Introduction to Japanese Music

Week 1 - Gagaku

General Points

• Different development to European music

• Free and flexible rhythms

• Mostly vocal genres

• Polyphony rarely found

Nara Period: 710 - 794

Heian Period: 794 - 1185

Kamakura Period: 1185 - 1333

Muromachi Period: 1336 - 1573

Azuchi-Momoyama Period: 1568 - 1603

Edo Period: 1603 - 1868

Meiji Resotration: 1868

Music at the Court

• Music needed for rituals, ceremonies, festivals

• Shōmyō – Buddhist chanting

• Gagaku – music of the court

Left and Right

• The oldest extant orchestral music in the world?

• Tōgaku: music of the Left - Chinese

• Komagaku: music of the Right – Korean

• Bugaku: music with dance

• Kangen: instrumental music

The Ensemble

The Ensemble

• Hichiriki

• Ryuteki

• Shō

• Komabue

The Ensemble

• Koto

• Biwa

The Ensemble

• Kakko (san-no-tsuzumi)

• Shōko (ōshōko)

• Taiko (dadaiko)

Bugaku

• In the Heian period, dances were structured in pairs with a dance of the left and of the right

• Deliberately slow and reserved in movement

How is it Played?

• ‘It is often said that the kakko plays the role of conductor’ – not true?

• A complex co-relation between instruments

• ‘If the tempo is strict, it is not gagaku’

Form, Tempo

• Jo – Ha – Kyu

• Pieces begin with solo transverse flute

• End with a tōmete, or section in free rhythm

• Bugaku faster and more rhythmically strict

Melody, Theory

• Tōgaku often bi-modal or poly-modal

• Rhythms described by formuale:

‘haya-ya-hyōshi hyōshi-hachi’

• Use of Chinese seven-tone scales, Ryosen and Rissen

• Ryo (ryossen)

• Ritsu (rissen)

Shinto

• Kunibori-no-utamani

• Indigenous religious and ceremonial music

• Kagurabue, hichiriki, wagon, shakubyōshi

Other Gagaku forms

• Rōei

• Minamoto no Masanobu (920-93)

• Sung excerpts of Chinese poetry

• Saibara

• Share melodies with togaku, komagaku and folk songs

Saibara

• ‘Horse-tending music,’ or ‘Saibaraku’?

• Wind, strings and shakubyoshi drum

• Six pieces remain

Who plays music?

• Professional families of musicians and dancers from the Heian period

• ‘Gakke’ families

• Nobles also participated

Go-Shirakawa

• Emperor at the end of the Heian period (1155-85)

• Key figure in the Hōgen and Heiji rebellions, resulting in the establishment of a MinamotoShogun

• A great musician, who made a 20 volume collection of imayō texts and teachings.

Etenraku

• Exists on three modes, as essentially different pieces

• Hyōjō mode the most common

• Ki-sho-ten-ketsu form, something similar to

A-B-A

After the Heian Period…

• Much died out during the long period of warfare in the 15th and 16th centuries

• Gakke families fled Kyoto, traditions interrupted

• Saibara and rōei largely vanished

Notation and Transmission

• Shōga : mnemonic strings of syllables, indicating phrasing and pitch relations

• Largely oral transmission, with tablature collections

• Present-day gagaku united the three centres from the Edo period: Kyōto, Ōsaka, Nara

Writings and Sources

• Shinsen Ōjō-fu, Prince Sadayasu (920)

music notation for transverse flute

• Gagaku notation not published due to a lack of practicing musicians

• Meiji Sentei-fu (1876/88), standardized scores for complete repertoire

After the Heian Period…

• Emperor Ogimachi (1557-86) played a large part in restoring gagaku traditions

• Gagaku also found a place in other centres, such as Bizen province, under Mitsumasa

Post-Meiji Developments

• ‘Unchanged and unchanging’

• Kishimoto Yoshihide (1821-90)

• Toru Takemitsu, In an Autumn Garden (1973)

Melodic Theory

• Modern shō and biwa parts carry ancient Chinese melodies… ?

• Saibara melodies shared with tōgaku or komagaku cannot be heard… ?