Music from the Tang Court: Volume 6

This volume brings to an end the transcription and historical description of items from the Court Entertainment Music of the Tang found in two collections of zither and lute scores from the end of the twelfth century. They are from two mode-key groups: twenty-three in the mode-key Ichikotsu-cho and eight in Sada-cho. Of particular interest is a tune that fits a birthplace-ode by the Taizong Emperor, composed in 632, and also music for a collective spear-throwing exercise and a piece perhaps imitating calls between sexual partners in a flock of geese. Important appendices discuss stylistic differences between music of the Tang and imitative Japanese compositions; relationships between Tang compositions with noble and military associations; and evidence of inter-relatedness between movements in suites from the Tang.