THE MUSIC OF JAPAN

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THE MUSIC OF JAPAN
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Traditional Japanese music genres have long
histories but have changed little in hundreds of
years
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In a modern world, it could be perceived as
stagnation, but it is in fact the reflection of
the Japanese value of stability
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Performances are uniform with great decorum
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Music types include court music, musical drama,
chamber music, and chant
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The music is primarily pentatonic with auxiliary
pitches
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Key Concepts
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In Japan, maintaining tradition is important
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Generally, in comparison to Japan, how does our
culture regard the performance and listening of
music 1,000, or even 500-years-old?
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There is a connection between musical genres and
social class
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Musical instruments and styles are linked to
gender
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There are layers of activity in ensemble music
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Great emphasis is placed on subtle
differentiations of timbre and ornamentation
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Japanese music is sensitive to tempo
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Kabuki
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According to popular history, kabuki was first
performed in 1596 by a female Shinto dancer
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Making use of elaborate stage equipment, scenery,
costumes, and properties, kabuki also relies on
stock character types and gestures
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Kabuki developed at the same time as Europeans
were making their first experiments with opera
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Historically, are the roles of women in Japanese
music the same or different compared to the West?
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Kabuki Nagauta music from the play Pojoji
Textbook CD1, track 24
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Bunraku
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Bunraku puppet theater developed in Osaka around
the same time as kabuki
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Each of the wooden puppets is manipulated by
three puppeteers
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Narration, both sung and spoken, is provided by a
narrator/chanter
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How may we account for the lack of musical puppet
theater in the West? What might be in its
place?
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Noh theater
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Noh theater developed during a time of continuous
military strife
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Plays can be classified according to type
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The stately vocal music may be in the form of
heightened speech or melodic aria
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Excerpt from Noh play Hagoromo (The Robe of
Feathers). Textbook CD1, track 25
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Have you seen any operas or musicals in Calgary?
What did you think of them? How can these be
compared to the development of Japanese genres
such as noh and kabuki?
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Religious traditions
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Shinto is a loose indigenous agglomeration of
local and regional cults
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Buddhist chant, called shomyo, is performed by a
male chorus in responsorial style
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Concert music
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Popular koto music may be either a song cycle or
a solo
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Rokudan No Shirabe Textbook CD1, track 26
performed as sankyoku
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The koto part is said to be the meat,the
shamisen part, the bone, and the shakuhachi
part, the skin
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One of the most famous sokyoku koto pieces is
called Chidori
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Chidori Textbook CD 2, track 1 performed as
sankyoku with voice
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Gagaku
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Gagaku is Japanese court music
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The large ensemble consists of percussion,
strings, and winds
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Gagaku is characterized by its serenity
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Netori Etenraku in Hyojo CD 2, track 2
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Are there Canadian equivalents to court music?
Why or why not?
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Summary