Types of Japanese's instrumental music genres

Shakuhachi

Appearance: Vertical flute made from bamboo

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Elements:

Timbre- Pure tone with no over tunes. Sounds breathy. Can partially cover finger holes

Associated with spirituality

Originally played by Buddhist monks (kumosos)

Used as a club by komuso spies

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Shamisen

Appearance: Derived from the sanxian, it is a long necked lute with a wooden box covered in cat or dog skin. It is portable, breaks into three parts that can be put together. The strings are made from silk or nylon

Played:

• Bachi/plectrum used to pluck, made from ivory

  • Hits skin of resonator to create another timbre

  • Extra skin will protect face of resonator

Elements:

• Associated with emotion

• Used for

  • Narrative songs

  • Puppet theater

  • Kabuki theater

  • Lyrical songs - jiuta

  • Chamber music (san kyo ku)

Example: Yoshida brothers from Hokkaido

Koto

Appearance: Zither with 13 stirngs made from silk or nylon.

Played:

• Person sits on the floor, how depends on the school, can be uneven off the floor

• Played by picks on the thumb and first and second finger, made from ivory, bone or bamboo

• Pluck on right side, left side press down and ornaments

• Left hand makes other pitches

Koto continues - Sokyoku and Kumiuta

* Sokyoku - popular koto music of Edo period  
* May be purely instrumental or have a vocal part
* Danmono - solo koto music (instrumental)
* Each section call a “dan” 
* Variation form
* Basic theme is presented 
* Then variation on that theme in each following section
* Each section is called a dan can last 64 beats in length 
* New material can introduced 
* Kumiuta - song cycle accompanied by koto (vocal)
* Uta -verse 
* Duple meter 

Koto continues - sankyoku

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* Used in sankyoku - chamber music 
* shakuhachi , shamisen and koto 
* Can be instrumental or also have vocal 
* If combo, normally has 3 sections 
* Begins with song, instrumental interlude, song or song, instrumental interlude, song, instrumental interlude, song (extended form )
* Function of instruments 
*  Koto: plays main melody 
* Shamisen, shakuhachi: follow contour of the melody, adding small variation as they play, heterophonic manner
* Shamisen or koto player can sing 

Gagaku

• Ancient orchestral court music of Japan

• Established in 6th century

• Roots traced back to China

  • Where ancient court orchestras went to korea then japan

Gagaku insruments

Instruments

• Da-Daiko

  • Huge drum

  • Ensemble will have 2 of these

  • Struck by 2 thick sticks

  • Only in dance pieces to accent music

• Tsuri-daiko

  • Drum with two heads

  • Suspended

  • Struck with two sticks

  • Marks off larger phrases in music

• Kako

  • Two heads

  • Played horizontally

  • Stuck with thing sticks

• San-no-tsuzumi

  • Two heads

  • Played horizontally

  • Only one head is struck

  • Korea origin

• Shoko

  • Suspend bronze gong

  • played with two sticks

  • Stuck on the first beat of each measure

• Sho

  • Mouth organ

  • 17 reed pipes made of bamboo that fits into the base

  • Use circular breathing

  • Provide harmonic function, can play chords

• Hichiriki

  • Double reed

  • Made from bamboo

  • Has nine holes

  • Came from china

  • Tone quality, very penetrating an strong

  • Center of the gagaku ensemble

• Ryuteki

  • Transverse flute

  • made of bamboo

  • Chinese origin

• 2 other flute which will play heterophonic style. Basically copies Hichiriki with slight variation

Chordophones

• Biwa

  • Pear shaped lute

  • Small plectrum

  • Marks passage of time through aregios

• Gaku-so

  • 13 stringed zither, predecessor of koto

  • Player plucks using bare fingers or picks

  • Left side does not get pressed down

Types of gagaku

• Togaku - music if Chinese or Indian origin

  • Kako is leader of ensemble

  • Can be performed as kangen or bugaku

• Komagaku - Music of korean, manchurian, or indigenous origin

  • San-no-tsuzumi leads the ensemble

  • Only performed as Bugaku

• Kangen - instrumental music

• Bugaku - court dance and accompaniment

Gagaku style

• Calm and precise

• Duple meter

• Follows jo-ha-kyu form

  • Slow to fast

• Compositions may last from 5 minutes to more than 20 minutes