8. Instrumentation
• Instruments provide structural signals
• Narashimono (instruments) – more than
twenty, including bells, gongs and other
percussion.
9. Modes and Theory
• Ryo and ritsu scales, the same as gagaku – as
well as the chukyoku scale
• Shingon makes use of five modes…
• …while Tendai use three with movable finals.
10. Melodic construction
• Chants built from short melodic fragments
• Three categories of melody, relating to three
scales
• Nuclear tones create a system of tetrachords
12. Shomyo expansion
• Shingon and Tendai firmly established by
12thC
• At its height during Kamakura period
• Sects began to schism – increase in koshiki
13. Transmission and Sources
• Shōmyō-yōjinshu (1244)
• More organised and standardized in Edo
period – printed shōmyō more available
• Gyosan Sosho (mid-19thC)
• Melodies recorded with hakase
15. Other Sources
Orchestration in Gagaku
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/groups/gagaku/index.html
‘Gradual Modifications of the Gagaku tradition,’ Robert Garfias, Ethnomusicology 4/1
(1960)
‘The Systematic, Parallel and Balanced Characteristics of Bugaku: from Costume motifs
to Music,’ Wai Ng Kwok, Asian Cultural Studies 27 (2001)
Interview with Kojun Arai (Shomyo performer)
http://www.performingarts.jp/E/art_interview/0705/1.html
16. Musical resources
• The Ongaku Masters: An Anthology of
Japanese Music, vol. 1 (Celestial Harmonies,
2004)
• Shomyo - Buddhist Liturgical Chant (Megadisc,
1995)
17. Musical resources
Spotify Web Player:
• Gagaku – Ancient Japanese Court and Dance
Music
• Gagaku – Ancient Japanese Court Music
• Shomyo – Buddhist Liturgical Chant
Editor's Notes
[Play Hyakuji no ge – Naxos Ongaku]
Shomyo is the name given to a ritual form of Buddhist chanting which developed in Japan from the Heian period.
The Nara priests, after the opening of the Todai-ji Buddha temple, were too powerful…
It was imported from China, as with gagaku, and takes much of the same Chinese music theory as its basis – or does in principle, at least, however the practice has developed.
Meiji destroyed and stamped on Buddhism, hence shōmyō fell into decline and was not heard or sung as much. Regained somewhat during the 20thC, now back as an appreciated form and concert music.
Shōmyō began, in one way, in India, where the chanting of Buddhist texts began.
This spread along with the other practices of Buddhism, into China, and then from (T’ang) China to Japan.
Mid-6thC, Buddhism and chant were imported to Japan.
Prior to 12th C, bonbai (lit. ‘Sanskrit hymn’) – then became used for vocal music of Japanese Buddhist ritual.
Shōmyō diffused throughout all levels of society, along with Buddhism, and is thought to have influenced most Japanese popular music that followed.
Shōmyō was used to make sutras more appealing to congregations, who may have found the content difficult.
Came from China, where there were two types of chant: Sanskrit, and Chinese (some translations, some original).
Some shōmyō remained in Sanskrit or Chinese – others were read in ‘hard’ Japanese (as a translation of Chinese) in a syllabic style, for intelligible, explanatory sections. Other forms were more song-like, and sung in ‘soft’ Japanese.
Greater part of shōmyō repertoire is Chinese, or Sanskrit via China. Often suggested that the melodies reflect Chinese tone-accents?
A number of important figures can be highlighted as the main founders of Shōmyō; Kukai, Kanchō (Kanjō), Ennin and Saichō.
Kukai (774-835) travelled to China, and returned with Shingon teachings, which became a central ritual part of the imperial court until the 19thC; he brought the core repertoire of bongo no san (Sanskrit) and kango no san (Chinese) hymns.
Kukai returned in 806 from China
Shingon shōmyō was brought to full form by Kanchō/Kanjō (916-98); he set the central, daily sutra ‘rishu sutra,’ and set three secret pieces, introducing levels of authorization and facilitating transmission in recognized lineages.
Saichō and Ennin (794-864) transmitted Tendai teachings (also the first to compose shōmyō in Japanese?).
Shōmyō differs largely in its repertoire and practice along sectarian lines; there are two major sects who have established and maintained the practice of shōmyō, yet each minor sect and sub-division of these sects varies their practice. Comprehensive studies are yet to be undertaken, it seems?
It’s not dissimilar to Christian music at the moment, in its semi-amateur practice and transmission.
Shingon is much looser with adherence to pitch and mode than Tendai.
Oral transmission for centuries has created a gap between performance and theory (though in kōshiki, Shingon seems closer to medieval sources!)
[Play two pieces from Ashgate CD]
Can we observe differences between the two styles?
Tendai piece is in ryo on A (a-b-c#-e-f#), while Shingon piece is ryo on D (d-e-f#-a-b)
Do spectral analysis of Shichi in Spear / Sonic Visualizer
There is a distinction between ceremony (hoe) and rite (hoyo), the latter making up the former.
Rites might be esoteric or exoteric – the former including an esoteric ritual celebrated by the master at the altar.
Rites usually take a symmetrical form around the central element.
The introductory section may use up to all of the four standard pieces, making it a one-, two-or four-part ritual.
‘Bai, Sange, Bonnon and Shakujō’ – four standard pieces? Sung at Todaiji for Buddha ceremony.
[Play Ungabai and Sange – Naxos]
Signals are provided by playing musical instruments (usually by the master) regarding structure;
these include hanshō (suspended bell); inkin (resting bell);hachi and nyō (cymbals and gong); kei (suspended metal plate); gokorei (handbell). There are more than 20 narashimono (instruments).
Uses the same ryu and ritsu scales of Gagaku, imported from China – or was this just borrowed terminology?
Shingon shōmyō traditionally uses only five modes…
Tendai shōmyō uses seven final notes, and all three modes on each note (ryo, ritsu, chukyoku)
Three scales are found in Shōmyō: ryu, ritsu and chukyoku.
Ritsu is pentatonic (on D-E-G-A-B, F and C aux tones); Ryo is similar (D-E-F#-A-B, G# and C# aux tones); chukyoku is a combination of the two. (?)
Modulations occur within pieces or from one piece to the next; Shingon uses modulation by a third, while Tendai also use seconds and fourths.
Three-octave system…
A specialist in Tendai shomyo, Yoshida Tsunezo, has said that the chukyoku scale uses an interval of a semitone and a half – something which is a feature of present-day joruri.
Melodic lines are built from short melodic fragments.
There are categories of melody: ritsukyoku contain a perfect fourth; ryokyoku has a major third; gakkyoku contains intervals of both ryo and ritsu.
Nuclear tones create tetrachords, either conjoined, disjoined or independent. i.e., b-e and e-a (con), b-e and f#-b (dis), or b-e (ind). Usually divided as maj2nd/min3rd in descent.
In the 17thC, the central note of the tetrachord developed a tendency to be lowered to a semitone over the low tone (e.g. d-d#-g)
See Ashgate for explanation of some formulas…
Genshin (942-1017) wrote the (later recast) Rokudo Kōshiki, for the Tendai sect, and is known as the earliest work of the ‘kōshiki’ narrative genre of shōmyō. Followed by Yōkan’s ōjō Kōshiki (late 1070s), which fixed a structure for the genre into plural sections (dan) sub-divided into sections delineated by fixed musical formulae (kyokusetsu) with clear pitch ranges. (This structural pattern was adopted for later narrative forms, such as heike-biwa).
Play [Nehan Koshiki – WMP] – this is in ‘hard’ Japanese, a transliteration of Chinese characters
Shingon and Tendai lineages were both firmly established in the early-to-mid 12thC.
Kamakura (1192-1392) saw shōmyō at its height, with several smaller sects developing, their shōmyō based mostly on Tendai.
Schisms in both main sects.
Kōshiki saw a rapid increase, including Kōben’s (1173-1232) ‘Shiza kōshiki,’ four based on the historical Buddha, and survives to today.
Books of theory include Shōmyō-yōjinshu (1244) and Gyōzan-taigaishu (1496).
Kakui, a Nanzan-shin priest (southern Shingon sect) developed a notation for long melismatic pitches.
From the Kamakura period (1472), Shingon collections of shōmyō notation began to be published.
Into the Edo period, Buddhist sects became organised and more standardised. Shingon shōmyō printing became more widely available, and the first Tendai shōmyō was published in the mid-17thC.
The Gyosan Sosho, an anthology of Tendai shōmyō, was compiled by two priests in the mid-nineteenth century.
Melodies were recorded with hakase, a neumatic notation showing the general direction as well as embellishments. (Yet melodies today frequently run counter to these hakase?)
Today’s shōmyō experts admit that melodies have changed even in their lifetimes.
Monks (esp. blind biwa monks) provided Buddhist chanting, and also developed secular narrative genres (heike), influence is undeniable.
Also influenced the No theatre
