Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0037/00371.txt

Text File | 1993-07-27 | 18KB | 324 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00371}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Japan
Music}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{International Society for Educational Information, Inc.}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Japan, Washington DC}
$Subject{music
japanese
dance
kabuki
noh
theater
japan
songs
classical
western}
$Date{1989}
$Log{}
Title:       Japan
Book:        The Japan of Today
Author:      International Society for Educational Information, Inc.
Affiliation: Embassy of Japan, Washington DC
Date:        1989

Music

     Nearly every evening Japan's major cities play host to a large number of
musical performances in concert halls that range in size from huge auditoriums
capable of seating 2,000 people to more intimate 100-seat halls. In addition
to Western classical music (including opera), rock, jazz, and Japanese popular
music concerts regularly attract full houses. Japanese traditional music,
meanwhile, continues to be performed and to maintain a special place in the
hearts of the Japanese. This coexistence of Western and traditional Japanese
styles gives the music world of present-day Japan a fascinating complexity not
seen in most Western countries.

Japanese traditional music

     Japanese traditional music , which developed in close relation with
drama, dance , and other arts, is characterized by a predominance of vocal
over instrumental music.

Gagaku

     Gagaku, the ancient court music of Japan, is played by an ensemble of
Japanese wind, string, and percussion instruments, including the yokobue (a
transverse flute), the sho (a cylindrical, standing instrument made from 17
bamboo tubes, each having a single reed), the so (a 13-stringed plucked
instrument that is the predecessor of the popular Japanese koto, which is
similar to a zither), the biwa (a pear-shaped instrument with four strings),
and taiko (drums). Gagaku is divided into instrumental, dance, and recitative
music. Though it resembles a Westernstyle orchestra, the central element of
the gagaku ensemble is its wind section.

The music of noh

     Noh is a classical theatrical form that has its origins in the fourteenth
century. A noh troupe consists of the tachikata, performers who don masks,
act, and dance, and the hayashikata, musicians who are in charge of beating
time and intensifying the emotional atmosphere of the play. The noh wind and
percussion ensemble comprises the nokan (a vertical flute) and tsuzumi (small
hand drums). Before striking a beat on their instruments, the drummers voice
swooping shouts. The emphasis on timing is one of the characteristics of
Japanese traditional music.

The development of common people's music

     Gagaku was the music of the nobility, and noh was patronized by the
samurai. During the seventeenth century, when Japan entered a long period of
isolation, there developed a music of the common people, represented by the
shamisen (a three-stringed plucked instrument) and the koto. The shamisen is
used to accompany joruri, narrative pieces that emphasize the lyrics over the
melody, and nagauta, songs primarily concerned with the melody. The music of
string instruments like the shamisen and the koto, as well as the shakuhachi
(a vertical bamboo flute), was fostered by an artistic sensibility quite
different from that which gave rise to Western music for the violin and cello
or for the flute and other woodwind instruments.

Folk songs

     Japanese folk songs are classified according to the situation in which
they are sung or the function of the song. The first main category consists of
labor songs, including rice-planting, grass-cutting, and other songs related
to agriculture, songs related to fishing, and songs related to transportation,
such as boatmen's and herdsmen's songs. A second category includes songs for
festivals and celebrations, such as songs to welcome the gods before religious
rituals, songs to accompany the bridal procession to the house of the groom,
and New Year's songs. A third category consists of lullabies and other
children's songs.

     The shamisen and the shakuhachi are sometimes used to accompany these
folk songs. Major changes in customs and life style in recent decades have
weakened the social foundation of folk songs, however, and they are now
performed mainly by professional folk singers and continued as an artistic
genre rather than as an essential part of the people's life.

Other types of music

Western classical music

     In addition to Japanese traditional music and folk songs, the entire
range of Western classical music is practiced and performed in Japan. An
increasing number of Japanese performers are receiving top honors at renowned
international competitions, such as the Chopin International Competition for
Pianists and the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium prize for violinists and pianists.
Likewise, a growing number of Japanese performers have built a reputation for
themselves abroad. In the world of opera, soprano Azuma Atsuko, who sings at
the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Deutsche Opera Berlin, and elsewhere,
and Hayashi Yasuko, who is based in Milan, are active prima donnas on the
international stage. Iwaki Hiroyuki, the senior conductor of the NHK Symphony
Orchestra, Japan's oldest orchestra, is the chief conductor of the Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra, and Ozawa Seiji, the chief conductor of the New Japan
Philharmonic Orchestra, is also a music director at the Boston Symphony
Orchestra.

     There are nine-full time orchestras in Tokyo, all of which give regular
performances. The programs span the baroque, classical, romantic and
contemporary periods-from the music of Bach to the symphonies of Mozart,
Beethoven, Schumann, ,and Mahler, and Debussy and Ravel's works for
orchestra, as well as ballet and opera. Japanese orchestras also give
overseas performances of recent works by contemporary Japanese composers.

     In the past musical activity tended to be concentrated in Tokyo, but
these days it extends nationwide. Hiroshima, Kyoto, Osaka, Sapporo, and other
major cities now have full-time orchestras, and a variety of musical festivals
are held throughout the country. Moreover, the number of foreign performers
visiting Japan continues to rise each year.

Activities of Japanese composers

     In addition to pieces based on the standard forms and styles of Western
classical music, Japanese composers write a number of works for Japanese
instruments, or for a combination of Japanese and Western instruments.
Ensembles consisting only of Japanese instruments perform Japanese
contemporary music to audiences in and outside Japan. Takemitsu Toru, one of
Japan's most representative composers, has written not only purely orchestral
works like Textures, which employs avant-garde techniques, but also
commemorative works like November Steps for orchestra, biwa, and shakuhachi.
In addition, Moroi Makoto, who has experimented with electronic music, also
composed Taiwa Godai, a piece for two shakuhachi.

     Since the 1970s works for taiko or for taiko and orchestra have also been
composed. In the 1980s composers have looked back even further, and thanks to
the activities of a number of Japanese, and also Western, composers, gagaku
and music for the sho have experienced a revival.

Popular music

     Just as Japanese traditional music exists alongside Western classical
music, so Japanese and Western styles coexist in the realm of popular music,
too. Japanese popular music, called kayokyoku, embraces pieces based on the
distinct scales of traditional Japanese music, exemplified by enka, as well as
a genre labeled "new music," which features tunes that have been built on the
scales of Western music. "New music" has little Japanese influence and stands
in contrast to enka, which is based on Japanese musical scales, with
improvised grace notes and vibrato added that have their roots in the music of
noh.

     Though less popular than kayokyoku, rock and jazz also have fairly large
followings and have had an impact on the other genres of popular music.
"Technopops," a recently developed genre of music that is played on the
synthesizer, has prompted the construction of rooms and buildings that can
accommodate its unique acoustics.

Performing Arts

     The history of performing arts in Japan is distinguished by the
coalescence of dance, drama, and music. An important feature of this branch
of culture today is the survival of many artistic forms with their roots in
different eras in the past. The field of theater, for example, includes, in
historical order, bugaku (court dance and music), noh and kyogen (a type of
comic drama), bunraku (puppet theater), kabuki, shingeki (literally, new
theater), and musicals.

Theater

Classical theater

     Classical theater in Japan in general consists of noh and kyogen,
bunraku, and kabuki. Bugaku is still performed in some temples, but it is now
more associated with dance than with drama.

     Noh and kyogen: The popular dramatic form called noh has its roots in
sarugaku (literally, monkey music), which developed from about the eighth
century through the integration of dance associated with agriculture,
acrobatics, and other spectacles. Sarugaku was transformed into noh in the
fourteenth century. The outstanding figures in noh's early years were the
actor and playwright Kan'ami (1333-1384) and his son, Zeami (1363-1443). In
particular, it was Zeami who perfected noh as it is known today: a stylistic
form of musical dance-drama in which the performers usually wear masks.

     The humorous aspect of sarugaku, meanwhile, survived as an independent
art and eventually came to be called kyogen, which traditionally was performed
in the intervals between noh plays. Staged at special theaters called
nogakudo, both noh and kyogen feature only male actors.

     Bunraku: The puppet theater as it is known today developed at the end of
the sixteenth century, when the shamisen, introduced from Okinawa about this
time, was combined with puppetry and joruri (narrative chanting). The famous
chanter Takemoto Gidayu (1651-1714) perfected joruri as an art and
collaborated with the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724) to produce
some masterpieces that are still enjoyed today. The puppet theater came to
be called bunraku during the nineteenth century, when the productions of a
promoter called Uemura Bunrakuken enjoyed overwhelming popularity. Like noh
and kyogen, bunraku is performed only by men.

     Kabuki: The first performances of kabuki were staged by a female troupe
at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but in 1629 the Tokugawa
Shogunate, worried about public morals, issued a proclamation prohibiting all
women from performing. From then until the Meiji period, Japan officially had
no female actors at all. Since it became necessary for men to perform female
parts in kabuki, there emerged a type of actor called onnagata (female
impersonator).

     Gradually dance gave way to drama as the most important aspect of kabuki,
and professional playwrights began to appear on the scene, the leading light
among them being Chikamatsu Monzaemon. In the eighteenth century puppet
theater plays like Kanadehon Chushingura were adapted for kabuki, and theaters
specially designed for kabuki began to take shape. One of the unique features
of performing arts in Japan is that each genre boasts its own special theater.

     In the Meiji era kabuki became more and more of a classical form of
drama, and few new works were written. Nevertheless, stars of the stage
emerged one after the other to breathe fresh life into the theater, and today
kabuki enjoys greater popularity than any other form of classical theater. In
recent years new plays and productions have been performed, and kabuki's
popularity has spread overseas. In 1988 kabuki performances took place in six
countries outside Japan: Australia, Canada, Egypt, Mexico, the Republic of
Korea, and the United States.

Contemporary theater

     Commercial theater: Entertainment companies in Japan engage in a wide
range of activities that include producing plays and musicals and staging them
in their own theaters, producing films and television programs, and operating
other amusement facilities. Collectively the theatrical performances produced
by these companies make up the so-called commercial theater.

     Commercial theater offers modern drama featuring well-known actors, plays
starring popular singers and classical drama, contemporary drama, and musicals
from other countries. These days kabuki also is produced by an entertainment
company. Recently department stores, insurance companies, and the like have
also been getting involved in the theatrical business, and there are now about
60 commercial theaters in Tokyo alone. Some of these theaters attract several
hundred  thousand people a month.

     Shingeki: Shingeki, which was born in the early twentieth century under
the influence of modern Western drama, is kept going today by about 50 troupes
made up of small numbers of like-minded people. Shingeki, which has always
been concerned mainly with realism, emphasizes the script of a play, in
contrast to classical Japanese theater, in which dance and music occupy
prominent roles. The Tsukiji Shogekijo theater and troupe, formed by the
writer and director Osanai Kaoru (1881-1928) in 1924, played an outstanding
role in the development of shingeki. Many shingeki troupes have emerged and
folded over the years; the oldest troupe still in existence is the Bungakuza,
which was established in 1937.

     Small-theater movement: In reaction to the realism of shingeki, a number
of small theatrical groups emerged in the second half of the 1960s under the
banner of surrealism. These troupes perform not only in established theaters
but almost anywhere-in tents, in warehouses, and in the open. Because they
emphasize visual effects as well as the script, and because they express
unique views of the world, these troupes have attracted a growing band of
followers outside Japan and frequently perform overseas.

     Musicals: Musicals have become exceedingly popular in Japan today, and
many performances of foreign productions like A Chorus Line and Les
Miserables take place, as well as original Japanese productions.

Dance

     Japanese traditional dance, which emerged in ancient times as an element
of religious ceremony, has developed over the centuries in close conjunction
with various genres of vocal and theatrical art. Japanese dance has
traditionally been divided into mai, generally distinguished by a restrained,
ceremonial quality, and odori, characterized by a more earthy, extroverted
type of movement.

Origins

     Mai, which literally means "revolving," is said to have its origin in
the movements of shrine maidens, who circled a ceremonial site holding sprigs
of the sacred sakaki tree and bamboo in a ritual intended to bring
tranquillity and well-being to the land. In time, as this ritual was repeated,
the actions and gestures by which the priestess signified divine possession
were formalized and evolved into a ritual dance performed on stage by a
priestess holding a fan. This, in turn, developed into the art of noh. Like
the ritual movements from which they evolved, noh and other mai dance genres
generally take the form of one or two performers circling the stage holding
a fan or similar prop in this manner.

     Odori, which literally means "jumping," traces its lineage to certain
sects of the Jodo (Pure Land) sect of Buddhism that spread rapidly among the
common people in the medieval period. The Jodo sect emphasized the repeated
chanting of a simple prayer (nenbutsu) by groups of followers, who sometimes
jumped about to the rhythm of the accompanying bell in a primitive kind of
dance called nenbutsu odori. Until the development of kabuki in the Edo
period, all odori was essentially this type of group dancing, the
participants keeping time to the music with little regard for symbolic or
literary meaning. Vestiges of this type of dancing can be seen today in the
bon odori folk dance of each region.

Development of kabuki dance

     Kabuki dance was originally classified as odori, since it drew on the
nenbutsu odori and used popular songs for accompaniment. It is said to have
begun in the early seventeenth century with the Kyoto performances of a troupe
of female dancers led by an attendant at Izumo Shrine. After 1629, however,
kabuki featuring female performers was forbidden by a government edict aimed
at preserving public morals. Kabuki then came to be performed by young boys
and subsequently - when the government forbade this too - by adult males. As
kabuki dance developed, this odori form gradually incorporated elements of
such mai genres as kusemai, or recitative dance, and various noh and kyogen
forms. At the same time it came to revolve around a dramatic plot and assumed
the theatrical form we are familiar with today.

     The term nihon buyo, or Japanese classical dance, generally refers to
kabuki dance and its derivatives, as distinct from the ancient and medieval
genres. Today there are upwards of 150 schools of classical dance that
transmit from generation to generation the artistic styles of accomplished
kabuki actors and dancers that emerged in each era