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About "Ha-Uta"

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Ha-Uta 端唄 mus  pdf  mid  mp3  xml

Title in English: "Leaf Song "

History

The term "Ha-Uta" refers to a song (with shamisen accompaniment) that is part of a collection of songs written down on the "leaves" or pages of an album of songs.  Thus, "Ha-Uta" is the name of a song genre (from the Edo period), not really the name of a song.  I don't know the song's actual name.

Text

Unknown?  The only source I know for this song is an 1895 collection of piano arrangements of Japanese songs by Rudolf Dittrich (see below).  Although Dittrich gives lyrics for some songs, he omits the lyrics for "Ha-Uta". 

Remarks

A fragment consisting of the first measure of Dittrich's arrangement of "Ha-Uta" occurs several times in Giocomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly, in the scene in Act I where Butterfly shows Pinkerton her possessions.

For a list of Puccini's Japanese songs, see Japanese Songs in Puccini's Madama Butterfly on this website.

Dedication: The following dedication is printed at the top of Dittrich's arrangement of "Ha-Uta": "Herrn Josef Stritzko gewidmet".  Josef Stritzko (1861-1908) was a composer and music publisher (Gustav Mahler's publisher, in fact).

References

Dittrich, Rudolf, Nippon Gakufu, Second Series (“Ten Japanese Songs collected and arranged for the Pianoforte”), Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig, 1895.

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].

Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Herta Blaukopf, Gustav Mahler--Richard Strauss: Correspondence, 1888-1911, Translated by Edmund Jephcott, 1996, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226057682, p. 133 (for information about Josef Stritzko).

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