I illuminate the technologies and techniques employed by Jōji Yuasa in his 1961 electroacoustic adaptation of the classic noh play by Zeami, Aoi no Ue, and their implications for adapting Japanese noh theater with live electronics. I examine two areas: (i) Yuasa’s collaboration with the inventor and sound engineer Okuyama Zyunosuke in their use of tape machines, filter banks, oscillators, and a recording pen invented by Okuyama for their audio signal processing of classical noh songs (utai) and drum calls (kakegoe) (ii) Yuasa's processing of three songs (jitori), (sashi), and (sageuta) from this play. I discuss the historical context of the tape-based technologies and techniques that Yuasa used on the eminent noh performers and descendants of Zeami (the Kanze brothers Hisao, Hideo, and Shizuo) and highlight the significance of Okuyama in this work. I contextualize the concept of “Noh-Expansion” with respect to the historical use and scope of the term, the evolving field of intercultural noh theater, and expansions of two other traditional Japanese performing arts, shakuhachi and taiko, with live audio and MIDI processing. I propose three terms: Kinds of Expansion, Dimensions of Expansion, and Degrees of Expansion, and identify two dimensions for Noh-Expansions with live electronics— “virtuosity with technology” and the “cinematic”—which resonates with Yuasa and Okuyama's interdisciplinary collaboration with the Kanze brothers. Their cinematic vision for noh theater, I suggest, can shape the creation, adaptation, and performance of noh theater with live electronics as “Noh-Expansions” as opposed to the “Noh-Inspired” works commonly created by Western-trained composers.

Authors:
Austin Oting Har, Michigan State University, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Austin Oting Har is Assistant Professor at the Residential College in Arts and Humanities, Michigan State University. Trained in music technology and ancient philosophy, his current work explores intercultural noh theatre and contemporary music.

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Austin-Oting-Har

Additional website of interest
https://www.austinotinghar.com/

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