one or mora of its four strings to melt the compassion of the passer by. • To the statute ear, the melancholy ,and shrill ups and downs which pass as musical notes to the Japanese would be almost unbearable if heard oven here. However, in the right setting (having octopus and tea in a little straw-matted tea room) the wailing and shrilling of the Japanese notes are quite pleasant. Yery atmospheric and* charming. In the Japanese tongue the word “ uta ” means song, whilst “ utau means to sing. , _ -,.' The singing of songs in Japan is_ a( great art. ancient kittens gathered in concert on the backyard fence, in a particularly inspired mood. It would be called “ caterwauling,” and compares to “ utau.” Yet the Japanese singing, caterwauling and all, has a certain melancholy, charm, an appeal not to he denied. It is really a very quaint and sing-song sound. There are many varieties of “ gaku *• in Japan. There is the classical gaku,, very special - and esoteric, heard at times of Shinto festival. This form of gaku has persisted for over-1,000 yearsj even 2,000, as far as anyone knows,. China was its source some time during the sixth century. Most gaku sounds and intonations are handed down from father or mother to son or daughter. No one has ever attempted to record it otherwise. It is like a legend. It is like an unwritten harmony or rather cacaphony existing in every bosom in Japan. , The best, notion of “ uta ” is to be' had from listening, to your own son or daughter at the age of 12 or. 13, when, the adolescent “ break ” occurs in the voice,. Have them sing without words and you will have a fairly good notion of singing in “ gaku,” as they accomplish it in Japan. For the Japanese our music has little effect. What I say of their music here,, half comprehensible as it is, is nothing to what they would say of ours. They are only now developing an ear for our jazz (which is not our best musical , expression) . ■ In Tokio they dance iW halls much as they do ii:’ r Kansas City or San Francisco at the hotels.

China was the source of most of tho original culture of Japan, until these modern days. Confucius said of music:! “ Harmony has the power to draw; heaven downwards towards earth. It inspires men to love the good and to do their duty. If one should _ desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad,the quality' of its music shall furnish both the answers.” ; This utterance of the wise Confucius leaves me. disturbed. I suddenly realise I find & little harmony in Japanese music. But I suspect that to the Japanese themselves their is rich with strange harmonies which only their ears may catch and interpret*