Sakuhachi, koto, Shamisen and Biwa are the most important traditional musical instruments in Japan.
Sakuhachi is a vertical-playing musical instrument made of bamboo, with five holes. In the Tokugawa era, it was played by a group. Therefore, in the process of playing, whether inhaling or blowing to release the sound through the instrument, we should use the greatest spirit to interpret it.
Koto is a large 13-string zither, which is played by kneeling with the first three fingers of the right hand, while the piano body lies flat in front of the player.
Shamisen, a three-stringed instrument originated from banzuqin, is played with large tortoise shell shrapnel, and its performance is related to kabuti, a traditional Japanese kabuki. Its theme song is from a part of Nagauta, a traditional folk song in the edo period in Japan, so the playing time is not long, only about two and a half minutes.
Biwa is a Japanese pipa, with five strings plucked with wood plucked strings. Oginomato (the folding fan as a target) is a solo of Biwa, with a total length of 39 seconds, which has a very musical style and characteristics. The origin of the music is closely related to a fan dance with legendary stories.
Phonological expression of traditional Japanese music
For centuries, traditional Japanese musical instruments have expressed
Japanese customs and people's spiritual world with unique melodies. From wind instruments with a thousand years' history to Japanese stringed instruments in the 18th century,
with the inheritance of Japanese traditional performing arts, they developed into a unique phonological expression in Japan.
Writing: Shang Shenkang (Honorary Professor of Tokyo University of the Arts)
Photographs provided: (1) Tokyo University of the Arts, (2) Fanghe Collection, (3) consortium legal person Xiazhong Memorial Consortium
Sangqin and piano plucking
Sangqin is used to pluck three strings for music, which is used for kabuki, literary music and other various performing arts. The piano is about 1 cm long
People who are not familiar with traditional Japanese music may think that every piece of music played by all players wearing kimonos with instruments such as the three-stringed instrument or the flute is similar. In fact, there are 5 categories of traditional music in Japan, and some people say there are 8 different types. Among them, only a small part are purely played by musical instruments, and most of them are a combination of singing and music. Moreover, most of the singing is single melody (solo or chorus), and most of the accompaniment is only one instrument.
Japanese traditional music is classified according to the vocalization, musical instruments and whether their timbres are the same or not. For example, "Yitaifu Music", "Tokiwazu Music" and "Sanxian Music" (that is, Long song) are all combinations of singing and sanxian accompaniment, and if there is only one timbre difference between singing and musical instruments, they are considered as different types of music. That is to say, each type has its own prescribed singing voice and musical instrument timbre.
However, there are many subtle differences in timbre between singing and musical instruments, and only experts can hear the differences. However, Japanese traditional music pays great attention to the subtle differences of these timbres, and is very careful not to mix them up or blend them together. It can be said that this is one of the reasons why Japanese traditional music is so finely classified.
The form and performance of Japanese musical instruments also fully reflect the subtle differences that Japanese traditional music pays attention to timbre. Like other countries in the world, Japanese musical instruments can be roughly divided into percussion instruments, wind instruments and playing instruments.
The snare drum is one of the typical percussion instruments in Japan. In Japan, most drums are played with two drumsticks, but the drums are played with fingers. In order to ensure the delicate tone, players need to adjust the tightness of the drum head tie according to the drum sound or breathe on the drum head to keep the drum head moist.
the bamboo flute is a kind of playing instrument. The singing accompaniment in kabuki uses 12 kinds of bamboo flutes according to different ranges. Even in various local festivals, people have to use two or three different bamboo flutes. In a word, Japanese traditional music expresses all kinds of timbres needed by music through various small and careful designs.
The most representative of traditional musical instruments is probably the three-stringed instrument, which is one of the stringed instruments. Sangqin is used in many types of japanese pop, and at the same time, it fully embodies the diversity of Japanese traditional music.
oh, my god ~ the landlord has told you it's eight feet, hasn't it?