An approach to the two musical dramas, opera ”Aida” and Kabuki music ”Kanjinchou” from a cross-cultural perspective

With the revision of Course of Study for Junior High School in 1989, the Opera ”Aida” was added to a list of compulsory pieces of music appreciation. The authors took this opportunity to deal with this opera ”Aida” and kabuki music ”Kanjinchou”, two masterpiece dramas in the East and West, from a cross-cultural perspective. In this study, we tried to see the possibility of an approach to the teaching of music appreciation for a cross-cultural perspective. For this purpose, we had a group of junior highschool students appreciate the two pieces of drama close in time and analyzed the students' responses toward them. Based upon this analysis, we considered a way of approaching from a cross-cultural perspective in teaching music appreciation.