The Nagauta Symphony is a symphony in one movement composed in 1934 by Japanese people composer KÅsaku Yamada.
Description
Kosaku Yamada was the first major Japanese composer to study the
Classical music, and the first to write in the symphonic and operatic forms.
He was responsible for introducing Japanese audiences to a broad range of the European orchestral tradition through his conducting.
In his compositions, Yamada had been working to combine European traditions with Japanese classical music since at least 1921, when he composed
Inno Meiji which combined Japanese and western instruments.
Composed in 1934, the
Nagauta Symphony represented the culmination of this work.
For this work, Yamada composed music for the western orchestra which is used to counterpoint a classical nagauta, the music which accompanies the kabuki.
Instrumentation
The
Nagauta Symphony uses a
Orchestra and voices, as well as an ensemble of traditional Japanese musical instruments.
The Japanese ensemble consists of several
shamisen and percussion.
Recordings
