Saibara: Volume 2, Music: Japanese Court Songs of the Heian Period

by Elizabeth J. Markham

Overview

Saibara ('Drover's Songs') is the title of a genre of measured Japanese court song, traditionally believed to have been derived from the songs of pack-horse drivers bringing tribute from the provinces to the Heian capital and known to have formed part of the official court repertory at least since AD 859. From literature of the Heian period (782–1184) it is evident that these songs enjoyed great popularity at court as entertainment music practised by noble amateurs. Six songs are still performed today, albeit vastly modified. As well as being of value to musicologists, these volumes will interest readers concerned with early Japanese literature and paleography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521105989
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/02/2009
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

Appendices: 1. Complete transcriptions of the 55 Saibara preserved in tablature for lute and zither in the twelfth century manuscripts, sango-yoroku and jinchi-yoroku; 2. Comparison of six Saibara from the twelfth-century textual sources with the musical versions from sango-yoroku and jinchi-yoroku; 3. Transcription of togaku- and komagaku-pieces linked with Saibara, but in modes other than hyojo or sojo, from the twelfth-century flute manuscript hakuga no fue-fe and from sango-yoroku and sango-yoryaku; 4. Transcription of the Ryo-Saibara, mimasaka from the flute manuscript date 1193; 5. Transcription of a fragment of lute-tablature of late Heian or early Kamakura date containing section 5 of the Ritsu-Saibara, takasago; 6. Comparative transcriptions of the 20 Saibara in the twelfth century lute-manuscript sango-yoryaku with their primary and alternative lute-versions from sango-yoroku.