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

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Played:

* Bachi/plectrum used to pluck, made from ivory 
* Hits skin of resonator to create another timbre
* Extra skin will protect face of resonator 

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Elements:

* Associated with emotion
* Used for 
* Narrative songs
* Puppet theater 
* Kabuki theater
* Lyrical songs - jiuta
* Chamber music (san kyo ku)

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Example: Yoshida brothers from Hokkaido

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Koto

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

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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

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* 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

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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

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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

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* 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

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* Calm and precise
* Duple meter
* Follows jo-ha-kyu form
* Slow to fast
* Compositions may last from 5 minutes to more than 20 minutes