抄録
The present paper is a study of the musical ensembles as described in the Tales of Genji or the Genii Monogatari from the psychological point of view. Japanese music developed along a line different from that of European music. How did the Japanese of the past view music? What did they seek for in music? In the effort to obtain answers to these questions, the writer is probing the old Japanese literature of music and the early literary works of Japan which might contain references to music, so that he may be able to attempt a psychological interpretation of the literary materials. The Tales of Genji is a novel written by a court lady named Murasaki Shikibu (died in 1020 or 1021 A.D.) who lived among the courtiers and seems to have been well versed in the court music of the Heian Era.
Judging form Lady Murasaki's own descriptions of the music and the expressions used by characters of the novel with reference to the Japanized Tang music which was the favorite court music of the Heian Era, the writer is inclined to conclude that the people of the day were in the habit of enjoying music in the form of ensembles a conclusion contrary to the traditional view, based on the fact that the Japanese music of today is monophonic, that the old Japanese sense of music was originally simple as is the present monophonic music of the people.
Also, as a by-product of the present study, the, writer belives he could make out the original function of Shoga or Soga, a kind of solfa method. Shoga has hitherto been considered by the students of Japanese music as a device to memorize the melody of instrumental music. From my study, however, it has become clear that where an orchestra or a chamber music of the day was short of and not harmonized by an instrument of leading melody those present in the chamber used to intergrate the “ensemble” by singing “Shoga.” This reminds of a style of European musicin the 13th or 14th century, but the Japanese people in the Heian Era tried, the writer believs to establish the ensemble by such a method. Thus we might say perhaps that had the old Japanese sense of music as described in the Tales of Genji been kept unchanged in the main until today. Japanese music would have been something quite different from what it is, taking up a styte guite other than the present monophonic one. and might have even assumed a harmonic system, though in a form different from that of European music.
