japan architecture blog

Grove Music Online, for lack of a more imaginative term, was pretty predictable. Most websites such as this are fairly straightforward as far as just giving you the facts.  Besides the first and last sections in the article, the material presented is generally abstact, in other words, the discussion of music occurs without any placement in context.  No attempt is made to relate the development of Japanese music to the country's history, culture or social customs. In Wade's book, the "architecture" or table of contents seems to be based on Japan's music in a context, not just Japan's music in abstract form.  I have not read all the chapters, so I can only guess at the meaning of some of the terms I see; like "international Interface", "Intertextuality" and others.  Interface means a connection, so how does Japan connect with the Western world? With the Eastern world? What texts do the theatrical arts in Japan deal with? How does Japan focus inward and examine itself? How does it look outward? How does music fit into all of this? At this point we have a lot more questions than answers.