Yarustovsky, Boris Mikhaylovich

(b Moscow, 2/15 May 1911; d Moscow, 12 July 1978). Russian musicologist. He graduated from the history and theory department of the Moscow Conservatory in 1937, and completed postgraduate studies there under Valentin Ferman in 1941. He took the doctorate in 1952 with a dissertation on the dramaturgy of Russian opera. After serving in the Soviet army (1941–6), he headed the cultural section of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party (1946–58). From 1948 he taught at the Moscow Conservatory, where he was appointed professor in 1956; he joined the Institute for the History of the Arts as director in 1959, becoming senior research fellow in 1961. A member of the Union of Soviet Composers from 1938, he was its secretary (1968–74). He was also secretary to the executive committee of UNESCO (1969–73), and a member of the International Music Council of UNESCO (1972–8).

Yarustovsky wrote primarily on the music of Tchaikovsky, but his interest covered music from both Russia and abroad. He was especially concerned with opera, and his last book, Ocherki po dramaturgii operï XX veka (1971–8) can be seen as the summation of his work in this field. In following Asaf'yev’s intonatsiya theory, Yarustovsky substantiated the idea of musical drama and the melody–genre conflict in opera. He also undertook work on the symphony, again with special reference to Tchaikovsky: his book on the contemporary symphony (1966) was the result of his earlier appreciation of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies (1961). He was also the initiator and editor-in-chief of Muzïka XX veka: ocherki, in which he attempted to break down the barrier that had for so long separated Soviet music from that of other countries, uniting them into a single study.

Yarustovsky did not confine himself to musicology and history in his academic and popular work; there is invariably an aesthetic and ideological aspect in his writings. Musicality and the capacity for aesthetic feeling are combined with an attempt to describe the artistic event within a strict scheme of appraisal dictated by the norms of socialist aesthetics and by the prevailing conditions of the state ideology. Thus his role in musical life was not limited by his own status as an academic. As a responsible member of the chief party organ, he came to wield an influence over the reception of other composers’ works and writings. Yarustovsky represented Soviet musical thinking abroad at numerous symposia and festivals, and his activities within UNESCO helped to broaden the international contacts available to Soviet musicians. Yet in this sphere he remained faithful to his belief in the necessity of an ideological dimension in response to any event in musical culture.

WRITINGS

‘Oblik Chaykovskogo’ [Tchaikovsky’s temperament], SovM (1938), no.6, pp.32–7

P.I. Chaykovskiy: zhizn' i tvorchestvo [Tchaikovsky: life and works] (Moscow, 1940)

Opernaya dramaturgiya Chaykovskogo [The operas of Tchaikovsky] (Moscow and Leningrad, 1947)

‘Zametki ob ėstetike russkoy klassicheskoy operï’ [Notes on aesthetics in Russian Classical opera], SovM (1948), no.2, pp.110–16

‘O dramaticheskom konflikte v sovetskoy opere’ [Dramatic conflict in Soviet opera], SovM (1951), no.7, 20–30

Nekotorïye chertï dramaturgii russkoy opernoy klassiki [Some characteristics of the dramaturgy of Russian Classical opera] (diss., Moscow Conservatory, 1952; Moscow, 1952 as Dramaturgiya russkoy opernoy klassiki [Drama in Russian Classical opera], 2/1953; Ger. trans., 1957)

‘O muzïkal'nom obraze’ [On musical form], SovM (1953), no.7, pp.23–30; no.8, pp.24–31; no.9, pp.29–38

‘Desyataya simfoniya Shostakovicha’ [Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony], SovM (1954), no.4, pp.4–24

Nekotorïye problemï sovetskogo muzïkal'nogo teatra [Some problems for Soviet music theatre] (Moscow, 1957)

‘Prokof'yev i teatr: zametki o dramaturgii’ [Prokofiev and the theatre: notes on drama], SovM (1961), no.4, pp.66–80

Simfonii Chaykovskogo [The symphonies of Tchaikovsky] (Moscow, 1961)

Igor' Stravinskiy: kratkiy ocherk zhizni i tvorchestva [Igor Stravinsky: an outline of his life and works] (Moscow, 1963, 3/1982; Ger. trans., 1966)

Muzïka novogo mira [Music of the New World] (Moscow, 1964)

ed.: Intonatsiya i muzïkal'nïy obraz [Intonatsiya and musical form] (Moscow, 1965; Ger. trans., 1965) [incl. ‘Kak zhizn' …’ [Like life …], 95–133]

Simfonii voynï i mira [Symphonies of war and peace] (Moscow, 1966)

‘Teoriya v razvitii’ [Theory in development], SovM (1966), no.2, pp.141–3

‘“Igrok”, tragediya-satira: k izucheniyu naslediya S. Prokof'yeva’ [The Gambler, tragedy-satire: towards a study of Prokofiev’s legacy], SovM (1970), no.4, pp.103–14; no.6, pp.64–76

Ocherki po dramaturgii operï XX veka [Studies in drama in 20th-century opera] (Moscow, 1971–8)

‘Yest' sovetskiy intonatsionnïy stroy!’ [There is a Soviet intonatsiya system!], SovM (1973), no.3, p.28–31

‘Soviet Musicology’, AcM, xlvi (1974), 50–57

‘Opernïy teatr v mezhvoyennïye godï [Opera theatre in the inter-war years], SovM (1976), no.11, pp.59–71

‘I vnov' “Pikovaya dama”’ [Once again The Queen of Spades], SovM (1977), no.9, pp.131–5

BIBLIOGRAPHY

V. Bogdanov-Berezovsky: ‘Uchyonnïy, kritik, muzïkal'nïy deyatel'’ [Scholar, critic and musical figure], SovM (1971), no.9, p.48–54

NELLI GRIGOR'YEVNA SHAKHNAZAROVA

Yashiro, Akio

(b Tokyo, 10 Sept 1929; d Yokohama, 9 April 1976). Japanese composer. He studied composition privately with Saburō Moroi from 1940 and then entered the National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he was a pupil of Hashimoto, Ifukube and Ikenouchi (composition) and Kreutzer (piano). In 1949 he graduated and in May 1951 he began to teach at the university. Within a few months, however, he had left for Paris, where he studied at the Conservatoire until 1956, his teachers including Boulanger, Aubin, de la Presle, Noël Gallon and Messiaen; he gained a premier prix for harmony in 1954. On his return he resumed teaching at the university, while also teaching at the Tōhō Gakuen School of Music from 1958.

Yashiro’s music distinctly shows the influences of French academicism in the tradition of Les Six and of his teachers; besides this, his works are often characterized by a sentimental lyricism. He was primarily a composer of ‘absolute’ instrumental music. In 1956 he won the Mainichi Music Prize for his String Quartet (1954–5), and he received Otaka prizes in 1960 for his Cello Concerto and in 1967 for his Piano Concerto, which also won the Japanese government Art Festival prize. Other notable works of his include the Sonata for two flutes and piano (1957), the Symphony (1958) and the Piano Sonata (1961). Orufeo no shi [The Death of Orpheus] (Tokyo 1977) is a collection of essays demonstrating his penetrating insights into contemporary music. His works are published by Ongaku-no-Tomo Sha. (K. Hori, ed.: Nihon no sakkyoku nijusseiki [Japanese compositions in the 20th century], Tokyo, 1999, pp.262–3).

MASAKATA KANAZAWA

Yasser, Joseph

(b Łódź, 16 April 1893; d New York, 6 Sept 1981). American musicologist of Polish birth. After studying the piano with Jacob Weinberg in Moscow, he attended the Imperial School of Commerce (graduating in 1912) and the Moscow Conservatory (MA 1917), where he studied the piano with Alexander Goedicke, organ with Leonid Sabaneyev and theory with M. Morozov. While directing the conservatory's organ department (1918–20), he served as organist for the Bol'shoy and occasionally performed at the Moscow Art Theatre; he then worked as a lecturer for the Siberian Board of Education (1920–21) and music director of the Shanghai Songsters’ Choral Society (1921–2). He emigrated to the USA in 1923 and, following a concert tour, he settled in New York, working as organist at the Free Synagogue (1927–8), Temple Emanu-El (1928–9) and as organist and choirmaster at Temple Rodeph Sholem (1929–60) and the Cantor's Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1952–60). He was a founding member and vice-president (1931–42) of the American Library of Musicology, and chairman of both the musicological committee of Mailamm (the American Palestine Music Association, 1934–9) and the New York chapter of the American Musicological Society (1935–7), of which he was a founding member; he also served on the National Jewish Music Council (1944–60) and the Jewish Music Forum (1945–55). He retired in 1960, after which he led a rather reclusive life.

From 1930 Yasser wrote on various theoretical and historical aspects of Jewish music, including an article on the Biblical magrepha (1960), which he interpreted to be a noise-making signal instrument rather than an organ, as commonly believed. Among his theoretical works, A Theory of Evolving Tonality (1932) and Medieval Quartal Harmony (1937–8), which were published by the newly founded American Library of Musicology and which were considered controversial, remain his most important contributions.

WRITINGS

‘Rhythmical Structure of Chinese Tunes’, Musical Courier (3 April 1924)

‘Musical Moments in the Shamanistic Rites of the Siberian Pagan Tribes’, Pro Musica Quarterly, iv (1926), 4–15

‘Saminsky as a Symphonist’, Lazare Saminsky, Composer and Civic Worker, ed. D. de Paoli (New York, 1930), 21–47

A Theory of Evolving Tonality (New York, 1932/R)

‘A Revised Concept of Tonality’, Music Teachers National Association: Proceedings, xxx (1935), 100–21

‘Medieval Quartal Harmony (a Plea for Restoration)’, MQ, xxiii (1937), 170–97, 336–66; xxiv (1938), 351–85; pubd separately (New York, 1938)

‘New Guide-Posts for Jewish Music’, Bulletin of the Jewish Academy of Arts and Sciences, iii (1937), 3–10; pubd separately (New York, 1937)

‘Foundations of Jewish Harmony’, Musica hebraica, i–ii (1938), 8–11

‘Gretchaninoff's “Heterodox” Compositions’, MQ, xxvii (1942), 309–17

‘Jewish Composer, Look Within’, Menorah Journal, xxxiv (1946), 109–15

‘A Letter from Arnold Schoenberg’, JAMS, vi (1953), 53–62

‘The Art of Nicholas Medtner’, Nicholas Medtner, 1879–1951: a Tribute to His Art and Personality, ed. R. Holt (London, 1955), 46–65

‘My Encounters with Rachmaninoff’, Sergei Rachmaninoff, ed. S. Bertenson and J. Leyda (New York, 1956), 197 only, 278 only, 281–3

‘The Structural Aspect of Jewish Modality’, Jewish Music Forum Bulletin, x (1956), 33–5

‘The Musical Heritage of the Bible’, YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science, xii (1958–9), 157–75

‘The Magrepha of the Herodian Temple: a Five-Fold Hypothesis’, JAMS, xiii (1960), 24–42

‘The Philosophy of Improvisation’, The Cantorial Art, ed. I. Heskes (New York, 1966), 35

‘The Hebrew Folk Song Society of St. Petersburg: Ideology and Technique’, The Historic Contribution of Russian Jewry to Jewish Music, ed. I. Heskes and A. Wolfson (New York, 1967), 31–42

‘The Opening Theme of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto and its Liturgical Prototype’, MQ, lv (1969), 313–28

‘Abraham Wolf Binder: in Retrospect’, Studies in Jewish Music: Collected Writings of A.W. Binder, ed. I. Heskes (New York, 1971), 6–11

BIBLIOGRAPHY

H. Wunderlich: ‘Four Theories of Tonality’, Journal of Musicology, ii (1941), 171–80

G. Saleski: Famous Musicians of Jewish Origin (New York, 1949), 663–4

D.D. Horn: ‘Quartal Harmony in the Pentatonic Folk Hyms of the Sacred Harp’, Journal of American Folklore, no.282 (1958), 564–81

B. Brook: American Musicological Society Greater New York Chapter: a Programmatic History 1935–1965 (New York, 1965)

K. Blaukopf: ‘Schönberg, Skrjabin, und Yasser’, 100 Jahre Staatsoper – Wiener Schule: Almanach der Wiener Festwochen (Vienna, 1969), 103–4

A. Weisser: Selected Writings and Lectures of Joseph Yasser: an Annotated Bibliography (New York, 1970) [incl. pubns in Russ.]

K. Blaukopf: ‘Musiksoziologie: Bindung und Freiheit bei der Wahl von Tonsystems’, Texte zur Musiksoziologie, ed. T. Kneif (Cologne, 1975), 140–57

E. Berlinski: ‘Joseph Yasser (1893–1981): a Personal Recollection (with a “Postscript” by Israel J. Katz)’, Musica judaica, iv (1981–2), 113–20

ISRAEL J. KATZ

Yasukawa, Kazuko

(b Hyōgo, 24 Feb 1922; d Tokyo, 12 July 1996). Japanese pianist and teacher. While a baby she was taken to Paris and brought up there. At the age of ten she was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire and studied with Lazare Levy, receiving the première prix in 1937 and also winning the first prize at the International Competition for Female Musicians in Paris in the same year. Returning to Japan in 1939, she made a sensational début the following year, and continued to play frequently until her retirement in 1982. She began to teach at the Tokyo School of Music (now the Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku) in 1946 and was a professor from 1952 until her retirement in 1989; her students included Kiyoko Tanaka and Izumi Tateno. In 1980 she was one of the founders of the Japanese International Music Competition. In a musical culture traditionally dominated by German influence, Yasukawa was the first musician in Japan to represent the French school, and through her teaching and editions she successfully promoted the music of Chopin, Debussy and Ravel. After 1971 she served frequently on the juries of various international competitions, including the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud, the Queen Elisabeth and the Warsaw Chopin competitions. She received numerous international prizes and in 1967 was admitted to the Légion d'Honneur.

MASAKATA KANAZAWA

Yatga [yataga, yatuga].

Mongolian half-tube zither with movable bridges. Traditionally, the instrument varies in size and tuning even within one ethnic group, as evidenced by two Chahar Mongol instruments collected by Haslund-Christensen this century: one, now in the National Museum, Copenhagen, measures 114·5 cm long by 21·6 cm wide; a second, in the Swedish Ethnographical Museum, Stockholm, measures 153·4 cm long by 22 cm wide. The tuning of the instrument used by Sünit Mongols was pentatonic in the sequence of the Chinese zhi mode, using the harmonic series 45·123. Similarly, the ten-string Ordos Mongol zither described by van Oost (1915–16) lacked the mi and ti of the Western solmization series.

The earliest documentation of the classical Mongolian term yatuga (or yatugan) occurs in a Mongolian-Chinese dictionary of 1389, where it is paired with the Chinese zheng, an instrument described in the Yüan shih (1370), a history of the Yüan (Mongol) dynasty, as having 13 strings. It was also used in the Mughal courts of Central Asia. Persian sources use the Mongolian word ‘yatugan’ for a zither with movable bridges, and a 15th-century poem written in old Uzbek (Chagatay) also mentions the yatugan. An 18-century source refers to a Kalmyk yattagan with gut strings. Mongolian sources of the 19th and early 20th centuries describe a yatga with 14 strings. During the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), the 12-string yatga was a court instrument, the number of strings symbolizing the 12 ranks within the palace. It was used to entertain the aristocracy and also was played by the aristocracy. The ten-string yatga was played by Living Buddhas and consequently surrounded by ritual. Three recently discovered 18th- and 19th-century song manuscripts for performance in Nomyn Khan monasteries contain notations for the yatga. The ten-string yatga was also used during worship at ritual cairns or oboo and during sports, such as horse racing, held on such occasions.

The yatga appears in epics and legends in relation to both court and religious contexts. The Kalmyk heroic epic-cycle Janggar tells how a 16-year-old princess played on the seven lower bridges of a yatga which had 82 bridges and 8000 strings. It was used for interludes during recitations of Buryat epics and, as with other Mongolian instruments, was played to animals to persuade a mother to accept her rejected young.

Traditionally, the musician knelt on the ground to perform, laying the narrower end of the yatga on his thigh and supporting the wider end on the ground. Some Mongol groups made strings from a goat's small intestines, after a process of stretching, boiling and drying. Others used horsehair, as on the Tuvan chadagan and Kazakh zshetïgan. In Inner Mongolia, horsehair was replaced by silk and, more recently, metal wound around gut or metal. The Inner Mongolian yatga has two rows of bridges (fig.1). Strings may be plucked by the nails. In addition, a variety of plectra have been used including leather caps (for thumb and finger) to which is attached a small piece of horn.

The yatga was used in ensembles in Urga (now Ulaanbaatar) in 1923. During the early years after the communist revolution of 1924, the yatga fell into disuse, probably because of its traditional aristocratic and religious connections. According to Berlinsky (1933) the instrument almost completely disappeared. It was revived as a ‘national’ instrument of the Mongolian People's Republic during the 1950s, with Korean-style instruments (see Kayagum). The 13-string yatga now used to accompany singing and played in instrumental ensembles has a single row of bridges (fig.2). Seated on a chair rather than on the floor, the player rests the instrument on the knees with it sloping downwards to the floor on his or her left, or plays an instrument supported by legs or a stand. The right-hand fingernails are used to pluck the open strings. The left-hand fingers apply pressure to the strings which pass over small bridges, each wedged between a string and the soundboard, to produce vibrato, pitch alterations (accidentals), and other embellishments as well as special plucking effects.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

And other resources

GroveI (A. Nixon)

P.S. Pallas: Sammlungen historischer Nachrichten über die mongolischen Völkerschaften, i (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1776)

T.Z. Zhamtsarano: Obraztsï narodnoi slovesnosti mongol'skikh' plemen': tekstï [Examples of the folk literature of the Mongolian peoples: texts], i (Petrograd, 1918)

S.A. Kondratyev: ‘O rabotakh po izucheniyu mongol'skoi muziki v oktyabre – dekabre 1923 g.’ [About work for the study of Mongolian music in October and December 1923 in Urga], Izvestiya russkovo geograficheskovo obshchestva, lvi/1 (1924)

P. Berlinsky: Mongol'skiy pevets i muzïkant Ul'dzuy-Lubsan-Khurchi [The Mongolian singer and musician Ul'dzuy-Lubsan-Hurchi] (Moscow, 1933)

E. Emsheimer: ‘Preliminary Remarks on Mongolian Music and Instruments’, The Music of the Mongols, i: Eastern Mongolia, ed. H. Haslund-Christensen (Stockholm, 1943/R), 69–100

U. Zagdsüren: ‘Gür duuny bichig’, Studia mongolica, ii (Ulaanbaatar, 1974)

Xiaoshu minzu yuequ chuantong duzou qu xuanji menggu zu [Selected traditional instrumental solos of Mongolian minorities] (Beijing, 1979)

T.S. Vizgo: Muzikal'niye instrumentï Srednei Azii [Musical instruments of Central Asia] (Moscow, 1980)

S. Büted and A. Magnaisüren: Yatgyn Garyn Avlaga [A handbook for the yatga] (Ulaanbaatar, 1987)

L. Erdenechimeg: The Historical Tradition of the Mongolian Yatga (Ulaanbaatar, 1995)

L. Erdenechimeg and T. Shagdarsüren: Chin Süzegt Nomyn Han Hiidiin gür duuny bichig [Gür song notation from Chinsüzegt Nomyn Khan Monastery] (Ulaanbaatar, 1995)

C.A. Pegg: Mongolian Music, Dance and Oral Narrative: Performing Diverse Identities (Seattle and London, forthcoming)

CAROLE PEGG

Yatuhasi [Yatsuhashi] Kengyō

(b Iwaki, Hukusima Prefecture, or Okura, Hukuoka Prefecture, c1614; d Kyoto, 12 June 1685). Japanese composer and koto, shamisen and kokyū player. He inaugurated the sōkyoku tradition. He was a member of the guild of professional blind musicians, and his name changed as he ascended in rank there. He was originally called Jōhide (with the rank of zato), in 1636 he became Yamazumi (with the rank of kōtō) and in 1639 he became known as Kaminaga Kengyō Zyōdan (Kengyō being the highest-ranked title in the guild). Finally, some time before 1657 he changed his name to Yatuhasi Kengyō. He began his career as a shamisen player in Osaka. When he moved to Edo he learnt to play the tsukushi-goto style of koto music from the master musician Hossui (or Hōsui), a disciple of Kenjun (?1534–?1623), the founder of this style. The invention of a new koto tuning system called hira-jōshi, which includes half steps, is attributed to Yatuhasi.

According to a book of koto notation, Sōkyoku taiisyō (Edo, 1792), Yatuhasi composed a set of 13 koto kumiuta (Huki, Kiritubo, Kokorozukusi, Kumoi no kyoku, Kumo no ue, Ougi no kyoku, Siki no kyoku, Suma, Tenga taihei, Umegae, Usugoromo, Usuyuki and Yuki no asita) to texts by his patron, Lord Naito of Iwaki. These pieces marked a turning-point in the development of the sōkyoku and jiuta traditions, separating them from the older tsukushi-goto tradition, which maintained a strong connection with gagaku. They have become the core of the sōkyoku tradition. Other pieces by Yatuhasi include two other koto kumiuta (Koryu siki genzi (also attributed to Ikuta) and Otu no kumi), three danmono (Hatidan no sirabe, Midare and Rokudan no sirabe) and the rōsaimono Kumoi rōsai.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

W. Adriaansz: The Kumiuta and Danmono Traditions of Japanese Koto Music (Berkeley, 1973)

G. Tsuge: Anthology of Sôkyoku and Jiuta Song Texts (Tokyo, 1983)

K. Hirano and others: ‘Tokusyû: Yatsuhashi kengyô botugo man-300nen’ [Special issue: 300th anniversary of Yatsuhashi Kengyô's death], Kikan hôgaku, xlii (1985), 67–86

K. Hirano: Syâmisen to koto no kumiuta: sôkyoku ziuta kenkyû [Kumiuta for koto and shamisen] (Tokyo, 1987)

K. Hirano: ‘Yatuhashi kengyô’, Nihon ongaku daijiten [Encyclopedia of Japanese music], ed. K. Hirano, Y. Kamisangō and S. Gamō (Tokyo, 1989), 756c–757b

P. Ackermann: Kumiuta: Traditional Songs for Certificates, a Study of their Texts and Implications (Bern and New York, 1990)

E. Kikkawa: A History of Japanese Koto Music and Ziuta, ed. O. Yamaguti (Tokyo, 1997) [trans. and suppl. by L.C. Holvik]

YOSIHIKO TOKUMARU

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