MUSIC

Unit 4 – Musical Theater and Festivals of Asia

JAPANESE
THEATER
MR. CARLO JUSTINO J. LUNA
Malabanias Integrated School
Angeles City
 Japan is rich in culture and
Japanese tradition.
Theater

Ikebana Sakura

Noh Kabuki
 KABUKI
• is one of the traditions that is very
Japanese
Theater
popular until today
• is the traditional form of theater
which began at the end of the 16 th

century
• became the most successful
theater entertainment in the red
light districts of the great cities
 KABUKI
• is considered the most important
Japanese
Theater
Japanese contribution to World
Theater
 NOH & KABUKI
• Both noh and kabuki are unique
Japanese
Theater
and genuine expressions of the
Japanese spirit and culture.
• However, they mirror taste and
ideals of different social classes, in
profoundly different environments
and periods.
 SAKURA
• is one of the popular traditional
songs of Japan
• is a traditional song that produces
distinct characteristics used in the
Asian style of making melodies also
known as the pentatonic scale
 Sakura
“Cherry Blossoms”
 PENTATONIC SCALE
• The pattern is mainly developed by
Japanese
Theater
using the pentatonic style adopted
mainly from China.
• This style is mostly used in the
performance of noh and kabuki.
Vocal
Pattern &
Techniques
 1. Ipponchōshi
Vocal • or the continuous pattern
Pattern &
Techniques • used in speeches building up to an
explosive climax in the aragoto
(oversized, supernatural, rough
hero) style
• requires an extraordinary breath
control that only few experts
succeed in achieving
 2. Nori
Vocal • adapted from the chanting of jōruri (a
Pattern & traditional Japanese narrative music in
Techniques
which a tayū (太夫) sings to the
accompaniment of a shamisen)
• implies a very sensitive capacity of
riding the rhythms of the shamisen
(string instrument), declaiming each
accompaniment
 3. Yakuharai
Vocal • the subtle delivery of poetical text
Pattern &
written in the Japanese metrical
Techniques
form of alternating seven and five
syllables
Vocal &
Instrumental
Features
 Dances and Movements
Vocal & • are accompanied by shamisen
Instrumental
music collected and popularized a
Features
number of aspects from all
previous forms of Japanese music
 Japanese Shamisen Music
Vocal & • Gagaku – classic court music
Instrumental
imported from China during the
Features
18th century
• Kagura – performed in Shinto
shrines
• Nō – chant derives from shōmyō,
the sophisticated and rich tradition
of Buddhist chanting
 Japanese Shamisen Music
Vocal & Nagauta
Instrumental
Features • is a love song which reached a
golden age in the first half of the
19th century as dance music for
the henge mono (quick-change
piece)
 Japanese Shamisen Music
Vocal & Nagauta
Instrumental
• is very flexible, can be performed by one
Features
shamisen or by an entire orchestra of 20
musicians
 10 are shamisen players
 while other play flutes
a. fue taken from the nō
b. drums (small drum-kotsuzumi; waist
drum-ōtsuzumi; stick drum-taiko)
THANKS!
MUSIC
Unit 4 – Musical Theater and Festivals of Asia

JAPANESE
THEATER
MR. CARLO JUSTINO J. LUNA
Malabanias Integrated School
Angeles City