Musical Outgrowth from Defining Waka Musically

[Christopher Hepburn]

Dear all, 

Happy Monday! I wanted to share a recent outgrowth of my book, Defining Waka Musically (Palgrave, 2023), which explores what music is doing in waka, and how it is doing it. 

During a Q&A session at a recent talk, someone asked what waka might sound like if translated into Western musical idioms. While I find it somewhat perplexing to expect one culture’s musical norms to perform the functions of another’s (since musical idioms should always be understood in relation to what they are doing and for whom), I took up the challenge out of nothing but curiosity. The result is a short madrigal set to the text Waga mi sate from Aki no yo no, which I’ve attached here as an MP3.

I hope that you enjoy what seems to have turned out to be a hauntingly beautiful piece. 

我が身さて沈み果てなば深き瀬の底まで照らせ山の端の月

And so, as things are, 

If I should finally sink into the abyss, 

Cast your light upon me 

Through the depths of those currents 

O' moon upon the ridge.

Best,

Christopher Hepburn, PhD

Division of Musicology

Southern Methodist University

[LeRon Harrison]

Christopher,

Thank you for sending me the entire piece; I'll save my deeper analysis for a private conversation. But within the PMJS context, I'll assert one thing that is absent in this musical "translation" is the source interpretation of waka in musical forms such as saibara and roei. Remember that verb 'yomu' that describes the action of composing a poem is often written with the character "ei" of roei. So again the choice of moving from the musical aspects of waka in a courtly or "Japanese" context to a "Western" one must involve looking at roei and thinking how that can be carried over into Western musical idioms. The extant roei within gagaku is all kanshi, so that does raise a problem with thinking through this exercise, but much of the kagura canon does have waka set to music, so that should be part of the discussion. Steve Carter often mulled in the time I had with him at Stanford if a poem actually existed if it wasn't vocalized, so you're following his line of thinking and going a step further by actually thinking through music.

Another thing to add to this musical "translation" is that both gagaku and Gregorian chant (which seems to be the core of your translation) are both modal music. I have talked about looking at the modality of gagaku and comparing it with modality in Gregorian chant as I am involved with both. I think your project would need to do that comparative analysis to work out a better "translation." But even if you don't have such analysis, you should look at psalm tones in Greogrian chant as that might be a simpler version and might be something you want to explore.

I hope that helps you with some ideas to explore if you continue on with this project; feel free to discuss this matter with me if you have any questions.

-LeRon Harrison, PhD

Member, National Coalition of Independent Scholars (NCIS)

Instructor, University of South Alabama

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[Christopher Hepburn]

Thanks, LeRon, for your kind comments. In one chapter of my book, I do draw a comparison between Solesmes-style Gregorian chant and waka as it is performed today, as well as address some of the challenges surrounding such things as kotodama, yomu, ei(zu), nagameru, and saibara, especially given that much of its musical study remains rooted in reconstruction, among several other things. But I’d like to quickly dispel the myth that my work centers on reconstruction; it does not. Rather, it is concerned with reconception. My focus lies in exploring what premodern Japanese might have felt when composing their waka, and how that affective and expressive logic might be understood through something like generative music theory. 

Best,

Christopher

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