Nagauta Symphony is an epoch-making work that attempts the fusion of western music and nagauta, Japanese traditional vocal music performed with instruments including the three-stringed shamisen, fues (Japanese flutes) and percussion. In this work, Yamada takes a classic nagauta piece of 1857 to which he adds his original orchestral music. Sinfonia ‘Inno Meiji’ is effectively a symphonic poem which depicts Japan on the way to westernisation from the latter half of the 19th century through to the early 20th century.