Gagaku


Gagaku is a type of Japanese classical music that has been performed at the Imperial Court in Kyoto since the 7th century. Today, it is performed by the Board of Ceremonies in the Tokyo Imperial Palace. Gagaku was imported into Japan from China; however, artistically it differs from the music of the corresponding Chinese form yayue which is a term reserved for ceremonial music. Gagaku consists of three primary repertoires:
  1. Native Shinto religious music and imperial songs and dance, called Kuniburi no utamai
  2. Vocal music based on native folk poetry, called Utaimono
  3. Songs and dance based on foreign music
Gagaku, like shōmyō, employ the yo scale, a pentatonic scale with ascending intervals of two, three, two, two, and three semitones between the five scale tones.

History of gagaku

Gagaku, the oldest form of classical music in Japan, was introduced into Japan with Buddhism from China. In 589, Japanese official diplomatic delegations were sent to China to learn Chinese culture, including Chinese court music, Gagaku. By the 7th century, the koto and the biwa had been introduced into Japan from China. Various instruments, including these two, were the earliest used to play gagaku.
Even though the Japanese use the same term 雅楽, the form of music imported from China was primarily banquet music engaku rather than the ceremonial music of the Chinese yǎyuè. The importation of music peaked during the Tang Dynasty, and these pieces are called Tōgaku. Gagaku pieces earlier than Tang Dynasty are called kogaku, while those from after the Tang Dynasty are called　shingaku. The term gagaku itself was first recorded in 701, when the first imperial academy of music Gagakuryō was established.
Music from the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo, which is pronounced Koma in Japanese, had been recorded as early as 453 AD, and komagaku was eventually used as a term that covered all Korean pieces. Komagaku and Tōgaku became established in southern Japan during the Nara period. In 736, music from India and Indochina were also introduced and these are called Tenjikugaku and Rinyūgaku respectively. During the Heian period, in the first half of the ninth century, gagaku music was reorganized and settled into the basic divisions of "music of the left" and "music of the right".
Gagaku reached a peak of popularity in the tenth century at court, but declined in the Kamakura period when the power of the court aristocracy became diminished while that of the samurai rose. Gagaku was played by musicians who belonged to hereditary guilds. During the Kamakura period, military rule was imposed and gagaku was performed in the homes of the aristocracy, but rarely at court. At this time, there were three guilds, based in Osaka, Nara and Kyoto.
Because of the Ōnin War, a civil war from 1467 to 1477 during the Muromachi period, gagaku ensembles ceased to perform in Kyoto for about 100 years. In the Edo period, the Tokugawa government revived and reorganized the court-style ensembles, the direct ancestors of the present gagaku ensembles.
After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, musicians from all three guilds came to the capital and their descendants make up most of the current Tokyo Imperial Palace Music Department. By that time, the present ensemble composition had been established, consisting of three wind instruments - hichiriki, ryūteki, and shō - and three percussion instruments - kakko, shōko, and taiko or dadaiko, supplemented by gakubiwa.
Gagaku also accompanies classical dance performances called bugaku. It may be used in religious ceremonies in some Buddhist temples.
In 1955, the Japanese government recognized gagaku and bugaku as important National Treasures.
Today, gagaku is performed in two ways:
Komagaku survives only as bugaku.
Contemporary gagaku ensembles, such as Reigakusha, perform contemporary compositions for gagaku instruments. This subgenre of contemporary works for gagaku instruments, which began in the 1960s, is called. Twentieth-century composers such as Tōru Takemitsu have composed works for gagaku ensembles, as well as individual gagaku instruments. In January 2015 the Reigakusha gagaku Ensemble and Ensemble Modern performed together Music with silent aitake's by Belgian composer Frederic D'Haene, making gagaku and western music co-exist.

Instruments used in gagaku

Wind, string and percussion instruments are essential elements of gagaku music.

Wind

Beginning in the 20th century, several western classical composers became interested in gagaku, and composed works based on gagaku. Most notable among these are Henry Cowell, La Monte Young, Alan Hovhaness, Olivier Messiaen, Lou Harrison, Benjamin Britten, Bengt Hambraeus, :hu:Nagy Ákos|Ákos Nagy, Jarosław Kapuściński, Sarah Peebles and Tim Hecker.
One of the most important gagaku musicians of the 20th century, Masataro Togi, instructed American composers such as Alan Hovhaness and Richard Teitelbaum in the playing of gagaku instruments.

Other cultural influence

The American poet Steve Richmond developed a unique style based on the rhythms of gagaku. Richmond heard gagaku music on records at U.C.L.A.'s Department of Ethnomusicology in the early 1960s. In a 2009 interview with writer Ben Pleasants, Richmond claimed he had written an estimated 8,000-9,000 gagaku poems.