Friday, January 17, 2020

32. World Music: Japan, ACJ Music Academy



How are you?

Following the last week, I am going to start my 32nd lecture.

I had conducted music lectures at Art Collage JANG in Seoul, South Korea every Saturday from March 2015 to December 2017.

I am going to introduce some of the music in the lecture with a brief overview of the lecture by the lecture’s order every Saturday.

Please refer to the following link for my previous lectures.


The 32nd lecture for today is "World Music: Japan".

This lecture was the 32nd lecture of “ACJ Music Academy”, which was held on 5 December 2015.

Early Japanese music development was made under the influence of China, Korea, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.

In particular, the facts that many musicians went to Japan from the Korean peninsula in 453 AD and the Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the 7th century were very important events in the history of Japanese music.

Due to such events, the court music "Gagaku" and the Buddhist music "Shomyo" began to develop from this period in Japan.

In the early history of Japan, Gagaku and Shomyo were developed, and the general art genres such as "Noh'' were developed during the period up to 1500, when Japan's shogunate was established.

During this period, samurai and monks had a great influence on Japanese music, and the music of monks who sang with the accompaniment of Biwa, a Japanese lute instrument that came from Central Asia through the Silk Road, was developed.

Since the period from 1500 to 1868 was the period of Japan's Sakoku policy, the musical influence of the outside world was negligible, but the commercial activities of merchants became more active, and "Shamisen'' music, reflecting the sophisticated urban culture, gradually appeared.

During the Edo period, various types of folk songs were developed, mainly singing labor and love, in line with shamisen, drums, and flutes.

Kabuki, one of Japan's three classic plays, appeared in the early 17th century, and was developed into a more lively and friendly pop music form by combining Noh's narrative stories and recitals with shamisen, flute and drums.

Kabuki has become one of Japan's leading traditional arts since the Second World War through the international performances in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Shamisen, one of the traditional Japanese musical instruments, is a string instrument in which Chinese instrument, "Erhu”, of two strings was transformed into three strings after entering Japan through Okinawa.

Shamisen, which means “three flavored strings,” has three lines of different thickness.
It has now become an accompaniment instrument for most of Japan's traditional music and one of the most popular instruments in Japan.

Today, I will introduce 3 music as follows:

1. Hanayagi-Ensemble Nipponia
2. Kabuki
3. Rising-Yoshida Brothers

You can listen to all the songs from following YouTube link.


Next week, I will lecture "World Music: Korea" as my 33rd lecture.

Thank you.






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