Hi,
I'm in the process of making a translation right now of some of
Yokoyama-sensei's honkyoku material, and I have run into two terms,
insempo/yosempo, for which I cannot find good English. I'm hoping someone
with more background in Western music theory can help me out.
Here is the passage:
The majority of the Honkyoku are in the **Insempo*** mode (D, E-flat, G,
A-flat, C, or D, E-flat, G, A, B-flat). It is important to note that the
instrument itself is tuned on the ***yosempo*** mode (D, F, G, A, C) which
is similar to the tuning of the Oiwake-Bushi melodies.
To me this sounds like the difference between major and minor, but he is
talking about modes, not scales.
"Senpo" means "mode" and "in" and "yo" are the same as "yin" and "yang",
which gives further basis for the minor/major hypothesis.
Given this context, can anyone point me to a technically correct English
equivalent for these two terms? I could always leave them as is, and I
might have to if there is no good English equivalent, but they are basically
meaningless to an English-speaking reader, so I'd like to come up with a
good English term.
Thanks a lot,
Zachary Braverman
P.S. - If you can read Japanese the characters are $B1"@{K!(J and $BM[@{K!(J.
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