Group+Three+--+Japanese+Music

=    = =    = =Japanese Music    =

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=<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">     = <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">
 * The Evolution of Japanese Music in Western Consciousness**

Since the first Westerners visited Japan in the sixteenth century, Japanese music has experienced an evolution in the minds of Western critics and consumers. In reality, the music has not conformed to the Westerners’ ear as much as the latter has opened to the nuanced style. In order to appreciate Japanese music it has been necessary for Western listeners to alter the criteria by which they have traditionally understood and appreciated music. The underlying reason that Western audiences have been so reluctant to take to Japanese music is precisely the reason it should be studied: It is vastly different from Western music. Over the past five centuries, Europeans have gradually adopted a more open mind toward other cultural traditions, and as a result, Japanese music is finally being appreciated for its unique qualities.

In 1583, the Jesuit missionary Allessandro Vaglignano remarked upon visiting Japan, “Listening to their music was a great torture for us” (Eppstein 191). In “From Torture to Fascination: Changing Western Attitudes to Japanese Music,” Ury Eppstein explains, “[The missionaries’] aesthetic criteria were typically European, making them look down in a patronizing and often arrogant way on what, to them, was a primitive and inferior culture” (192). Eppstein goes on to say that their criticism “resulted from the fact that this music did not conform to the European standards by which they invariably measured other cultures” (192). Criticism of Japanese music often pointed to its lack of melody, dissonance, and nasal singing. In fact, “Since Japanese music is based on pentatonic or tetrachordal patterns unfamiliar to Western ears,” it is difficult for Westerners to perceive its melodies (195). “Moreover, the term ‘dissonance’ is purely European, reflecting a European’s impression of unaccustomed sounds, but not corresponding to any Japanese musical concept” (195). The expectation that Japanese music should conform to European aesthetic standards continued until 1867, when Ernest Mason Satow, a British secretary conceded that, “rather than blaming Japanese music for offending European sensibilities, the European ear needs to become accustomed to the different sounding intervals” (196). His remained a minority opinion for decades.

Unlike their scholarly counterparts, European composers, including Giacomo Puccini, looked favorably upon Japanese music, if only “in order to respond to the taste for exoticism” that was fashionable in the late nineteenth century (210). The Romantic period of Western classical music featured the occasional use of pentatonic modes, which mimic the Japanese tone scale; quotes of popular Japanese melodies; and imitations of Japanese instruments.

Finally, in the 1950s and 60s, composers like Oliver Messiaen, Benjamin Britten, and Karlheinz Stockhausen fell “deeply in love” with Japanese music. Germany’s Stockhausen, who “usually has very little positive to say about any kind of music but his own,” remarked:

“Until my generation all Oriental music was labelled in Europe as exotic music. This involved a notion of strangeness, but also a somewhat arrogant notion of inferiority – regarding structure – in comparison with European music. Only my generation has discovered the music of other cultures – namely the Japanese and Indian – as music that on another level is just as highly developed as the European” (214).

Previously viewed as an exotic curiosity at best, and at worst, ridiculed, Japanese music is now heralded as a unique and inspiring art form, which is not at all inferior to Western music. It is only vastly, wonderfully different.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">    <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> **Instrumentation**    <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">     <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">     <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">    <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> The instruments used in //hogaku//, or traditional Japanese music, are unique to Japan. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">    <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">In “That ‘Howling Music. Japanese Hogaku in Contrast to Western Art Music,” Britten Dean explains.

"The most common instruments of Japanese art music, such as the //koto// (13-string zither), //shakuhachi// (five-hole bamboo flute), //shamisen// (three-string banjo), or the //ko-tsuzumi// (shoulder drum), have no close western parallels; they look different and sound different from anything on a Western concert stage (148)."

The instrumentation in Japanese music makes the most obvious difference to listeners, but the musical compositions themselves are profoundly different in many ways as well.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">
 * Composition**

The pentatonic scale, monophony, noise, and the use of repetition are a few of the characteristics that distinguish //hogaku// from European classical music. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Western music utilizes a seven-note, heptatonic scale. Although many possible arrangements of whole and half tones exist within the heptatonic scale, the major and minor scales are most commonly used. Generally, the major scale lends a joyful quality to musical compositions, while the minor scale results in a more melancholy feel. The result of this dichotomy in Western consciousness is a feeling of solemnity associated with the pentatonic scale, which is similar to the minor heptatonic scale. For this reason, a Western listener would immediately perceive melancholy to be a prominent feature of Japanese music, even if the rhythm or lyrics are upbeat (Dean 150-152).

Another effect of the pentatonic scale on Western audiences is an absence of what is called a “leading tone,” a half-step leading up to the tonal center. If a composition is in the key of G, the leading tone in the heptatonic scale is F-sharp. However, in a pentatonic scale, the leading tone is F. Without the landmark F-sharp, a Western listener unaccustomed to Japanese music would be unable to sense any progression in the composition and thus, might think Japanese music to be “aimless” (152).

If, however, a person is aware of these structural differences, such misconceptions can be avoided.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">    <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> An understanding of Japanese music offers insight into Japanese philosophical thought as well. One component of Japanese philosophy is the harmony of human beings with nature. In //Yogaku: Japanese Music in the Twentieth Century//, Luciana Galliano explains, “In Japanese music, all environmental sounds are expected to be intrusive and ever present” (8). Noises that would be considered superfluous and undesirable in Western classical music are essential to Japanese musical performances. An example is the //shamisen//’s lowest string, which produces a “constant, metallic buzzing sound” called //sawari// (7).

“The Japanese think of time as being circular and made up of single instants all of which exist simultaneously, and of reality as being of a transitory and impermanent nature” (Galliano 12). Unlike European musical compositions, which generally have a distinct beginning, middle, and climactic ending, the repetition in Japanese music creates “a sort of suspended stillness, of a self-contained instant that is perfect and complete” (13). Buddhist philosophy teaches adherents that the only true reality is that of the present moment, and Japanese music affirms this belief (13).

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">
 * Performance**

The subtle nuances of voice and instruments require natural acoustics wherever traditional Japanese music is performed (Blasdel). Amplification detracts from the organic tones and background noises that are integral to the music. However, natural acoustics promote the “appreciation of subtle differences among individual instruments” (Dean 149).

The following video depicts the last section of a Kabuki play called "Sagi Musume" starring Tamasaburo Bando.

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 * Works Cited**

Blasdel, Christopher. "The Japanese Performing Arts: An Overview." 2001. 4 Dec. 2008. <http://www2.gol.com/users/yohmei/news/Performingarts.htm#Music>

Dean, Britten. “That Howling Music. Japanese Hogaku in Contrast to Western Art Music.” Monumenta Nipponica 40.2 (1985): 147-162. JSTOR. San Diego State University Library, San Diego, CA. 12 Sep. 2008 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2384717>

Eppstein, Ury. “From Torture to Fascination: Changing Western Attitudes to Japanese Music.” Japan Forum 19.2 (2007): 191-216.

Galliano, Luciana. //Yogaku: Japanese Music in the Twentieth Century//. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1998.

Malm, William P. //Traditional Japanese Music and Musical Instruments//. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1959.