The first in a new series of programmes on the arts in action Tonight:
Music of a Thousand Autumns
One thousand years ago the Imperial Japanese Court listened to ' gagaku ' - ' elegant music '. Astonishingly you can still hear it in 1977. It is the oldest surviving orchestral music in the world, and provides a kind of serene, formal beauty amid the industrial chaos of modern Japan.
This film visits the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, and in the Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples of Nara and Kyoto, the musicians of ' gagaku ' rehearse and perform their ancient art.
Narrator HUMPHREY BURTON
Photography DAVID FEIG Sound IAN SANSAM
Film editor DAVE KING Executive producer
BARRIE GAVIN
Producer MICHAEL MACINTYRE