Wilhelm Backhaus (1884–1969) had a long career as a concert pianist. Among his numerous recordings, many examples of his improvised preluding are preserved from live concerts as well as a few from his early studio recordings. This paper analyzes 16 examples of his preludes to study their functions in concerts. Most of the examples are from public performances, often preceding encores. His preludes are short—typically between one and five bars long—and can be broadly categorized into two types: some comprising melody and accompaniment, and others consisting only of arpeggiations. None of them can be considered virtuosic warm-up exercises. Many end on a dominant chord rather than on the tonic. A few preluding melodies relate to the previous piece while about one-third hint at the melody or harmony of the ensuing piece. Backhaus’s preluding performances served as organic tools in structuring concerts. They function primarily to set the mood and tonality for the next piece, as well as to quiet the audience. Backhaus used preluding music before encores as riddles for the audience to solve revealing which composition will be played next. Backhaus’s preludes exhibit both breathtaking beauty and delicacy as miniature works that touch a deep chord in our hearts.

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One can find a strong connection between MOTOORI Nagayo’s children’s song, “Jūgoya Otsuki-san” (The Dear Full Moon, composed in 1920) and “Usagi” (Hare), a children’s folk song from the Edo period (1603–1867). Ethnologists, scholars of Japanese literature, and scholars in other fields have presented numerous findings on the word jūgoya [literally “the 15th night,” signifying the full moon] that appears in the song title, along with related insights. However, they have yet to reach the field of musical expression study. Thus, this paper revisits those writings on the significance of jūgoya, and sheds light on the following: what a fifteenth-night (full) moon represents; the beginnings of moon-viewing customs; how those customs evolved over time; the relationship between the moon and a hare; and the moon as an object of worship. Next, this study analyzes what the moon represented to the lyricist NOGUCHI Ujo. We then examine the reaction to the work at the time of its release. Taken all together, we thereby synthesize a new performance perspective.Evidence of the musical ideas MOTOORI had when composing his children’s songs is only available in his writings. This study correlates MOTOORI’s words with his score, analyzes its musical structure, and identifies his ideas in excerpts. It also compares the song with transcriptions of his other compositions in order to clarify the characteristics of MOTOORI’s children’s songs and provide new insights for performance.

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The chief aim of this paper is to present materials clarifying the background of the creation of the song collection A Wooden Spoon: A Song Cycle of Monologues Between a Couple, composed by NAKADA Yoshinao with lyrics by TERAYAMA Shuji, and the circumstances surrounding the omission of the song “Amagasa” (An Umbrella) from the released version. After reviewing all the songs composed for the song cycle using accessible printed materials, it was determined that the cycle cannot be identified from the perspective of tonal selection. However, the lyrics reveal the cyclical nature, and the recurrence of motifs in the final song underline their interconnectedness as a song cycle. As a reliable source of information, we conducted an interview with NAKADA Sachiko, Yoshinao’s widow, who confirmed that the creation of A Wooden Spoon took a significant length of time, that NAKADA was particularly impressed with TERAYAMA’s lyrics, and that the selection of compositions and the order of the pieces were debated until just before the premiere performance. The last part of the paper discusses the discovery of the unreleased piece “Amagasa,” then demonstrates the difference between earlier versions of Ki no Saji, which included “Amagasa,” and the final version, which omitted it, in terms of the selection of songs and their order in the cycle. In the end, the comparison reveals that the poetic narrative leads to completely different conclusions.

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In saxophone embouchure instruction, it is commonly held that the lower lip should act as a cushion for the reed. However, few studies have measured the amount of pressure exerted on the reed by the jaw. To identify common characteristics of lip pressure in highly-skilled saxophonists, their long tone lip pressure was measured with a piezoresistive pressure sensor which revealed that they maintained a constant amount of pressure in the core section of the tone, whereas in the attack, many players showed momentary increases in pressure to produce sound. Several players changed the intensity of the pressure as the pitch range and volume changed. However, the only trend found in the majority of players was a decrease in pressure in the lower notes. In all cases, the common feature was the maintenance of a constant pressure in the core, which demands control of jaw pressure in a stable manner. As more measurement data becomes available, there is potential that this research can be used more pedagogically, as in the construction of a machine learning system based on the playing methods of well-trained players.

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