Making Japanese Imperial Court Music Scores Machine-Readable
Gagaku is the oldest orchestral court music tradition that still exists today. This paper first provides background on gagaku, including its long history and the key transformations that shaped its current form. Then, it discusses the unique role of scores in the primarily oral transmission of gagak...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
| Published: |
Text Encoding Initiative Consortium
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/jtei/5480 |
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| Summary: | Gagaku is the oldest orchestral court music tradition that still exists today. This paper first provides background on gagaku, including its long history and the key transformations that shaped its current form. Then, it discusses the unique role of scores in the primarily oral transmission of gagaku music. Unlike those of Western classical music, gagaku scores serve as memory aids rather than prescriptive sets of instructions. Next, the paper examines the structure and key elements of gagaku scores, using the hichiriki, a type of wind instrument used in gagaku as a case study. It proposes an XML encoding method that divides the score into cells, marking up the main music description components in a gagaku score such as shōga, tetsuke, and hyōshi. Finally, the paper explores the potential benefits of integrating this gagaku score-encoding approach with Western staff-notation versions encoded in the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) format. Linking these formats could enable new computer-assisted research methodologies for studying gagaku across its varied score materials. |
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| ISSN: | 2162-5603 |