Facts About Gagaku

Background Info on Gagaku Gagaku is a fusion of music and dance. Instrumentalist passed down their roles from generation to generation and performed for the imperial families. Although we are not entirely sure when it began, we know it was formally organized around the Tenth Century. Gagaku has three forms songs along with chanted poetry or Kayō, instrumental or Kangen, and dances along with music or Bugaku. Today we will be exploring Kangen. The music is mainly monophonic with moments of homophony. Gagaku is punctuated by drums which creates the effect of meditation music. It has no emotion, is very static, and a rather slow pace. Gagaku has six modes, each of which have an emotion they evoke and their own pitch. For example water, knowledge, darkness, and the direction north are a few modes. Gagaku was never meant to be enjoyed by the public because of its sacredness, it was reserved for imperial ears only. Commoners would speculate about what was so special about these unheard sacred songs, giving it a …show more content…
We see an example of this in “Gagaku” (youtube) from 0:05-0:55. We can hear a Ryuteki playing a melody with entrances and exits from the Kakko and a San-no-tsuzumi. The Ryuteki introduces us to the melody used throughout the remainder of the piece. These moments of monophony are seen throughout the piece. An example of monophony from Gregorian Chant can be found in “Alleluia Vidimus Stellam”(1). This clip begins with a male soloist singing sacred text, who is later joined by a choir of men. The choir is singing in unison, meaning together and without harmony. The melody sung by the choir is within a small range and has no distinct pauses, creating a flowing or trance-like state. Example 9 is a score of this track, the choir joins the soloist at the tick mark above the staff. This score has been translated into the modern notation style for ease of