著者

山田 桃子

出版者

日本近代文学会

雑誌

日本近代文学 (ISSN:05493749)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.88, pp.81-94, 2013-05-15

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Previous studies have shown that the series of concerts Kajii mentions in his "Kigaku-teki genkaku" were given by a French pianist, Henri Gil-Marchex(1894-1970), who visited Japan in 1925. Although Kajii's essay may appear to be merely testimony to his presence at a historic musical event in modern Japan, what the author tries to convey has deeper implications. This paper argues that Kajii was referring to historical transformations of the subject of perception. Kajii's text depicts two completely different reactions he had at a concert. While he notes that he listened attentively to a sonata, and that that was a moving experience, he also writes that listening to modern French musical selections at the same concert inevitably caused his focus to self-destruct, resulting in hallucinations. The contrast between the two musical experiences corresponds to the contrast in musical compositions between the classical and modern music of the West. Kajii, however, focuses on the transformation undergone by the perceiving subject. It is important to understand the transformation of the perceiving subject, delineated as a reaction to Western musical performance, in the larger context of the nascent mass consumer culture of the time.