The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-20
HOW MUSIC IS MADE
 IN THE MIKADO'S LAND
 ENGLAND CONSERVATORY - 

1 ling the lute of medieval Europe ex-' cept that 1t is to be played, with a plectrum. It is said to have been named after Lake Biwa. which 1t re- sembles in shape. This is the favorite musical instrument of the so-called Society of the Feki-Blind. Feki, it should be said. was a Japanese prince of many years ago who went to war with Joritomo. a war-god who cap. tured him and sought to attach him to his service. Patriotism, always so strong in the Japanese, led Feki to refuse consistently to serve in the courts of an enemy, but he so appre- ciated his captor's magnanimity that he plucked out his own eyes rather than to continue to look him in the face. Feki later became a famous musician and founded the order which goes in his name. It is sort of Ma sonic organization. the members of which refuse charity. but earn their living by playing on the biwa at we'd dings. banquets, funerals and other so- cial functions.
 Perhaps the most aristocratic of Jap anese instruments is the koto aJopt- ed from the Chinese kin. Its music has religious significance and it is used on solemn occasions. The perfect koto has seven strings. but there are
  the summa-koto, one-stringed affair, up to great unwieldy structure car rying from twenty-five to fifty strings. The most popular form of the koto is called the sono with thirteen strings, played with a set of diminutive plec- tra and having a set of movable bridges. by adjustment of which the instrument is tuned. Every variety of the koto shows a sounding board hn t,H performer who plucks the strings with little ivory picks which are attached to his fingers. The oldest form of the instrument Is recorded as having been nine feet in breadth and to have had strings six feet long.
 The other stringed instrument which deserves particular mention is the kokiu. This has the usual primitive body of hardwood and skin. It might easily be confounded with the sami- sen, save that it is smaller and has four strings. The strands of it's bow are frightened by winding the lo0se ends around the finger of the right hand. The kokiu is played with the body resting on the players lap. It is tuned in f1fths and it gives out tones that are very sonorous. Together with the samisen and the koto it makes a good combination for a trio. There is also an instrument like the banjo called the gekkin and another, of the same shape but having no frets. known as the shigen.
 One of the favorite Japanese wind instruments is the fuye, made of a bamboo stick wound about with thread | except at the joints where 1t is pierced and lacQuered. It is not a very per- feet instrument though it is superior | to the one which was probably it's pro- genitor called the siaku-hachi. The | last named is a mere rough tube with l four holes on one side for the fingers and one opposite which is stopped by the thumb. This is not traverse | flute: it is blown through the end, as | boys blow peas or pop-guns.
 The other leading form of wind in- strument is the hichi-riki, resembling the oboe in structure, and played from the end like a flageolet. Travellers say that It's tone as extracted by skill full players is astonishingly shrill and piercing; there have been cases in which Europeans have been laid up by | being obliged to listen to It.
 Of instruments of percussion the | Japanese are addicted principally to the barbaric drum They nave all sorts of drums, big and little. and of various shapes; some with two heads like two | cones fastened at the apexes; sacred ] metal gongs and others. The snare drum is quite unknown. With a single | exception there are no orchestras in Japan. In the theatrical bands one finds generally a flute, a couple of sam isens and two or three drums.
 The singing with which the players accompany their efforts at parties in the tea houses or elsewhere is not high from the occidental point of view. The singers nearly all use the falsetto voice. The Japanese care very little for harmony and probably would not be especially interested in orchestral works built up on their national tunes. Just as Japanese music has little to offer to the European composer. so up to this time Western music has made comparatively little progress in Japan, though the Imperial Orchestra at To- kio. led first by Eckert and more late ly by the Viennese violinist, Dubrow- | sky, has done some educational work. The music which this orchestra plays