While tagging music from various Japanese audio CDs that I own, I’ve come across various terms used for crediting people in various roles in the production of the album. These are printed in the CD booklet, alongside people’s names, and I’ve looked them up to figure out which tags I should put in my audio files.
To avoid looking up the same characters over and over again, I’ve kept track of terms that I’ve seen before, so I can recognize them again easily. I’m putting this list online in the hope that others may find it useful too. Please note that I don’t actually read or understand Japanese; everything here is the result of Internet research.
These are compounds listed in the online Unihan database, in the entries for the individual characters. I give the definition from that site, followed by my own interpretation and additional notes if applicable.
composition/setting (of music)
song making
arrangement
(vs) musical performance
song, lyrics; sing, chant; praise
(vs) (in) charge
sound, tone, pitch, pronunciation
music/musical movement
opus.
(vs) musical performance; 者:
that which; he who; those who
singer
These are various other things I’ve seen printed on Japanese CDs that I think may be useful to keep track of.