Katyusha's Song

For the Russian song, see Katyusha (song).
"Katyusha's Song"
Song
Written1914
Composer(s)Shinpei Nakayama
Lyricist(s)Soeda Azenbō
Sumako Matsui

"Katyusha's Song" (カチューシャの唄, Kachūsha no Uta),[1] or "Song of Katyusha",[2] is a Japanese song which was highly popular in early-20th century Japan. It was composed in the major pentatonic scale by Shinpei Nakayama[3] with lyrics by Soeda Azenbō.[4] The song was sung by Sumako Matsui in a dramatization of Leo Tolstoy's 1899 novel Resurrection,[5] first put on stage in the Geijutsuza [ja] theatre, Tokyo in 1914.[6][7]

The same year the Nippon Kinetophone company released a kinetophone record of Matsui Sumako's singing with the same title.[8]

Influences

Katyusha's song became a national hit in Japan from 1913 onwards,[9] selling 27,000 copies[10] and was taken on by street corner musicians throughout Japan. It is considered by some music historians as the first example of modern Japanese popular music.[11]

References

  1. ^ Patrick M. Patterson (15 October 2018). Music and Words: Producing Popular Songs in Modern Japan, 1887–1952. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 25–. ISBN 978-1-4985-5036-9.
  2. ^ Yukiko Koshiro (10 May 2013). Imperial Eclipse: Japan's Strategic Thinking about Continental Asia before August 1945. Cornell University Press. pp. 62–. ISBN 978-0-8014-6775-2.
  3. ^ Shunsuke Tsurumi (18 October 2010). A Cultural History of Postwar Japan: 1945-1980. Routledge. pp. 105–. ISBN 978-1-136-91766-0.
  4. ^ Nakayama Shinpei Archived 2009-07-12 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ^ Hiromu Nagahara (10 April 2017). Tokyo Boogie-Woogie. Harvard University Press. pp. 30–. ISBN 978-0-674-97169-1.
  6. ^ Toru Mitsui (17 July 2014). Made in Japan: Studies in Popular Music. Routledge. pp. 5–. ISBN 978-1-135-95534-2.
  7. ^ Anthony V. Liman (2008). Ibuse Masuji: A Century Remembered. Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press. ISBN 978-80-246-1452-6.
  8. ^ Junichiro Tanaka, The History of the Development of Japanese Cinema [ja], vol. 1: The Age of Motion Pictures, , Chuokoron-Shinsha , 1968, pp.218-223.
  9. ^ Japan on Stage: Japanese Concepts of Beauty As Shown in the Traditional Theatre. 3A Corporation. 1990. ISBN 978-4-906224-62-3.
  10. ^ The Journal of Japanese Studies. Society for Japanese Studies. 2003.
  11. ^ "Music - Reflection of traditions from the East and West" Archived 2008-11-19 at the Wayback Machine. Web-Japan, Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.