4th quarter

• Kabuki was founded by Okuni, a Shinto priestess

  1603
• Hayashi


  A group of performers who provide musical accompaniment for another theater in Japan called the "Noh"
• Noh

  Ancient masked theater, rooted in spiritual themes
• Shamisen players

  Added to Hayashi performers depending on the music of the play
• Shamisen

  Three stringed instrument and one of the traditional musical instruments of Japan. It comprises a wooden body covered with animal or synthetic skin and a long neck on which strings are strung and plucked.
• NAGAUTA


  The most popular shamisen music, it is flexible and can be played by a Solo shamisen player or an orchestra of 20 musicians (10 shamisen players). The rest play fue, kotsuzumi, otsuzumi and taiko.
• Vocal Pattern and Techniques

  • Ipponchōshi or the continuous pattern - used in speeches building up to an explosive climax in the aragoto (oversize, supernatural, rough hero) style, it requires an extraordinary breath control that only few experts succeed in achieving
  • Nori technique - adapted from the chanting of jōruri, implies a very sensitive capacity of riding the rhythms of the shamisen (string instrument), declaiming each accompaniment
  • Yakuharai technique - the subtle delivery of poetical text written in the Japanese metrical form of alternating seven and five syllables
• Peking Opera

  Also known as the Beijing opera, still follows traditional Chinese arts in stressing meaning, rather than precise actions. The goal is to make every performance exceptionally beautiful in every movement they will make.
• Musical instruments in Peking Opera


  • Wenchang - accompany mainly the Singing
  • Whuchang - accompany the acting, dancing and fighting
• Types of instruments in Peking Opera


  • Wind instruments
  • String instruments
  • Percussion instruments
• Main instruments in Peking Opera


  • Jinghu - a two-stringed instrument played with a bow
  • Yueqin - a four-stringed instrument that is plucked
  • Sanxian - a three-stringed instrument which is also plucked
  • Variety of gongs and cymbals - creates rhythmic and graceful melodies
• Wayang Kulit


  In Wayang kulit the Dalang sings the mood songs (suluk) at regular intervals during performance. Suluk are never accompanied by the full gamelan ensemble. The major dramatic function of gamelan music is to accompany stage action. Entrances, exits, and fight scenes are executed in time to gamelan music.
• Instruments in Gamelan ensemble


  • Saron - xylophone of heavy bronze bars
• • Gender - bronze xylophone with resonance chambers beneath
• • Bonang - set of bronze bowls
• • Bonang - set of bronze bowls
• • Gong and kempul - hanging gongs
• • Kenong and ketuk - single inverted bronze bowl
• • Gambang - wooden xylophone
• • Rebab - two-stringed fiddle
• • Suling - flute
• • Kendang - horizontal drum beat with the fingers on both ends
• • Tjelempung - a zither of thirteen double strings