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Paper short abstract

I present a thematic analysis of Yuasa’s 1961 electroacoustic adaptation of the noh play Aoi no Ue based on Tale of Genji. As a noh-trained composer, his alterations of the play and use of electronics dramatizes the play’s poetry and subtext while transmitting noh’s aesthetics to modern ears.

Paper long abstract

Aoi no Ue is a classic Japanese noh theatre play attributed to Zeami that dramatizes a famous episode from The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. Between 1957-1961, composers Jōji Yuasa, Toshiro Mayuzumi, and Michiko Toyama adapted this play into electroacoustic music. As the only one trained at a noh school (Hōshō), Yuasa’s adaptation is important for its transmission of noh’s traditional aesthetics and performance practice. This article presents a thematic analysis of Yuasa’s 1961 adaptation of Aoi no Ue, created at Sogetsu Art Center with sound engineer/inventor Zyunosuke Okuyama and the renowned noh actors/descendants of Zeami, the Kanze brothers Hisao, Hideo, and Shizuo. I create a transcript using recordings of Yuasa’s adaptation and traditional performances of Aoi no Ue by the Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, and Kita schools, the National Noh Theatre of Tokyo’s performance guide of this play, and translations of The Tale of Genji. I argue that Yuasa’s alterations from the play’s text and selective use of audio processing techniques (e.g. looping, pitch shifting, reverb) dramatizes the play’s poetry, tragedy, and subtext from two chapters of Genji, and with sensitivity to noh’s traditional aesthetics (e.g. ma, yūgen, jo-ha-kyū). I use examples including Yuasa’s integration of diegetic sounds (e.g. owl calls) described in Genji, his composition of additional electronic instrumental sections that follow the internal workings of noh music, and the focus of his electroacoustic processing on noh songs (utai) and drum calls (kakegoe) in contrast to his omission of drums (ōtsuzumi, kotsuzumi, and taiko), flute (nohkan), and dialogue (e.g. mondô). I categorize Yuasa’s adaptation as a “Noh-Expansion” alongside Yokomichi Mario’s The Hawk Princess (1967) as opposed to a “Noh-Inspired work” by virtue of preserving noh’s internal elements and traditional aesthetics whilst changing some external elements. Created amidst Yuasa and Hideo Kanze’s avant-garde cinema projects in the 1960s, Yuasa advanced Hideo Kanze’s vision for revitalizing classical noh by expanding its traditional practice, aesthetics, and sound world with a cinematic dimension of electroacoustic processing techniques and sounds for modern audiences.

Keywords: joji yuasa, noh-expansion, tale of genji, intercultural music, electroacoustic music

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