Example 13. Yuri vocal style of shomyo.

During the middle ages, two new genres of nationalistic music were established. The elegant era of aristocrats and court romance was over-whelmed by the robust and dramatic temperament of samurai. The exploits of the samurai resulted in the storytelling tradition of the heike-biwa or heikyoku, comparable to the activities of minnesinger or troubadour of Europe's Middle Ages. During the later middle ages, out of multifarious elements--folk theatricals, literatures, music, and dances--the noh drama was created. The dances and songs are accompanied by an orchestra consisting of three drums and a flute related to their counterparts in gagaku. The concept of jo-ha-kyu governs every aspect of noh composition. The philosophy and aesthetics of Zen Buddhism has a strong tie to noh drama and its music, nohgaku. Joji Yuasa discusses in his article, "Music as a Reflection of a Composer's Cosmology" (PNM), that because nohgaku and Japanese traditional music, in general, dismiss harmony as a structural support, musical communication is achieved by shifting the emphasis to the gestural aspects of sound. Yuasa divides the gestural aspect of sound into the following three categories: shifting pitches (glissandi, portamenti, micro-tonal fluctuation, bent-tone); shifting tempi (accelerandi, ritardandi, uncountable rhythmic pulse); and significance of "small notes." The shifting pitch category seems to emphasize the language of non-harmonic music - atonality. The shifting tempi has already been observed in the music of gagaku and shomyo, via the incorporation of the aesthetic concept jo-ha-kyu. The shifting pitches and tempi are the base of indeterminable elements. Yuasa explains that the importance placed on the "small notes" in nohgaku and Japanese traditional music differs from the typical ornamental function of grace notes in Western music. More significance is placed on these small notes as they are often used to prepare the character of the main note to follow. The heterophonic effect created by emphasizing these "small notes" is of equal importance. The temporal elements are difficult to discuss, for they are highly refined and complex, yet free at the same time. Yuasa suggests that the rhythm may be categorized into two basic genres: the fitted rhythm of odori which is associated with physical dance movement; and the free rhythm of mai which relies on mental breathing.

One of the most important concepts of time in Japanese traditional music is ma - "substantial silence" - as defined by Yuasa. Ma is not merely a pause or rest, but is silence as an equivalent value to sound. The Japanese tradition values ma just as much, if not more than sound, and Japanese music is composed of an intense balance between the two. The Japanese noh specialist, Shozo Masuda, further explains the concept of ma in his book, Noh no Hyogen - ma does not exist between sounds, but sounds exist to define ma. The literal translation of ma is space, room, interval, pause, time, timing and so on, and ma can also be understood as "timing of space," the duration of sound between two notes in music. The concept of ma governs every aspect of Japanese art: sumi paintings, calligraphy, Japanese gardens, flower arrangements, poems, and so on.

Gagaku with its expansive elegance, is the musical jewel of the Imperial Courts of Japan. Though there is common ground, as nohgaku sound moves through the world of free interrelationships, noh retains a tight vigor in expressing the drama of storytelling and revealing the Zen-Samurai spirit. From ma (silence) or the Zen concept of mu (nothingness), the illusion of the drama and timelessness, mugen, is created. Nohgaku is elastic and elusive music, composed of undeterminable and indefinable musical elements accented with deep human cries. The spiritual intensity created by the music and musicians imposes itself on our emotions. It is a struggle between sound and silence, existence and nothingness.

Joji Yuasa (b. 1929) began his exploration with modes and the conscious adaptation of traditional Japanese musical elements, especially those of nohgaku, in his Cosmos Haptic (1957). Yuasa explains his interest in the Japanese tradition as follows:

Not long after I chose to become a composer, I came to realize that, as a
Japanese, rather than unconsciously receiving my own tradition, I wished
to consciously inherit and extend it, while at the same time exploring the
universal language of all human beings.  However, for me, the inheritance
of my tradition implied a way of thought and perception rather than simply
the adoptation of superficial phenomena such as the pentatonic scale, or
the simple usage of traditional instruments such as the shakuhachi, biwa,
and koto.  In other words, for me, remaining within a tradition meant
retaining a system of thinking.  It follows that this broader definition
of "tradition" produced, and continues to produce, diverse concrete results. 

Yuasa opens Cosmos Haptic with a mode constructed of major seconds or ninths and tritones: F-sharp, G-sharp; C, D; C, F-sharp; G-sharp, D; and so on. The emphasis on major seconds may be derived from the yowagin scale construction (Example 14), as the whole-tone surrounds its three pitch centers, jo (high), Chu (middle) and ge (low). As Yuasa employs limited pitches and static harmony, the parameters of accent, dynamics, and timbre fluctuation seem to gain more significance, as shown in Example 15.

Example 14. Yowagin system.

Example 15. Joji Yuasa, COSMOS HAPTIC (molto lento), measures 1-7.

Used by permission. 1973 by Ongaku No Tomo Sha Corp., Tokyo, Japan.

The octave passage marked martellando (Example 16) with the repeated upper note, sforzando-forte to piano, may be considered as representing the performance technique utilized by noh drum players.

Rhythmically, although meter indication still exists in this piece, the structural concept is, perhaps, closer to that of nohgaku as tied notes displace the meter pulse. Thus, the phrase is in the circular time of mai, rather than the physically oriented time of odori. This beat-less time, together with the static quality of the harmonic movement, creates the expanded "cosmos" feel in which small active areas can reside, without changing the overall flow.

In the poco piu section (Example 17), Yuasa seems to be utilizing another mode evolving around the intervals of minor seconds. This tendency may be characterized in tsuyogin system as shown in Example 18. Yuasa may have the sound of noh-kan (noh flute) in mind for the expressive melodic lines.

Example 16. Joji Yuasa, COSMOS HAPTIC (molto lento), measures 8-10.

Used by permission. 1973 by Ongaku No Tomo Sha Corp., Tokyo, Japan.

Example 17. Joji Yuasa, COSMOS HAPTIC (molto lento), measures 17-19.

Used by permission. 1973 by Ongaku No Tomo Sha Corp., Tokyo, Japan.

Example 18. Tsuyogin system.

Toru Takemitsu's (b. 1930) music is marked by the influence of Zen aesthetics, especially that of the Zen gardens--their concept and arrangement of space are yet another example of ma. For the program note of the premier performance of PAUSE ININTERROMPUE (1952-59), Takemitsu wrote that "each note is a wording of the motion of the heart." Each note is carefully articulated and accompanied by painstakingly indicated dynamic changes reflecting the aesthetics of rock placement in the Japanese garden. For the first two pieces, Takemitsu has eliminated the use of time signatures. The bar-lines have been abbreviated, and irregular rhythms have been applied, as shown in Examples 19 & 20. Judith Ann Herd wrote in her dissertation, Change and Continuity in Contemporary Japanese Music: A Search for National Identity:

His earlier style is replaced here by one described by critics as the
"aesthetics of tranquility" . . .  Silence hovers ominously in the
background and engulfs the sudden bursts of sound with its presence.  As
a result, the isolated tones floating in space lack freedom of movement
and a common purpose.  A gentleness and calculated sparsity of sound seem
to pull the tones even further into introspection.  These sparse,
conflicting patterns of sound and silence produce an underlying, energetic
tension which ultimately joins them in a coherent musical collaboration.

Example 19. Toru Takemitsu, PAUSE ININTERROMPUE, 1. Slowly, sadly and as is to converse with (Triste [o=48]), opening page.

Used by permission of G. Schirmer Inc. on behalf of copyright owner Edition Salabert S.A. All rights reserved.

Example 20. Toru Takemitsu, PAUSE INTERROMPUE, 2. Quietly and with a cruel reverberation, measures 1-5.

Used by permission of G. Schirmer Inc. on behalf of copyright owner Edition Salabert S.A. All rights reserved.

Owing to interconnections and cross-influences between art music of the Tokugawa (Edo) period and folk music in general, we will first examine folk music as its scale structure underlies other traditional Japanese music in general. As has been mentioned, the Japanese prefer the interval of a fourth in many different types of music. Because many Japanese folk songs are narrow in range and often contain two to three key notes (nuclear tones) within their one octave range, the Japanese musicologist, Fumio Koizumi, concluded that the Japanese scale has a melodic construction based on two fourth-frame chords. Each fourth-frame chord is constructed with two kakuons (nuclear tones)--the bottom and top notes of the fourth-frame in the interval of a perfect fourth, with only one middle note. Koizumi devised the following four categories of fourth-frame chords according to the location of middle notes and named them after the frequency of their employment in various forms of Japanese music as shown in Example 21.

Example 21. Japanese fourth-frame chords. (Fourth-frame chord=F.C.)

These fourth-frame chords can be extended by juxtaposing two of them in a conjunctive or disjunctive manner to form a scale. The typical formation is to combine the two same fourth-frame chords in disjunctive manner, e.g., minyo folk mode--C, E-flat, F + G, B-flat, C. However, the fourth-frame chords can be combined, interchanged, or modulated, depending on the usage. Such combinations as the minyo fourth-frame chord for the lower part and the miyako-bushi fourth-frame chord for the upper part of the scale structure are quite common. It is also interesting to note, when the miyako-bushi fourth-frame chords is utilized as the upper part of the scale in a conjunctive manner, the resulting intervals are a perfect fourth, tritone, and minor seventh. It is an important observation that an emphasis on the interval of a minor seventh occurs when any two fourth-frame chords are conjoined in a conjunctive manner.

The Japanese fourth-frame chords and modes may be employed to enrich the Western scale system in the following ways: free use of Japanese modes by allowing some exchange notes; use of fourth-frame chords in free combination or with the addition of one or two notes; combining modes with serial technique, and so on.

Rhythmically most Japanese folk music may be placed into two categories: yagi-bushi style in a regular beat and oiwake style, with its uncountable temporal structure. The yagi-bushi style has a regular pulse in 2/4 and rarely employs triple meter. Contrary to the yagi-bushi style, the oiwake style incorporates extensive melismatic lines and is uncountable in the metronomic sense.

Sadao Bekku (b. 1922) states in the preface to his Three Paraphrases Based on Folksongs of Southern Japan (1968) that when paraphrasing Japanese folk songs in piano music, the charms of subtle changes in pitches and rhythm may be lost; but in place of these elements, lies the goal of greater expression through control of tonality and harmony, transforming folk music into music with perspective and added dimensions. Lullaby of Itsuki is one of the best known folk songs of Japan. Its melody is constructed from miyako-bushi mode of C-sharp, D, F-sharp, G-sharp, A, C-sharp. While Bekku employs classical tonal harmonization for the theme, the following variation presents the theme in the lower voice accompanied by a freely wandering chromatic upper voice (Example 22).

Example 22. Sadao Bekku, Three Paraphrases Based on Folksongs of Southern Japan, Lullaby of Itsuki (Andante), measures 1-12.

Used by permission. 1977 by Zen-On Music Company Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.

Two composers, Hikaru Hayashi (b. 1931) and Michio Mamiya (b. 1929), who formed the Yagi no Kai (the goat group) in an effort to create a "neo-national movement," often base their inspiration on traditional musical elements in the manner of Bartok.

One can identify many elements of Japanese traditional music in Hayashi's Sonata for Piano (1965). The first theme of the first movement, Andante (Example 23), states three germinal ideas: typical Japanese "small note figures"; repeated notes with accelerating rhythms; and Japanese fourth-frame chords with a synthesized tetrachordal motive. In measure 2, Hayashi utilizes the ritsu fourth-frame chord in the bass clef (B, C-sharp, E); in the treble clef, he combines miyako-bushi (F, F-sharp, B-flat) and ryukyu (F, A, B-flat) to create a synthesized tetrachord, F, F-sharp, A, B-flat. Probably influenced by jo-ha-kyu, Hayashi accelerates the tempo from the Andante of the first theme, through Un poco pio mosso of the second theme to Allegretto for the development section.

Example 23. Hikaru Hayashi, Sonata for Piano, 1st movement (Andante), measures 1-4.

Used by permission. 1967 by Ongaku No Tomo Sha Corp., Tokyo, Japan.

Mamiya's first prelude, Children in the Sunset (1978) from Six Preludes for Piano (1977-1984), is comprised of two contrasting sections; a faster and rhythmical section is balanced by a slower unmetered section with pulse blurred by overlapping figurations. The opening theme with its folk-like melody (Example 24) centers around the miyako-bushi folk mode (D, E-flat, G, A, B-flat, D) and the ritsu folk mode (D, E, G, A, B, D). The grace notes of B-flat and E-flat tend to emphasize the structure of the miyako-bushi mode. The 2/4 time signature probably indicates the yagi-bushi style, the most common time used in Japanese folk songs. The contrasting section, Poco meno mosso (Example 25), employs grace notes extensively, again stressing the importance of "small notes." This section continuously change meters, perhaps reflecting the oiwake style.

Example 24. Michio Mamiya, Prelude I (Children in the sunset), measures 1-5.

Use by permission. 1985 by Zen-On Music Company Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.

Example 25. Michio Mamiya, Prelude I (Children in the sunset), measures 23-26.

Use by permission. 1985 by Zen-On Music Company Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.

The aesthetic characteristic and musical theories of older traditional Japanese music filtered through to the art music of the Tokugawa (Edo) period. All Japanese musical forms have their roots in the music of gagaku, shomyo, heikyoku and noh and share the same characteristics as described in nohgaku. Except for the theater music of bunraku (joruri) and kabuki, the music of koto, shamisen, and shakuhachi is the most recognized traditional Japanese chamber music, since it is performed in an intimate environment and forms a trio called jiuta or sankyoku. These art forms were nurtured by the towns-people.

The shakuhachi is a vertical bamboo flute of Chinese origin. Although one could devote an entire lifetime to the study of shakuhachi music, the important musical considerations here regarding contemporary music elements are this instrument's use of free rhythm and incorporation of noise as an component of sound. Many of its other characteristics, including its spiritual tie to Zen Buddhism, are shared with the nohkan.

Makoto Moroi (b. 1930) met the virtuoso shakuhachi player, Chikuho Sakai, in 1964. Impressed by the many contemporary qualities found in traditional shakuhachi music, Moroi began his study of this instrument. His interest in the aleatoric nature of Japanese music, along with his interest in the works of John Cage, is reflected in his eight parables for piano (1967). This work is based on the first eight syllables of Japanese alphabets (I, Ro, Ha, Ni, Ho, He, To, Chi) and on old Japanese proverbs beginning with these letters; the performance order of these sections is left to the performer's discretion. In the piece "He" (Example 26), Moroi incorporates the character of shakuhachi music through the employment of free rhythms, shakes, and ornamentation. The influence of shomyo on shakuhachi music can be seen in the employment of yuri technic (Example 14).

Example 26. Makoto Moroi, Eight Parables for piano, He.

Used by permission. 1967 by Ongaku No Tomo Sha Corp., Tokyo, Japan.

The shamisen, a long necked, three-stringed instrument, is used primarily to accompany song. It is tuned in either fifths or fourths. The three major tunings used for the shamisen are shown in Example 27. The koto, a Japanese zither with thirteen silk strings, is plucked by three ivory picks fitted to the fingers; it produces a pure and elegant tone. The two major forms used in koto music are danmono (or shirabemono)--solo instrumental music, and tegotomono--songs including instrumental interlude. Three common tunings for the koto are shown in Example 28. An application of the Japanese fourth-frame chord I (minyo) for ascending, and fourth-frame chord II (miyako-bushi) for descending, often appears in koto music. Because they share the same kakuon's, this is similar to enharmonic modulations in Western music (Example 29).

Example 27. Three shamisen tunings.

Example 28. Three koto tunings.

1)

2)

3)

Example 29. Fourth-frame chord modulation (minyo--miyako-bushi)

A work which shows strong ties to the koto music tradition is the Piano Sonata (1988) by Hideo Mizokami (b. 1936). In the preface to his sonata, Mizokami comments:

... until recently, for the first time, I was working on music for the
koto.  This koto piece was a kind of paraphrase of an old song based on
traditional expression.  I began to compose the Piano Sonata while the
sound of koto music was still remaining in my ear; thus, it was shaped by
searching for sounds sympathetic to the koto strings.  

The entire work is governed by intervals of fourths. After opening the first theme in the first movement with an augmented fourth leap and succession of perfect fourths (Example 30), the transition section (Example 31) is presented with dramatic tritone shakes and a chordal arpeggiated sweep.

Example 30. Hideo Mizokami, Piano Sonata, 1st movement (Allegro moderato), measures 1-4.

Used by permission. 1989 by Ongaku No Tomo Sha Corp., Tokyo, Japan.

Example 31. Hideo Mizokami, Piano Sonata, 1st movement (Allegro moderato), measures 18-22.

Used by permission. 1989 by Ongaku No Tomo Sha Corp., Tokyo, Japan.

In conclusion, the following elements of traditional music synthesized in Western-style solo piano works by Japanese contemporary composers have been traced: gagaku modes; Japanese fourth-frame chords and folk modes; synthesized modal and tetrachordal elements; Japanese preference toward the interval of a perfect fourth and tritone, major and minor seconds, and major and minor sevenths; Japanese sense of rhythm, especially that of mai or oiwake - free and elastic pulse; the concept of jo-ha-kyu derived from gagaku, as well as frequent use of accelerandos and ritardandos derived from the shomyo tradition and shakuhachi music; the aesthetic concept of ma - silence or timing, and staticity and simplicity common to traditional Japanese music; emphasis on "small notes" figuration and heterophonic texture.