The aim of this paper is to clarify the concept of “
gaku” in
nagauta. Some
nagauta pieces include a section labeled as “
gaku”. The “
gaku” sections are usually interpreted as representing or musically describing
gagaku, court music, though it has been pointed out that the “
gaku” sections do not imitate the musical style of
gagaku. This paper considers 1) the types of music represented in the
gaku, and 2) musical characteristics which create the
gaku-likeness.
It is not only
nagauta that uses the term “
gaku”: other genres such as music in the
no theater, offstage music (
geza ongaku) in the
kabuki theater, and Yamada school
koto music also use this term. However, the meaning of the term “
gaku” varies in each genre. In the case of music in the
no theater, the
gaku is a type of dance mostly performed by the main actor (
shite) who plays the role of “China man”, and the accompanying
hayashi ensemble plays a special rhythmic/melodic pattern which is also called
gaku. The
gaku section is recognizeable by this pattern and can be considered to be representing Chinese music. In the case of
kabuki offstage music, a short
shamisen piece named
gaku is performed as a kind of background music during the opening scene of a palace or at the entrance of a nobleman on stage. Different from the case of
no, the
gaku in the
kabuki theater has a strong connotation with the aristocracy and does not represent Chinese music. But, when the
gaku pieces are played, the
hayashi part accompanies the same
gaku pattern as
no music. Some Yamada school
koto music also includes a
gaku section, where the
gagaku koto technique called
shizugaki is often used. The
gaku here represents or imitates Japanese court music
gagaku.
The types of music represented in the
gaku sections of
nagauta have a wider range since they adopt the concepts of
gaku from other genres and add
nagauta's original meaning to them. In addition to Chinese music, background music for the opening scene at the palace and Japanese court music, some
gaku sections represent exquisite music heard in “Western Paradise”, and some are used as background music for a Buddhist saint's appearance.
Then, what kind of musical characteristics make a section sound
gaku-like? In order to extract the common musical features of the
gaku sections of
nagauta, twenty-four
nagauta gaku sections and seven
gaku pieces of
kabuki offstage music, which have a close musical relationship with the
gaku section of
nagauta, have been analyzed. As a result of the musical analysis, the following eight features have been found: 1) slow tempo; 2) continuous pizzicatos (
hajiki); 3) double stop technique; 4) special techniques such as
kaeshi bachi, and
urahajiki; 5) unnatural melodic movement; 6) coexistence of the plural melodies; 7) regular phrasing of four- or eight-bar; 8) the rhythmic/melodic pattern performed by the
hayashi part named
gaku. Of these eight points, 2), 3) and 4) create the “elegant” and “solemn” atmosphere by using special tone colors, while 5) and 6) produce the
gaku-likeness by using melodic movements different from
nagauta's usual melodic movements.
Creating
gaku-likeness can be related to two ways of giving certain meanings to a melody which are widely employed in
nagauta pieces: one is to quote a phrase from or to imitate the style of other musical genres, and this is considered to bring the musical atmosphere of the original genre into a
nagauta piece; the
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