[S1E39] 🎶 Gagaku: Court Music Through the Ages with Professor Fabio Rambelli

Listen on your favourite podcast platform

or stream on YouTube

Oliver is joined by Professor Fabio Rambelli, lecturer at the University of California’s Department of East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies as well as International Shinto Foundation Chair in Shinto Studies, to discuss gagaku (雅楽), a traditional form of Japanese music which has endured to the modern day largely unchanged for over a thousand years. Fabio shares with us the cultural significance of court music in modern Japan, who played it and why and the global interest in Buddhist culture both tangible and intangible.

Watch Fabio playing the shō

Join Fabio’s conference on Gagaku: Cultural Capital, Cultural Heritage, and Cultural Identity

Introduction music: Performance Hideaki Bunno Gagaku Ensemble in Kanazawa Performance Digest

Japanese time periods mentioned:

Nara period: 710 – 794 AD

Edo period: 1603 – 1867 AD

Meiji period: 1868 – 1912 AD


Image credits

[L] Musicienne de Gagaku, ensemble ‘Owari Miyabie’ (Maison du Japon, Paris) by dalbera is licensed under CC BY 2.0

[R] Gagaku practice by JuhaOnTheRoad is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

%d bloggers like this: