懷しのブルース

懷しのブルース (Natsukashi no Buruusu) (Nostalgic Blues/Blues of Nostalgia) is the theme song from a 1948 Japanese movie of the same name. This is the sheet music of it. (You can even see for the beginning credits screen they flip through the sheet music, how cool!) I particularly enjoy this song because of how the title describes exactly what the music sounds like (at least to me). It has a nostalgic feel to it but mostly the depressing feel to it is what overwhelms me. It is definitely not written for the piano, but that's how I play it. I like that this copy has someone's old cigarette ash burn on it. Maybe they were depressed and took this song out to play it. It tells a story.

The composition follows a structure not heard so often in ryukoka music. The verses are written using the chord progression i-V7-i-iv-i-iv-i which makes only the seventh chords the non-minor chords. This makes the minor notes drone on not only throughout the verses but as well as the bridge and chorus, giving the song one of the most depressive song structures possible.

Here is the song from Nippon Columbia single A339. The performer is the famous actor and singer 高峰三枝子, who also plays the main role in the movie.

Here is my favorite rendition of it for accordion. Very depressing and nostalgic.

Japanese note:
The character 懷 is the kyūjitai version of the shinjitai character 懐. The title of the song on the single uses the shinjitai version, but the title on the sheet music uses the kyūjitai 懷.
Another cool note is the fact that the kanji 懐 used to have a different okurigana. Today it is written as 懐かし with かし being the okurigana, but back in the day the kanji also represented the か, so it was just 懐し. The cover title uses the older okurigana, but the title in the music uses the newer okurigana.

More pics:

As most sheet music I own from this era does, this sheet music contains the jianpu (Chinese number notation) on a separate pane.

藤浦洗　作詞
万城目正　作曲