Gagaku is the ancient court music of Japan and has its origins as far back as the 8th century. It is derived mainly from China and Korea. Gagaku orchestras may consist of as many as 17 musicians playing woodwinds, plucked- string, and percussion instruments. The winds include a flute, usually of the type known as ry Uteki; a short double-reed pipe called hichiriki; and a sho, a free-reed mouthorgan consisting of 17 bamboo pipes inserted in a globular wind chest with a mouth hole. The flute and the double-reed pipe play the melody while the mouthorgan provides a cluster of background tones. Phrases of music are marked off by the sounds of a small horizontal two- headed drum (kakko), a large hanging drum (taiko), and a small gong (shoko), as well as by short melodies and arpeggios played on a four- stringed lute (biwa) and a thirteen-stringed zither (koto).
Gagaku music utilises six modes, or scales, of Chinese origin, all derived from two basic pentatonic scales: ryo, D E F-sharp A B (D), plus G and C- sharp as auxiliary notes; and ritsu, G A C D E (G), plus auxiliary B and F. The meters in gagaku music are basically duple. Research Gagaku
The zither is an Austrian member of a family of musical instruments consisting of one or more strings stretched over a resonating frame. The modern concert zither has up to 45 strings of which five, passing over frets, are plucked with a plectrum for melody, and the remainder are plucked with the fingers for harmonicaccompaniment. Simple stick and board zithers are widespread in Africa; in India the vina represents a developed form of stick
zither, while in Indonesia and the Far East versions of the long zither prevail. Tuning is by movable bridges and the long zither is played with a plectrum, producing an intense tone of sharp attack. Research Zither
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Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Autoharp
