Hello, you guys! It’s been a while, but I am finally back. Unfortunately, this will be my last post on The World's Ensemble. The last place that we will be visiting today is Japan. Japan is a country that I really would like to visit someday so I decided to make my last blog be about a country that really interests me.
Japan has many music genres but the first one that I will be
talking about today is classical music. Classical music has strong influences
from China. According to Britannica.com, evidence of dotaku bronze bells that
date back to 300 BCE resembled Chinese metalwork. In the sixth century AD,
Japan was introduced to Buddhism through Korea which led to the shomyo genre.
Shomyo is Buddhist chanting music that resembles more with the Chinese based on
the notes, scales, melodies, and rhythms. These chants start off with a soloist
who sings an opening phrase establishing a pitch for the other monks to join
him. Buddhist chants that are called syomyo have two Chinese scales called the
ryo and the ritsu and usually start off slow and speed up towards the end of
the song.
Another Japanese folk genre is gagaku. This genre is different from shomyo includes dancing and singing. This genre was performed in the Imperial court for many centuries and set the idea of nobility for other art forms such as poetry and folk music. Gagaku has three parts called saibara, komagaku, and togaku. Saibara is Shinto religious music and komagaku and togaku come from Korea and China. The instruments that are used in gagaku are the oboe (hichiriki), transverse flute (ryuteki) and the mouth organ (sho) and percussion instruments called the kakko which is a small drum, shoko, and taiko which were all about of the ensemble style in the 19th century. The classical dance in gagaku is called bugaku and it has four styles: civil dances, warrior dances, running dance, and dances for children. At the end of the 12 century during the Kamakura period gagaku was rarely performed in the courts and were performed in the aristocrats’ homes.
Bunraku is a traditional theatre genre that uses puppets to
narrate a story. This name comes from a puppet master, Uemura Bunrakuken, who
founded the theatre of Osaka. This theatre is where puppet performances were held.
Puppets are half live sized dolls that range from one foot to four feet. The
puppet masters dress in all black to make themselves invisible while
they are moving the dolls. There are one principal operator and one or two
assistants that help the operator to help make the puppet's facial expressions.
There is one narrator who speaks for all the puppets. There is also music
accompanying the performance that paces the narration. Stories are often on
themes of love, heroic legends, and tales based on historical events. You can
still see the performance of Bunraku. These days, they are performed in modern
theaters and have one performance in the afternoon and one in the evening. You
can watch Bunraku in the National Bunraku Theatre in Osaka or in the National Theatre
in Tokyo.
Now for something a little more modern, J-pop. In the Taisho
Period which lasted from 1912 to 1926, Japanese popular music received its
influence from Jazz, Blues and strings and the harmonica. Japanese composers mixed
these Western elements into their songs using the pentatonic scale. In the
1960s, rock music was mixed in with Japanese music. Artists translated American
music into Japanese but then they got inspired to write their own lyrics. In
the 1980s, female idols came to arise, and in the 90s Japan had the second-largest music industry in the world.
I hope you all enjoyed learning about Japan and the other
country that I posted about. It has been a pleasure creating this blog and I
enjoyed reading all of your comments. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of
the year.
Sources:
“Bugaku.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/bugaku-Japanese-dance.
“Bunraku-Za.” World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts, 30 May 2016, wepa.unima.org/en/bunraku-za/.
“Bunraku.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/Bunraku.
“Bunraku.” Japanese Puppet Theater, www.japan-guide.com/e/e2092.html.
“Gagaku.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/gagaku.
“Gagaku.” Gagaku - New World Encyclopedia, www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Gagaku.
“History Of Japanese Music.” Audio Network, www.audionetwork.com/content/the-edit/inspiration/history-of-japanese-music.
“Predominant Musical Traits.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/Japanese-music/Predominant-musical-traits.
“Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan.” Buddhist Music of Japan, www.personal.utulsa.edu/~john-powell/Buddhist_Music/Japan.html.
