Music of Japan
MUSI 3721Y
University of Lethbridge, Calgary Campus
John Anderson
Cultural Values
• In Japan, maintaining
tradition is important
• In pedagogy and performance,
the emphasis is on playing
music traditionally, without
innovation
• Preservation has tended to
take a vertical path in Japan
• Genres are transmitted from
teacher to student through
special lineages
• No apparent horizontal
influence from co-existing
genres
Social Class
• Musical/theatrical genres
tell us about Japanese
history and social values
• Genres are linked to social
class and historical epochs
• Gagaku remains a symbol
of the authority of the
Imperial court
• Noh, the art of the
samurai, emphasizes
simplicity and personal
enlightenment through
self-understanding and
self-reliance
• Kabuki and bunraku
illustrate the fondness of
the townsfolk for theater
Gender Issues
• The koto is believed to
originally have been a
court musical instrument
played by men
• The shamisen was
originally an instrument
played by banished
samurai who became
wandering Buddhist monks
who utilized the
shakuhachi as a weapon
when needed.
• The shamisen was played
by men in accompaniment
to the various theater
genres
Gender Issues
• However, women have
come to play these
instruments during the
Edo period in sankyoku, an
ensemble music that has
been associated with the
geisha
• The term geisha literally
means “arts person,”
whereby most Westerners
mistakenly think the term
refers to prostitutes
• Japanese women had been
trained in the arts at one
time to entertain
gentlemen, yet today they
are trained for arts recitals
Gender Issues
• In kabuki, women were
banned as performers in
1629 due to the genre
becoming associated with
prostitution
• In 1653, reforms were
again made in kabuki,
restricting young men as
performers as well
Heterophony
• In ensemble music, certain instruments play the melody
heterophonically
• Others mark time in regular recurring ways
• Heterophony: two or more performers playing the same
melody, but with small differences in timing or
ornamentation
• Although ensemble textures are largely monophonic
and/or heterophonic, great emphasis is placed on subtle
differentiations of timbre and ornamentation
Sensitivity to Tempo
• Relatively slow tempos
with constant, subtle
fluctuations in basic pulse
• Jo-ha-kyu aesthetic ideal is
pervasive in both large and
small forms:
• slow introductory
exposition (jo)
• faster, more rhythmically
regular middle section (ha)
• and still faster, more
intense drive toward the
end (kyu)
• often with a sudden
slowing down at the end of
a piece
Kabuki Nagauta Music From the Play “Pojoji”
• Nagauta music is
played by the on-stage
debayashi ensemble
• A corps of shamisens
and voices plus a noh
hayashi
• The ensemble has
three main subgroups
Kabuki Nagauta Music From the Play “Pojoji”
• Nagauta is a lyric genre of shamisen music, also
sung in unison chorus in kabuki
• Shamisen is a three-stringed, long-nekced,
freltless lute, plucked with a large plectrum
• Debayashi literally means a “coming-out
orchestra”; a music group in kabuki that comes
out onstage to accompany a specific scene
• Noh hayashi is a drum
Kabuki Nagauta Music From the Play “Pojoji”
Three subgroups
1. Voice accompanied by
shamisens playing in
unison
• together they provide the
basic melodic unit
2. One or more o-tsuzumi and
ko-tsuzumi (large and
small noh drums)
• play a supporting rhythm
3. Nohkan and taiko
• together play an
independent line
unrelated to the other
subgroups
Excerpt from Noh play Hagoromo (“The Robe
of Feathers”)
• This excerpt provides a
brief example of the stately
quality of the unison vocal
music accompanied by the
three noh drums
• It is the story of a
fisherman who captures
the wings of an angel
• Promises to return them if
she’ll dance
“Rokudan No Shirabe”
• One of the most famous solo
koto pieces, “Rokudan” or
“Six Sections”
• A koto is a 13-stringed zither
with moveable bridges
• It’s typical of danmono
instrumental pieces in that it
consists of several “steps,” or
sections, known as dan
• The term “shirabe,” which
appears frequently in titles of
Japanese instrumental
compositions, means
“investigation,” specifically
with respect to the
instrument’s tuning
“Rokudan No Shirabe”
• A short introduction of
four beats precedes
the piece, then each
dan follows without
break
• Each dan contains 104
beats and is repeated
several times with
increasing variation
• This makes it
extremely difficult to
tell where one dan
ends and a new one
begins
“Rokudan No Shirabe”
• The jo-ha-kyu
structure, however,
is somewhat clearer
• The first two dan
comprise the jo, or
introductory section
• The second two, the
ha section where the
tempo increases
• And the final two, the
fast kyu section
“Rokudan No Shirabe”
• In this sankyoku version the instruments play in a
rough unison
• heterophony
• instrument-specific ornamentation
• The koto part is said to be the “meat”
• The shamisen part, the “bone”
• The shakuhachi part, the “skin”
Chidori
• One of the most
famous sokyoku pieces
• Sokyoku is koto music
developed in the Edo
period
• It is set in a four-part
jiuta form
•
•
•
•
Introduction
Song
Interlude
Song
Chidori
• Can be heard as a solo
piece, a koto duet, or a
koto and shamisen
ensemble
• It is also used as geza
music in the kabuki
theater
• The geza is the offstage
orchestra in kabuki who
produce the sound
effects
Netori & Etenraku in Hyojo
• Etenraku literally means,
“music of divinity”
• Starts with an introductory
“tuning-up” section, called
“netori”
• It is a togaku-style piece in
the hyojo mode
• Togaku repertory includes
music of Chinese and
Indian origin
• Komagaku includes music
of Korean and
Manchurian origin
Netori & Etenraku in Hyojo
• The instruments of the
ensemble enter in
standard order:
• sho, hichiriki, ryuteki,
kakko, biwa, and gakuso
• The main body of the
piece comprises three
sections
• each section 32 slow
beats
Discussion Questions
• Generally, in comparison to Japan, how does our
culture regard the performance and listening of
music 1,000, or even 500-years-old?
• Have you seen any operas or musicals in Calgary?
What did you think of them? (Hint: Watch “Rent”
on DVD)
• How can the development of Western opera or musicals
be compared to the development of Japanese genres
such as noh and kabuki?
• How may we account for the lack of musical
puppet theater in the West, and what might be in
its place?
Discussion Questions
• In what ways may we compare Gregorian chant
with Buddhist chant, and thus contrast it with
Shinto music?
• May we find equivalents to court music in the
West? Why or why not?
• How have women been regarded in musical
performance in the West in comparison or in
contrast to Japanese women from Edo to the
twentieth-century?