Historical Study on How Modern Musical Sensibility of Japanese People had been formed and cultivated in the Late-Edo and Meiji Period.

The Archive of Local History of Nagasaki-ken offers us good historical materials which enable us to trace the musical activities of professionals and masses in the Late-Edo and the Meiji Era. The first purpose of our project was to make an intensive research over all the music books with Chinese notation (工尺譜) published in that era, and to change the way of notation of the popular songs in those period from Chinese way to European one, which will make researchers more convenient to access to these music materials as historical resources.We changed 20 pieces of folk songs of the Late-Edo period to European note. and we changed 19 pieces of the Meiji period. As we had intended formerly, we had tried to change 100 pieces to European note and once we had achieved it. However, about 60 pieces are left useless, which would explain why we published only 39 pieces in this final report.In the Late-Edo period, easy, short and intimate folk songs in China were passionately loved and so many parodies had come out among masses. In the Meiji period, a famous player of Chinese music, Baien, NAGAHARA strove so hard as to publish a music book in 1888, entitled Imayo Tebikigusa(今様手引草). This music book shows us tnat the dramatic change had taken place in the musical sensibility among Japanese masses. In this book, Nagahara was obliged to include European songs such as the Auld lang syne (originally the folk song of Scotland), as wall as Japanese popular love songs. This music book plays a key roll to show how Japanese masses had changed their musical sensibility : from a traditional and conservative sensibility to modern and progressive one. It seems that this dramatic change had begun in the Late-Edo period and was accelerated through the Meiji period.

The Archive of Local History of Nagasaki-ken offers us good historical materials which enable us to trace the musical activities of professionals and masses in the Late-Edo and the Meiji Era. The first purpose of our project was to make an intensive research over all the music books with Chinese notation (工尺譜) published in that era, and to change the way of notation of the popular songs in those period from Chinese way to European one, which will make researchers more convenient to access to these music materials as historical resources.We changed 20 pieces of folk songs of the Late-Edo period to European note. and we changed 19 pieces of the Meiji period. As we had intended formerly, we had tried to change 100 pieces to European note and once we had achieved it. However, about 60 pieces are left useless, which would explain why we published only 39 pieces in this final report.In the Late-Edo period, easy, short and intimate folk songs in China were passionately loved and so many parodies had come out among masses. In the Meiji period, a famous player of Chinese music, Baien, NAGAHARA strove so hard as to publish a music book in 1888, entitled Imayo Tebikigusa(今様手引草). This music book shows us tnat the dramatic change had taken place in the musical sensibility among Japanese masses. In this book, Nagahara was obliged to include European songs such as the Auld lang syne (originally the folk song of Scotland), as wall as Japanese popular love songs. This music book plays a key roll to show how Japanese masses had changed their musical sensibility : from a traditional and conservative sensibility to modern and progressive one. It seems that this dramatic change had begun in the Late-Edo period and was accelerated through the Meiji period.