I am going to give a report on Japanese music. I will be talking about different instruments,the early history of Japanese music,Japanese music from 1500 A.D to today and the description. At the end of my presentation there will be a piece music and a dance to go with the music. [not available for web]
I will have pictures of Japanese musical instruments. I will also have information to go with the pictures. [not available for web]
Instruments are divided into bass, woodwind, string, percussion and keyboard. Instruments such as the harp, lyre and various winds and drums used in European music were based on Oriental models. Many of these instruments are no longer used in the West, but Japanese instruments have not really changed in hundreds of years.
Orchestra (gagaku) music includes wind, string and percussion instruments. An ensemble (which is less formal) is made up of flute, hip drum, shoulder drum and stick drum. In the orchestra music in the flute and oboes play the melody together. The flute in ensemble signals divisions or adds simple colour while the drums play patterns in set orders.
Some people are not sure about some instruments. Like the piano which has strings so could be called a stringed instrument, and it has keys like in the keyboard family. Medievel trumpets and other brasslike instruments were made of wood, as in the woodwind family. Now the saxophone is made of metal but is not in the brass family.
One of the most common Japanese instruments is the gong. Unlike a bell, the gong resonates in the centre. The bell seems to resonate on the outside when you hit it. The gong originated in China and slowly moved to Korea and Japan.
The history of Japanese music begins in the 8th century. In Japan music styles have changed frequently in the last thousands of years. Common characteristics found throughout this period, however are as follows: (1) scales with five-tone (pentatonic) cores with auxiliary tones; (2) a chamber in which instruments can be heard separately rather than merged; (3) a maximum effect from a minimum amount of sound; (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 previous themes or sections;(7) an emphasis on melodic or rhythmic tension, with little harmony in the Western sense; (8)the use of melodic rhythmic or stereo type patterns that end 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"
Ever since 1868, the Western and the traditional music (hogaku)have existed together in Japan.
The music by 1500 obtained maximum effect from minimum material. They did not have many instruments or players, but everybody still loved to hear their music. The music was learned by singing it before actually playing it on your instrument. This helped the learner to get the feel of music.
The music of the shamisen is important in puppet theatre and Kabuki theatre which have both been popular in Japan for hundreds of years. A shamisen is a square banjo. In the puppet theatre a shamisen playing the narrative part is essential. In Kabuki theatre the shamisen accompanies the lyrics. Each of these uses a different shamisen, different style of singing, and a different "performer".
Buddhist chants and court music are the first known sources of Japanese music. They originally came from Korea and China and slowly changed to sound more like Japanese music of today. The two music scales originally played were the ryo and ritsu scales. Ryo is close to Chinese music, but ritsu seems more Japanese in its sound.
Since 1868 Western music has been gaining popularity in Japan. Public school music has increased again since the middle of this century.
Japanese music is slow usually 2/4 timen or 1/4 time. Japanese music usually has no singing except for the buddhist chants, and some others. The music flows with no repititions. Traditional Japanese music is folk or orchestra.
Sanyoku is well known, for it is oneof the rare kinds of music, that has vocal parts. It is a type of chamber music, that is played by koto and three-stringed shamisen.
Traditional Japanese music sounds weak compared to our faster music. We have different instruments or voices doing idfferent notes at the same time, but the Japanese don't. In a Japanese orchestra the melody is played by flutes and oboes, but the tones are no the same so you hear them sparately.
The music of teh Japanese folk ensemble, or hayashi, uses the flute and drums. They help to mark off tfeh introduction (jo), scattering (ha), and rushing (kyu) that are the normal way Japanese music is written.
Compared to Canadian music, Japanese music is very simple. We have many people singing in a group using harmony, but in Japanese music even if they have more than one person singing they still only sing the same notes as each other. We have chorus (playing things over again) in our songs, but Japanese never sing the same thing twice.
The gong originated in China.
Unlike the bell witch resonates
at the rim, the gong resonates
at the centre.
These are four members of the flute
family. Ranging from top to bottom (picture not shown)
they are- the piccolo
the standard 13 hole flute
the alto flute
the bass flute
The bass flute is rarely used in orchestras.
The lute is a chordiphone of the ancient origin.
It was a popular instrument in Renaissance
Europe and largely abandoned around 1750.
The zither is an ancient instrument.
It has strings runnign the entire length
of its reasonating sound board. The box
zither is shown.
The oboes, ranging from left to right (picture not shown)-
the standard oboe
the larger English horn
the oboe d'amore'
A double reed instrument invented in the
seventeenth century, it is valued for
its nasal tone quality.
The early history of Japanese music
Japanese music from 1500A.D. to today
The description of Japanese music
THE GONG
THE ZITHER
Bibliography