Shifts and Turns: Moving Music, Musicians and Ideas

Shifts and Turns in the Development of a Multidisciplinary Analytical Method for the Study of the Sound and Sound Culture of the Japanese Koto

This keynote address reflects on the shifts and turns that have occurred during the research journey to develop a new multidisciplinary analytical method for the study of the sound and sound culture of the Japanese koto (13-stringed zither).  It discusses the use of technologies such as CT scanning for 3D imaging and results from studies with acoustic cameras to inform advanced computational methods known as finite element analysis for the systematic acoustic study of the koto’s construction and complex sound production. This work is combined with analysis using the methods of organology and the cultural study of music instruments that draw on historical sources including those relating to Japanese concepts of tonal colouring and koto makers’ handbooks as well as knowledge from the presenter’s professional training in performance practice of the koto in Japan. This method thus combines technologies and methods to form an integrated multidisciplinary framework that permits entirely new insights not only into the construction, complex sound and traditional aesthetics of the koto in the 21^st century in particular, but also zithers in Asia more generally. In the process it provides another example of the shifts and turns that music, musicians and ideas have taken across eras that are part of the rich history of research into material culture and traditional practice.