Karatachi no hana (Orange Blossoms are Blooming)

Composer: YAMADA, Kōsaku
  • This is a song for voice and piano that Yamada composed in 1925.1
    • Grove gives the title’s translation as “Trifoliate Orange Flowers.”
  • The song’s text is by Japanese poet Hakushū Kitahara (1885-1942).2
  • This song combines Yamada’s love of German musical style (in this case, Lieder) with his interest in adapting western music styles to the cadences of the Japanese language.3
  • Yamada was a prolific and popular composer of arts songs in the 1920s, and was sometimes known as the “Japanese Schubert.”4
  • Mutsumi Moteki’s translation of the song’s text is available on page nine of this document. 

Sources

  1. Masakata Kanazawa and Yo Akioka, “Yamada, Kōsaku,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 16, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000030669. 
  2. Kumiko Shimizu and Mutsumi Moteki, eds., Japanese Art Song Anthology, Volume 1 Medium – Low Voice (Fayetteville, AZ: Classical Vocal Reprints, 2014).
  3. Morihide Katayama, liner notes to Kósçak Yamada (1886-1965): Nagauta Symphony “Tsurukame” • Symphony “Inno Meiji” Choreographic Symphony “Maria Magdalena”, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Takuo Yuasa, Naxos 8.557971, CD, 2007.
  4. Ibid.

Cut IDs

24384