Introduction to Japanese Music

Week 11 – Folk Music

Min’yo

• Folk music of Japan

• Only coined at the start of the 20th century

• Over the centuries, not hugely distinct from popular song and other genres

Locality

• Songs are from a given locality

• Origin and location are of great importance

Transmission, Development

• Work songs to accompany tasks

• Moved with itinerant workers

• Transmitted through entertainers

• Rural to urban…

Urban min’yo

• Local songs important to urban workers

• Min’yo popular within cities

• Professional musical style

Musical style

• Usually two-beat rhythms, or free rhythm

• Instruments may follow vocal line, or play independent melodic material

• Backing singers may sing ‘refrain’

• A-B and A-B-A forms

Instruments

• Drums, flutes

• Shamisen (tsugaru-jamisen)

• Shakuhachi (fue / shinobue)

Scale

• The yo scale…

• Rarely sung with a clearly defined tonic

Modern min’yo

• Phases of increased or decreased popularity

• A formalized tradition

• Shin min’yo

Ryukyu Islands

Ryukyu Islands

• Folk song rooted in religious ritual

• Work songs, recreational songs

• Accompanied by sanshin

• The Okinawa scale: d – e/f# – g – a – c#

Ryukyu Islands

• Shin min’yo

• Fukuhara Choki (1903-81)

• Uta-sanshin

Ainu

• People of Hokkaido

• Musical expression

plays a part in society

Ainu

• Contrasts in timbre, dynamics, delivery etc., as well as pitch, are used for structural reasons

• Pitch, timbre and voice-production

• Rekuhkara

Ainu

• Yo scale

• Large vocal leaps

• Variety of vocal techniques

• Fixed tempo and metre

• Narrative songs – yukar

Ainu

• Instrumental music

• Mukkuri (mouth harp)

• Tonkori (5-string zither)

• Oki Kano (b. 1957)

Summary

• Varied folk music styles of Japan

• Min’yo

• Okinawan music

• Ainu music

• Shogetsu Watanabe, Japanese Folk Music (Lyrichord World, 2011)

• Takahashi Yujiro, Min’yo: Folk Song from Japan (Nimbus Records, 1999)