Vol.177 / My First Japanese Folk Song Lesson
I am a musician who grew up listening to Western music and playing Western instruments.
The history of music I learned at school was mainly European, and the music that came up in conversations with my friends was Americanized pop music.
For Japanese people born after World War II, my musical experience is probably not unusual.
That being said, the other day, I had my very first Japanese folk song lesson.
The reason behind it was a project I have been working on for the past few years—arranging and singing Japanese folk songs from the Tohoku region.
As the project continued, I began to have questions and doubts about Japanese pronunciation, rhythmic structure, and melodic ornamentation, which I wanted to resolve.
The lesson was surprisingly fresh and meaningful.
Until now, the songs I had composed involved unfolding the Japanese language in a Western musical style.
However, the Japanese used in folk songs had a unique flavor that felt entirely different from the language I was familiar with through J-Pop and kayoukyoku.
The pronunciation and vocalization were distinctive, but what struck me the most was the fundamentally different approach to rhythm.
The lesson material was the Aomori Japanese folk song "Ajigasawa Jinku."
Since there was no existing sheet music, I used my own transcription for the session.
However, as I worked on it, I couldn't shake the feeling that I had already misplaced the essence of the song by trying to fit "Ajigasawa Jinku" onto Western-style notation.
By shifting my perspective on the Japanese language and the pentatonic scale, which I use daily, I felt as though I had discovered an entirely new musical material.
Thanks to this experience, this year's Japanese folk song performance ended with an unprecedented sense of fulfillment.
My skills are still a work in progress, but I can feel myself making steady progress, and I sense something that will lead to the next step.
＝ March 5, 2025 MoTets ＝
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