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Shoden: A Study in Tokyo Festival Music. When is Variation an Improvisation?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2019

William P. Malm
William P. Malm*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Extract

Survey courses in world musics survive on aphorisms, and one of the favorite characteristics appended to Asian music in such studies is its great interest in improvisation. The major problem with this saying is that it is not true. While it may apply to certain forms of South Asian music and be a part of the Southeast Asian polyphonic stratification structures, it is a rare thing in the music of East Asia. Thus, when I was asked to speak on Japanese music for a symposium on improvisation held by the University of Chicago, I was genuinely hesitant, because I simply could not think of examples upon which to base such a discussion. This study is the result of my search.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council , Volume 7 , 1975 , pp. 44 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © 1976 By the International Folk Music Council 

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References

Notes

1. Adriaansz, Willem, “Research into the Chronology of Danmono”, Ethnomusicolog, 11 (Jan., 1967), 25-53. Also see Adriaansz, “Rosai,” ibid., 13 (Jan., 1969), pp. 101–23.Google Scholar

2. Yasuji, Honda, accompanying booklet for Edo no kagura to matsuri bayashi (Nihon Victor SJ 3004).Google Scholar

3. Ibid.Google Scholar

4. There are various interpolated pieces which also show up in more than one repertoire and therefore should be analyzed comparatively as well at some time.Google Scholar

5. Haruogi are borrowed from the teaching tradition of noh music. See William Malm, Japanese Music and Musical Instruments (Tokyo, 1959), p. 116, plate 40.Google Scholar

6. The most common are and Google Scholar

7. Other “Shoden” used for pantomimes tend to be faster.Google Scholar

8. The author created the score for the beginner's version. The basic scores from which all other examples are derived were transcribed by Miss Patia Rosenberg, to whom I offer my thanks. The various arrangements and analyses of materials from the master scores have been totally the author's responsibility. In this example, the beginner's version was learned by rote. The professional version is transcribed from the recording Matsuri bayashi kumikyoku (Crown LW 4006), side I, band 2. The Center for Japanese Studies is thanked for financing the final copying of all notations in this article.Google Scholar

9. The term has several other meanings in Japanese music, mostly dealing with various rhythmic freedoms. See Ongaku jiten (Tokyo, 1957), Vol. I, p. 23.Google Scholar

10. There is one slight rhythmic change on beat 69.Google Scholar

11. The sources are as follows: Kanda #1, Kanda bayashi (Toshiba JPO 1036), side I (Jo-71), second selection; Kanda #2, Edo no Kagura to matsuri bayashi (Victor SJ 3004), second record, side 1, band 1, third selection; Kanda #3, Nihon no omatsuri ongaku (Columbia SAS 3005), side 2, band 1 (45 rpm); Kanda #4, Kanda bayashi (King SKF 1001), side 1, second selection.Google Scholar

12. The actual line could only be acquired through lessons in the school. The example is abstracted by the author from a study of the three examples plus extensive exposure to the style.Google Scholar

13. The record credits are as follows: Kanda #1, Aoyama Keinosuke and group; Kanda #2, personnel listed without instrumental indications in the following order: Aoyama Keinosuke, Ueono Mitsuyuki, Sugita Kojiro, Koike Hikojiro, and Matsunaga Yasujiro; Kanda #3, flute, Ueno Mitsuyuki, kane, Sugita Kokaro, odaiko, Kurata Tatsunosuke, taiko, Aoyama Keinosuke and Matsunaga Torajiro; Kanda #4, flute, Takeuchi Chokichi, kane, Yozawa Seiichi, odaiko, Takeuchi Shinji, taiko, Yoshimura Chokichi and Suzuki Chuji.Google Scholar

14. See the Adriaansz works cited in n. 1; and Eliot Weisgarber, “The Honkyoku of the Kinko-ryu”, Ethnomusicology, 12 (Sept., 1968), 313-44.Google Scholar

15. Study the musical examples in Donald Berger's “The Nohkan: Its Construction and Music,” Ethnomusicology, 9 (Sept., 1965), 221-39.Google Scholar

16. See further William Malm, Nagauta: The Heart of Kabuki Music (Tokyo, 1963), pp. 215–18.Google Scholar

17. In speaking of Japanese drum music I often use the term “slide rule effect” to try to convey the idea of different layers of time units played by different instruments. The individual units may remain fixed in their lengths just as do the markings on a slide rule scale, but one or more of the planes can be shifted, as on a slide rule, so that the relationship between the layers changes.Google Scholar

18. All sets of things like bowls, cups, or cushions come in fives. The Schichigosan Shinto festival is for children the ages of 3, 5, and 7. For the use of threes in Shinto choreography read about the Yuki matsuri in Malm, Japanese Music and Musical Instruments, pp. 51–64.Google Scholar

19. Listen to kasai bayashi in Edo kagura to matsuri bayashi, side 3, band 1, and to geza in Geza ongaku shusei (Victor SJL 2010), side 2012, band 2.Google Scholar