Classical Japanese Koto Music - Izumi-Kai Original Instrumental Group - Rokudan

From the liner notes:

"Japan owes its music, as its culture in general, to the Chinese. Not only, however, have the Japanese actively developed this heritage, but they have also preserved many elements of older Chinese music which have been lost in its home country.
The music of the Japanese can be divided into main categories which correspond to the sacred and secular fields of Western music. In the former category we find: (a) Gagaku. This is the ancient Chinese temple music which was introduced into Japan around A.D. 600 and which marks the beginning of Japanese musical history. It is orchestral music, performed by small shawms (hichiriki), flutes (shakuhachi), mouth organs (sho), lutes (biwa), drums, and gongs. - (b) Ka(n)gura. This is the indigenous Japanese temple (Shinto) music which is used today for the most solemn worship. It originated in the 13th century when Japan became conscious of its aboriginal culture, and may well contain elements of a tradition prior to the Chinese influence. Today it is played on the koto and flutes. It is a recitative confined to a few tones. To the same category belongs the Saibara songs, autochthonous songs used at the Emperor's court and executed by a soloist, a small group of singers, together with sho, hichiriki, and fuye (flute). - (c) Halfway between sacred and secular is Nogaku, or No. This is a musical play which may be compared to the liturgical drama of the Middle Ages with which it was coincidental in rise (c. 1000-1200). The performance of the No is strictly traditional, restrained, ceremonial, with idealized action and typified characters (the warrior, etc.). The music is a very ancient type of recitation (said to be of Buddhistic origin), moving in small intervals of somewhat uncertain intonation, including numerous Oriental ornamentations (portamento, tremolo, vibrata), dramatic and emotional, and quickly varying in speed and mood. The singer is sometimes accompanied by flutes and small drums.
The secular music as it exists today originated in the 16th to 18th century. It is fresh and lively, strongly rhythmical, and is played chiefly on the samisen and koto. It includes operatic music, instrumental chamber music, and vocal music. Within the field of operatic music (Katarimono) the Japanese distinguish between a great number of types according to subject-matter, social standards, etc. For instance, Ithyu-busi is an aristocratic type which, in a way, may be compared (socially) to the French opera of Lully; whereas Gidayu is "music for the merchant," i.e., a popular opera or operetta, rather noisy and full of cheap effects. The chamber music (frequently instrumental and vocal combined) is the most interesting field of Japanese music. A favored form, which dates back to the 18th century, is the Jiuta. It consists of an opening Song (s), an instrumental piece (I), and a final song (S). Sometimes the scheme is broadened to a rondo-like arrangement: S I S I S. Another form of special interest is the Danmono. These are melodic variations on a theme of 7 or 8 measures, for the koto alone. Another type of 18th-century chamber music is the Sankyoku, performed on the samisen, koto, and shakuhachi. Kumi are pieces for voice and koto.

Japanese music, like Chinese, is practically always in duple time. However, the phrases are frequently of irregular length (five or seven measures), in contrast to the more strictly "regular" scheme of Chinese music. The rhythms provided by the drums are in those peculiar arrangements also found in Hindu, Javanese, Arabic music which, for the European ear, obscure the fundamental time and beat.

Although Japanese music, as all Oriental music, is essentially monophonic, it frequently includes certain "polyphonic" elements. The rhythm of the drums is markedly independent from - in fact, operating against - that of the singers or players of melodic instruments. The music for voice and koto shows heterophonic treatment, frequently with a peculiar technique of anticipation, the koto playing the chief notes of the vocal melody just one eighth-note before it appears in the voice or vice versa. On the koto, "harmonies" such as g - d, g - db, g - b - c', etc.are used sparingly.

The most important instrument of Japanese art-music is the koto, the Japanese variety of the Chinese ch'in. Other instruments directly taken over from China are the sho (Chinese sheng), the biwa (Chinese pip'a). More strictly indigenous instruments are the samisen, a guitar used by street singers and geishas; the hichiriki, an oboe (not a flute) with a characteristic metal disk encircling the mouthpiece; the kokyu, similar in shape to the samisen, but bowed; and the shakuhachi, a long flute of ancient origin which calls for an especially difficult technique of blowing. "

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Music

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