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Introduction to Japanese Music - Week 10
- 1. Introduction to Japanese Music Week 11 – Folk Music
- 2. Min’yo • Folk music of Japan • Only coined at the start of the 20th century • Over the centuries, not hugely distinct from popular song and other genres
- 3. Locality • Songs are from a given locality • Origin and location are of great importance
- 4. Transmission, Development • Work songs to accompany tasks • Moved with itinerant workers • Transmitted through entertainers • Rural to urban…
- 5. Urban min’yo • Local songs important to urban workers • Min’yo popular within cities • Professional musical style
- 6. Musical style • Usually two-beat rhythms, or free rhythm • Instruments may follow vocal line, or play independent melodic material • Backing singers may sing ‘refrain’ • A-B and A-B-A forms
- 7. Instruments • Drums, flutes • Shamisen (tsugaru-jamisen) • Shakuhachi (fue / shinobue)
- 8. Scale • The yo scale… • Rarely sung with a clearly defined tonic
- 9. Modern min’yo • Phases of increased or decreased popularity • A formalized tradition • Shin min’yo
- 10. Ryukyu Islands
- 11. Ryukyu Islands • Folk song rooted in religious ritual • Work songs, recreational songs • Accompanied by sanshin • The Okinawa scale: d – e/f# – g – a – c#
- 12. Ryukyu Islands • Shin min’yo • Fukuhara Choki (1903-81) • Uta-sanshin
- 13. Ainu • People of Hokkaido • Musical expression plays a part in society
- 14. Ainu • Contrasts in timbre, dynamics, delivery etc., as well as pitch, are used for structural reasons • Pitch, timbre and voice-production • Rekuhkara
- 15. Ainu • Yo scale • Large vocal leaps • Variety of vocal techniques • Fixed tempo and metre • Narrative songs – yukar
- 16. Ainu • Instrumental music • Mukkuri (mouth harp) • Tonkori (5-string zither) • Oki Kano (b. 1957)
- 17. Summary • Varied folk music styles of Japan • Min’yo • Okinawan music • Ainu music
- 18. • Shogetsu Watanabe, Japanese Folk Music (Lyrichord World, 2011) • Takahashi Yujiro, Min’yo: Folk Song from Japan (Nimbus Records, 1999)
Editor's Notes
- [Play Soran-bushi, Naxos]
- The term ’min’yo’ is a direct translation of the English ‘folk song,’ and only reached Japan at the start of the 20thC. Minzoku-geino is a term given to folk theatre, more than music, though there is an overlap. The term has retrospectively been applied to all folk song – often not well differentiated from popular song or common songs down the centuries in Japan. Originally, all song was folk song, aside from classical genres – only in the Edo period with the rise of Urban centres, and more clearly defined ‘popular’ music, did countryside music – which still shared influences with urban – start to seem like a separate entity. Introduction of the shamisen led folk music to turn into kouta, primarily with love songs and entertainment songs.
- Most importantly, songs are of a locality – very conscious of origin and place. [Play Esashi oiwake-bushi]
- Typical country folk, while ocassionally playing instruments or performing scenes, would mostly have work songs to accompany their daily chores. These spread and mvoed with workers around the countryside. Oral transmission led to great variance on recognisable tunes, or families of tunes. Geisha would have learned many songs, and transmitted them with shamisen accompaniment. Into the early 20thC, a largely rural population suddenly became industrialized and vastly urbanized. This naturally indicated a decline in folk and work songs. Yet there was a conscious effort to maintain or recreate local community.
- Urban workers hang on to their local songs as a ‘part of home’ Min’yo, naturally, therefore sees a considerable practicing body and fanbase within cities. New places to perform led to the collection and teaching of folk songs By becoming a professional music style, much folk song was formalized, and of course made more complex and virtuosic.
- Usually two-beat rhythms, but in dance pieces these beats can be stretched to give something more of a compound two-beat feel (6/8). Free rhythm often found in songs not for rhythmic accompaniment. Backing singers often to sing a ‘refrain’ of sorts Usually instruments follow the vocal line; sometimes, however, they may play independent melodic material, or continually loop a short melodic phrase. Intricate vocal ornamentation used. Usually exhibit A-B and A-B-A forms [Play Sadokesa]
- Shamisen, drums, flutes were not necessary, but used as much as time-keeping devices as anything else… Shamisen (tsugaru-jamisen) is used for accompaniment Shakuhachi, rarely found in villages, has become the common professional accompaniment for any free-rhythm piece (shadowing the vocal) Fue/shinobue (regular flute) is often used Taiko and other stick drums used, esp. for dance tunes. In dance songs, the flute may play very different parts melodically to the vocal; could this be a throwback to pre-noh folk arts? [Play Hanagasi Odori-uta]
- The yo mode is by far the most common – this is rarely sung with a clearly defined tonic, and any note may assume importance. (A more tetrachordal version of this is the ritsu mode). Songs also use the in scale (as well as yo)
- Min’yo goes through phases, to the present, of increased popularity. Old work songs are preserved in their original form by groups around the country. Imporivsation and bawdy or improper lyrics have disappeared from the now formalized min’yo traditions… Shin min’yo – new folk songs – first from the 1920s and 30s, then again from the 70s; songs written and played in traditional folk style, but newly composed. The latter use western ‘pentatonic’ major and minor, with tonic notes. These were also national, rather than local, in theme. Younger generations, influenced by American music of the 50s, now discard min’yo (as outdated and traditional) in favour of folku songu, american style folk with guitars and banjos.
- Ryuku islands have their own folk music; though controlled from Satsuma, they were allowed independence of society during the Edo period Okinawans (ryukyu islanders) have their own dialect and musical traditions
- Folk song rooted in religious ritual songs, for a good harvest etc. Gestures of the priestesses have turned into the basis of dance forms. Unaccompanied work songs also found, and recreational songs, all accompanied by sanshin. Many of their recognized melodies are unrelated to text, but can carry any text desired – originally an improvisatory practice. They use ritsu scales, but also the Okinawa scale which is (d-e/f#-g-a-c#); tonal centre moves between I and IV of the scale, while the seventh iss of an unstable pitch. [Play Okinawa – Spotify]
- Shin-min’yo – under the aegis of Fukuhara Choki (1903-81) – achieved far more success in Ryukyu than elsewhere; Okinawan music is now popular throughout Japan, using particular vocal styles, san-shin with rock group, up-tempo rhythms and the ‘Okinawa’ scale They also have a classical tradition of song accompanied by san-shin, known as uta-sanshin (these days includes flute, koto, stick drum, kokyu-like spike lute, multiple sanshins whose players also sing). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjtRNrT36QU&index=2&list=PLpOvAyFE3-2okhw5Owt86gvJckhT3PH5T https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApiDdUU02K0 – The Boom, shimu-uta
- A separate people who live in Hokkaido and nearby islands Ainu use musical expression a lot through their society, but have distinct songs also
- As well as pitches, Ainu use contrasts in timbre, dynamic, delivert etc. as structural ideas for melodies (how modernist!) Pitch/timbre/voice-production – though, perhaps by being observed, pitch seems to have become more important. Rekuhkara is the practice of singing into another’s mouth – a kind of throat singing,one the giver and one the reciever… Last practitioner died 1976 [Show video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ijAaLHBi18]
- They use the pentatonic minor scale, but often incorporate large vocal leaps An assortment of portamenti, falsetto switches and other vocal techniques are important Fixed tempo and metre to be found, many accompanied by hand-claps Most singing is solo, though they have group singing, rounds, call-and-answer… Narrative songs exist, in sacred / epic / prose forms… yukar [Play Ainu song - media player]
- They also have instrumental music, using a mouth harp (mukkuri) and 5-string zither (tonkori). Oki (Oki Kano) is a modern musician of Ainu music, plays the tonkori, guitar, percussion and sings. Mixes with reggae, dub, other musical styles; single with Kila in 2006 [Play topattumi]
- …? These are the folk musics of Japan The main islands begat imayo, sarugaku, kouta etc. – then the formalization of work songs and folk music into min’yo To the south and north, independent cultural groups have contributed their own music – the Okinawans (Ryukyu islanders) and the Ainu.