EAST ASIA - Japan: Kabuki & Other Traditional Music

Chronique

This other CD by the well-known Japanese ensemble Ensemble Nipponia is the re-release of a LP first released in 1980 by Nonesuch in their collection on Japanese music. In the first half of this CD, we hear pieces and songs of the well-known Japanese kabuki theater, in the style called nagauta (which means "long song"). Nagauta is not the only style used in kabuki, but is the most important and most appropriately adapted to stage actions, providing dance accompaniment, songs, and background music. The ensemble usually comprises singers, shamisen players, percussionists, and a shinobue player (a small bamboo transverse flute). In the second half of the CD, we can here other traditional pieces from the classical repertoire, such a piece for two shakuhachi, an episode of the well-known Japanese epic "Tale of Heike," the singer accompanying herself on the biwa (the Japanese four-string lute), and ending with two modern compositions, one for a 20-string koto and one for shinobue and percussions. A well deserved re-edition from quite surely the best Japanese ensemble.

© Bruno Deschênes /TiVo