feels like 歌謡曲 (kayoukyoku) ( Eと纔な日本語 )

[Anne McKnight]

I'm sure there are scads of people who might speak better than I to
this, but a brief response to Michael's reference.  

By the way, in terms of film music in the contemporary, anyone with a
chance might want to catch the last day of the TAKEMITSU Toru film fest
at Opera City (03-5468-0444).

>From what I've read, the association of brass bands with modes of Meiji
nation-building, especially education & commerce, is not at all
far-fetched.  I first read an account in, I think it was, the Tradition
& Modernity anthology, by a musicologist from Michigan, whose name I
have stashed somewhere inaccessible....but is one of the old standard
anthologies available in a card catalog near you.  

According to what I've cribbed from a  kaisetsu by HOSOKAWA Shuhei in a
rather swank 2-CD set called Tokyo chin-don (Vivid Sound Corporation,
1992), which features the musicians SHINODA Masami (Compostela)  & OGUMA
Wataru (Soul Flower & about 500 other bands), chin-don is one example
whose genealogy can be traced to brass bands.  (I thought this an
interesting example due to both the connection to the brass band
infusion in general & to the chin-don as it also related to practices of
film exhibition, as a theatricalization of the exhibition space, not to
mention the street!)

The fellow who seems to have innovated a lot of advertising practices
with chin-don in Osaka following the S/J and the R/J  wars, AKITA
Ryukichi, tapped into this.  Kaisetsu: " The Meiji government, showing
off their burgeoning westernization, began a policy of using a military
band for the opening of railroads & big banks.  This led to private
companies inviting brass bands to play at their events. When the
military band was fully occupied & unable to respond to the many
requests, Akita (Ryukichi) organized private bands using army veterans. 
These bands played at the dance parties of high ranking hotels which had
many foreign guests, while also taking a role in advertising" (81).

????????????????????????????????????
????

????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????
???????????????????
????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????
??????????????