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The history of Japanese music begins in
the 8th century. Music styles in Japan, like those of the
West, have changed frequently in the last thousand years.
Common characteristics found throughout this period, however,
are as follows: (1) scales with five-tone (pentatonic) cores
plus two auxiliary tones; (2) a chamber music sound ideal
in which instruments can be heard separately rather than merged
as in Western orchestras; (3) a maximum effect from a minimum
amount of sound material; (4) music closely allied to verbal
expression; (5) aural learning with limited use of detailed
notations; (6) through-composed forms rather than forms that
repeat or return to previous themes or sections; (7) an emphasis
on melodic or rhythmic tension, with little harmony in the
Western sense; (8) the use of melodic or rhythmic stereotyped
patterns that tend to move in progressions, producing a sense
of forward motion like that created in Western music by chords;
and (9) a greater interest in the combination of standard
materials than in "originality." Examples of these
characteristics are described in the following survey.
The ryo and ritsu scales are derived from Buddhist chant (shomyo)
and court music (gagaku), the first known sources of Japanese
music. They originally came from Korea and China and gradually
became "Japanized."
Ryo, like the yo scale of Japanese folk music, is close to
Chinese models, whereas ritsu seems more Japanese in character.
The in scale is commonly found in folk songs and in music
after 1500.
Although gagaku orchestras include wind, string, and percussion
instruments, their sound is similar to chamber music. The
melody is played by flutes (ryuteki or komabue) and oboes
(hichiriki); but the tone qualities and versions of the melody
played by those two instruments are not the same, and thus
they are heard separately. The mouth organ (sho) plays tone
clusters to create another texture. The 13-stringed zither
(koto) and the pear-shaped lute (biwa) play stereotyped patterns
that mark off musical phrases, as do the sounds of the large
hanging drum (tsuri-daiko), a small gong (shoko), and a horizontal
drum struck on two heads (the kakko or the san-no tsuzumi).
Flute and oboe notation consists of fingerings and dots to
indicate basic percussion phrase markings, plus mnemonic syllables
(soga). The parts are learned by singing the syllables before
actually playing the instrument.
Maximum effect from minimum material is illustrated by the
14th- and 15th-century NO DRAMA. It uses few actors plus a
unison chorus (ji) and an ensemble (hayashi) of flute (nokan),
shoulder drum (ko tsuzumi), hip drum (o tsuzumi), and, in
dance sections, a stick drum (taiko). The flute signals formal
divisions or adds color while the drums play stereotyped patterns
(tetsuke) in set orders.
When accompanying singing, these instruments also help to
mark off the three-part divisions of a line that relate to
the basic jo (introduction), ha (scattering), and kyu (rushing)
formal design found in much Japanese music. No music, like
most Japanese forms, is totally set and without improvisation.
The yo and in scales appear frequently after 1500 as do solo
instrumental pieces for the shakuhachi (end-blown flute) and
the koto. Sankyoku, a genre of chamber music, is played by
the koto combined with a plucked three-stringed samisen (or
shamisen) and a shakuhachi or a bowed lute (kokyu). A vocal
part is common, and even purely instrumental pieces tend to
have evocative titles such as "Sound of the Deer."
In the puppet theater (bunraku) a narrative shamisen music
is essential, whereas the KABUKI theater contains both narrative
and lyrical genres, particularly kiyomoto and nagauta. Each
genre uses a different shamisen, voice quality, and performer.
In dance pieces the singers and shamisen combine with the
hayashi instruments of No drama. Off-stage music (geza) also
adds color and meaning to the drama.
Since 1868, Western and traditional music (hogaku) have existed
together in Japan. Public school music is primarily Western-oriented,
although interest in traditional styles has increased since
the mid-20th century.
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