Japanese Songs in Puccini's Madama Butterfly

Nagai and Kobatake Songs Used by Puccini

Song Title		View or Listen	Date Posted
Echigo-Jishi	越後獅子	mus  pdf  mid  xml  about	2006-05-13
Kappore-Honen		mus  pdf  mid  xml  about	2005-09-01
Miyasan	宮さん々々	mus  pdf  mid  xml  about	2006-04-16
O Edo-Nihonbashi	お江戸日本橋	mus  pdf  mid  xml  about	2005-09-01
Suiryo-Bushi	推量節	mus  pdf  mid  xml  about	2005-09-01
Takai-Yama	高い山	mus  pdf  mid  mp3  xml  about	2006-09-24

Rudolf Dittrich Piano Arrangements Used by Puccini

Song Title		View or Listen	Date Posted
Ha-Uta	端唄	mus  pdf  mid  mp3  xml  about	2006-09-24
Jizuki-Uta		mus  pdf  mid  mp3  xml  about	2006-09-24
Sakura	さくら	mus  pdf  mid  mp3  xml  about	2006-09-24

Other Japanese Songs Used by Puccini

Song Title		View or Listen	Date Posted
Kimigayo	君が代	mus  pdf  mid  mp3  xml  about	2006-09-24
Sakura (melody only)	さくら	mus  pdf  mid  mp3  xml  about	2006-09-24

 

Song Locations in Madama Butterfly

I have assembled the following table showing the Japanese songs that Puccini used and where each song occurs in Madama Butterfly.  I list the song occurrences in the order in which they appear in the score.  (Most of the songs occur more than once.)  While doing research for this webpage, I looked for such a table in the scholarly literature and did not find it.

Notation: The table shows location(s) in the score for each song by specifying (Act, Rehearsal-Number). For example, "I.37" means "Act I at rehearsal number 37".  Sometimes I show measure numbers, as in "II.56.6-12", which means "Act II, rehearsal number 56, measures 6 through 12".  "III.13-15" means "Act III, from rehearsal number 13 to rehearsal number 15".  The score I use is the Dover reprint of the 1907 Ricordi score.  The "DVD Start" column shows the approximate start time for the song in the Freni/Domingo/von Karajan DVD.

Song Instances in Score Order

	Score Location	Score Page	DVD Start	Song Title	Notes
1	I.37.1-I.38.2	61	0:14:51	Echigo-Jishi	Goro sings before Butterfly arrives
2	I.44.1-I.45.6	76	0:20:21	Echigo-Jishi	Sung by Butterfly. "Nobody admits being poor."
3	I.59	86	0:23:00	Kimigayo	Arrival of Imperial Commissioner and Registrar
4	I.74.1-6	108	0:26:55	Ha-Uta	As B. shows her possessions
5	I.75.1-4	109	0:27:20	Ha-Uta	As B. shows her possessions
6	I.75.5-I.76.6	109	0:27:27	Sakura	As B. shows her possessions
7	I.76.1-6	110	0:27:48	Ha-Uta	As B. shows her possessions
8	I.87	125	0:32:42	O-Edo-Nihonbashi	Butterfly's friends' congratulations
9	II.3.2-14	210	0:56:28	Takai-Yama	Suzuki's prayer
10	II.13.15-19	234	1:04:40	Jizuki-Uta	Fragment in aria "Un bel di"
11	II.18.1-5	242	1:07:27	O-Edo-Nihonbashi	Fragment in clarinet before B. and Sharpless talk
12	II.20-22	247	1:08:50	Miyasan	Sharpless talks with B. before arrival of Yamadori
13	II.26-29	257	1:11:00	Miyasan	Arrival of Yamadori
14	II.27.1-6	258	1:11:30	Echigo-Jishi	Fragment as B. describes Yamadori
15	II.31.12-I.33.10	269	1:12:49	Echigo-Jishi	Yamadori says he will be faithful
16	II.39	283	1:16:00	Miyasan	Departure of Yamadori
17	II.50.7-14, II.52.12-15	303	1:23:00	Kappore-Honen	Butterfly shows her son to Sharpless
18	II.55.1-12	310	1:25:25	Jizuki-Uta	In aria "Che tua madre"
19	II.56.01-9	314	1:26:29	Suiryo-Bushi	In aria "Che tua madre"
20	II.56.10-17	314	1:27:23	Kappore-Honen	In aria "Che tua madre"
21	II.57.1-11	315	1:27:51	Jizuki-Uta	In aria "Che tua madre"
22	II.57.12-17	317	1:28:27	Suiryo-Bushi	In aria "Che tua madre"
23	II.66	323	1:31:50	Kappore-Honen	After chasing Goro away, B. tells son that Pinkerton will return
24	II.85.7-13	372	1:43:02	Miyasan	During adornment duet, B. mentions Yamadori
25	III.0.1-8	382	1:49:05	Echigo-Jishi	Fragment as orchestra begins act III
26	III.13-15	412	1:57:13	Kappore-Honen	In morning, B. sings, "he will come…"
27	III.38.1-8	453	2:13:30	Kappore-Honen	"They will take everything, even my son"
28	III.57.4-7	481	2:23:30	Jizuki-Uta	Fragment interposed twice between Pinkerton's cries of "Butterfly!"
29	III.58	482	2:24:15	Suiryo-Bushi	Last music in opera

Remarks

Musicologists are not in complete agreement on the list of Japanese songs that Puccini used.  Furthermore, even if they agree that Puccini has used a song, they may produce different lists of places where they hear that song in the score.  Such disagreements are not surprising.  For while Madama Butterfly contains a few long, note-by-note quotations from well-known songs, at other places in the score, Puccini has perhaps transformed a familiar song with his special magic, or perhaps he has composed an entirely original phrase that sounds Japanese but does not exactly match any known song. Who can say for sure?

Bibliography

Among musicological works, I relied most on Kimiyo Powils-Okano's book and Kunio Hara's master's thesis, while also consulting Mosco Carner's biography, the delightful articles by Arthur Groos, and the book by Michele Girardi.  Kunio Hara's work is especially helpful because it contains important new insights and discoveries, is well-written, contains an excellent bibliography—and it is freely available on the Internet!  For most of the Japanese songs themselves, I examined the original versions in Nagai and Kobatake, and in Dittrich's two collections, and I transcribed them into Finale music notation for inclusion in this website.  I highly recommend the works by Lesley Downer and Jan van Rij for background information. Malm's book is an elegant general study of Japanese music.

1. Carner, Mosco, Puccini, a Critical Biography, 3rd Edition, Holmes and Meier, New York, 1992.
2. Dittrich, Rudolf, Nippon Gakufu (“Six Japanese Popular Songs collected and arranged for the Pianoforte”), Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig, 1894.
3. Dittrich, Rudolf, Nippon Gakufu, Second Series (“Ten Japanese Songs collected and arranged for the Pianoforte”), Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig, 1895.
4. Downer, Lesley, Madame Sadayakko, The Geisha Who Bewitched the West, Gotham Books, New York, 2003.
5. Gerbino, Giuseppe, “Orientalism in Madama Butterfly” , New York Opera Project website at Columbia University, http://www.columbia.edu/itc/music/NYCO/butterfly/orient.html
6. Girardi, Michele, Puccini: his international art, trans. Laura Basini, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2000.  [See also Michele Girardi's website of the Centro studi Giacomo Puccini (in Lucca, Italy), www.puccini.it, for extensive online information about Puccini and his works.]
7. Groos, Arthur, “Cio-Cio-San and Sadayakko: Japanese Music-Theatre in Madama Butterfly”, Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 54, No. 1, (Spring, 1999), pp. 41-73.
8. Groos, Arthur, “Lieutenant F. B. Pinkerton: Problems in the Genesis and Performance of Madama Butterfly”, in The Puccini Companion, edited by William Weaver and Simonetta Puccini, Norton, New York, 1994, pp. 154-201.
9. Hara, Kunio, Puccini's Use of Japanese Melodies in Madama Butterfly, Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2003.  Download from http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/send-pdf.cgi?ucin1060955367 [Large pdf file, 3MB].
10. Lawson, Anne, list of Puccini operas and premiere dates, in Opera Resource website, http://www.r-ds.com/opera/pucciniana/operas.htm
11. Malm, William, Traditional Japanese Music and Musical Instruments, Kodansha International, New York, 2000.
12. Miller, J. Scott, “Lost Melodies Rediscovered, Recordings of the Kawakami Troupe at the 1900 Paris Exposition”, Booklet packaged with Yomigaeru OPPEKEPE CD (see reference below), 1997.
13. Nagai, Y., and Kobatake, K., Japanese Popular Music, A Collection of the Popular Music of Japan Rendered in to the Staff Notation, S. Miki & Co., Nos. 106 and 107 Shinsaibashi Road, Osaka, 1892.
14. Nagai, Iwai and Obata, Kenhachiro, Seiyo gakufu Nihon zokkyokushu, pub. Miki Shoten, Osaka, 1895 (in Japanese; the cover displays an English title, A Collection of Japanese Popular Music).
15. Pisani, Michael V., “Madama Butterfly”, [Description of various versions of the opera score], Sibley Library, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, N.Y. website, http://www.esm.rochester.edu/sibley/specialc/puccini/Butter.htm
16. Powils-Okano, Kimiyo, Puccinis “Madama Butterfly”, Verlag für systematische Musikwissenschaft GmbH, Bonn, 1986 (in German).
17. Puccini, Giacomo, Madama Butterfly, Movie on DVD, starring Mirella Freni, Placido Domingo, and Christa Ludwig, Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, conductor, filmed 1974, Deutsche Grammophon, 2005.
18. Puccini, Giacomo, Madama Butterfly in Full Score, Dover, New York, 1990, republication of edition originally published by G Ricordi, Milan, 1907.
19. Rij, Jan van, Madame Butterfly: Japonisme, Puccini, and the Search for the Real Cho-Cho-San, Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley, 2001.
20. Walzenaufnahmen japanischer Musik 1901-1913/Wax Cylinder Recordings of Japanese Music 1901-1913, Audio CD + 96 p. booklet (German/Englisch), Musical Notes, Photos, A. Simon and S. Ziegler, Eds., Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, BPhA-WA 1 (2003).  [Contains music by the Kawakami Troupe recorded in Berlin, 1902, including Sadayakko singing.]
21. Yomigaeru OPPEKEPE: 1900-nen Pari banpaku no Kawakami ichiza [“Oppekepe revived: the Kawakami Troupe at the 1900 Paris Exposition”], Audio CD, Toshiba-Emi.TOGC-5432 (1997).  [Contains music and Japanese speech of members of the Kawakami Troupe, recorded in Paris, 1900, including a performance of “Miyasan”.]

Acknowledgments

• Kunio Hara's thesis contains a photocopy of the song "Miyasan" from an 1891 edition of Nagai and Kobatake's collection.  That song was not included in the 1892 edition that I consulted, and Kunio Hara has permitted me to base my transcription of "Miyasan" on his photocopy.  I also thank him for several helpful emails.
• The Finale transcription here of "Echigo-Jishi" contains a wonderful enhancement added by Michael Good and Karen Tanaka at the company Recordare.  They have inserted the Japanese title and Japanese lyric for this song, using the original words from Nagai and Kobatake.  I thank Recordare for letting me include their improved transcription in the Daisyfield Music Archive.  So far, this is the only song posted on the Daisyfield website complete with its Japanese words.  See also the Recordare website, where "Echigo-Jishi" is posted as an example of a MusicXML rendering of a work with Japanese lyrics, along with other interesting MusicXML applications.
• Photo of Puccini: 8notes.com
• Madama Butterfly poster: KiMo Theatre website, Albuquerque, NM.

Public Domain

All of the Japanese songs on this page are in the public domain.  Copyrights on the original publications have expired, and I donate to the public domain my transcriptions of these songs.

(However, some works appearing elsewhere in the Daisyfield.com website are copyright.)

Tom Potter
September, 2006