People who understand aesthetics, even the appearance value will become higher
Recently, the official release of Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" on the mainland has evoked childhood memories of a generation.
"Spirited Away", "Kikujiro's Summer"
"Castle in the Sky", "Goldfish on the Cliff"
Hisaishi's music is definitely the finishing touch in every anime work of Hayao Miyazaki
Ryoichi Sakamoto, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
WADA Akira, Thoughts Beyond the Time (Inuyasha, Lord's Song)
Koji Takanashi FAIRY TAIL MainTheme
(Fairy Tail theme song)
Katsuyoshi Ishida", "The Great O'o"
Kitaro, Dr. Sun andChing-Ling
Shigeru Mei Lin, "Yumeji's Theme" ("Fancy Years" interlude)
Whether it's film, television, ACG or indie music,
Japan's most familiar master musicians are the most in East Asia
So Xiaoyin has always had some questions, why did Japan give birth to so many master musicians?
The "inevitability" of musicians
Here I would like to share with you three points of view~
First, historical reasons
As early as the late 19th century, after a long period of operation and communication, Western music, as a new musical activity, has been combined with Japanese music drama to form a mature music system of both internal and external types.
One is to take Western music as the core and refer to the model of Western music for foreign music creation;
The other is noh, because the theater part of Western music is combined with the theater characteristics of noh, internalizing local culture and recreating local artistic experiences.
As a result, under the internal and external attacks, the transformation space of Japanese music was opened up, and at the end of the 20th century, it naturally reached the explosive period of music creation.
Second, education is the focus!
Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan has attached great importance to the music education of its citizens. From classrooms to military to religious sites, music, as an important territory for basic art education and ideological indoctrination, is rooted in the hearts of the Japanese people, and has also stimulated the creative enthusiasm of musicians and awakened the creative ideals of artists.
Third, there is the musical tradition of individuality
At the time of the Western music, traditional Japanese music was greatly impacted, and although it was integrated, many traditional instruments and theatrical methods were gradually forgotten. In the 1970s, Japan's economic achievements became more and more remarkable, and the whole society began to rethink its own culture, and the "revival of sinology" and the "song movement" were all Trend at this time.
People can't help but ask --
How did Japanese music begin and how did it take root in Japanese society?
What are its ancient traditions?
The founding role of traditional music
Just as we cannot know exactly what kind of melody the Book of Poetry is sung, in ancient Japan, there were also such a batch of texts that were recorded as a kind of ballad-style song. They were passed from the people to the court, either intentionally collected, or through stories, and passed on in the court.
These ballads were active on the stage around the 5th century, and were called "Keiki Ballads" in the stories of the old words (Ancient Chronicles) recorded in the early Japanese history books, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.
However, time is like flowing water, with the entry of foreign music, the ancient music and style of "Ji Ji Song Ballad" have disappeared, and the empty text leaves people with unlimited reverie.
Outward "Learning"
The first introduction of foreign music began in the second half of the 5th century. Nobles and merchants of the Korean Peninsula brought "Samhan Music", namely Silla Music, Baekje Music, Goguryeo Music, and Wu Music (Trick Music), which spread from Chinese mainland to Korea during the Tuigu Emperor period (7th century), also came to Japan as the music genre that had the greatest influence on the early music system.
Remember Xiaoyin's previous mention of the Tang Dynasty that "the whole world has come to China!" Japan is naturally no exception, the court and the Tang Dynasty direct dialogue, returning to their hometown students to bring the Tang culture back to their homeland, including the "Gagaku" of the Tang Dynasty.
The main body of Gagaku is an instrumental ensemble of orchestral and percussion instruments, and is sometimes performed with dance, called dance music.
In order to facilitate the distinction, in the Heian period, the court divided dance music into two kinds, with Tang Music as the center, called the left side, the three Korean music centered on the right side, the left and right music centered on the right side, the difference between the left and right is mainly reflected in the two aspects of instrument arrangement and the form of the music, the left side is elegant, the right side is vulgar, are all important roles in the japanese music culture at that time.
Imitation is often the origin of creation. Musicians of the Heian period created new songs with local Japanese characteristics following the two types of music, left and right, so Hokutoku, Seikiraku, Nagayoshiko, as well as Kaguraku, Toei, and Horse-Urging, all joined the Yagaku family on the left. In addition, dignified recitations accompanied by orchestral accompaniment are also an important part of Gagaku.
The "Wandering Gene" of Japanese Music
In the streets of the Kamakura period, you can often meet such a group of people, who wander around with their pipas and sing a narrative poem called "The Tale of The Heike Family", which is the "Pingqu" that was very popular.
Where did Pingqu come from? According to an anecdotes in the Kamaransuka period, the former governor of Shinano, a master of masaru and pipa in the Kamakura period, had hoped to retire because he had not succeeded in composing the "Dance of the Seven Virtues", but with the help of the monks of Cijin, he finally wrote the Tale of The Tale of The Heike family, which was composed by a blind monk, which was the earliest "Pingqu".
Like composers, most of the wandering reciters with pipas are blind monks, and in order to facilitate playing, they will transform the musical pipa used for court music and become "blind monk pipa". A new chapter in Japanese medieval music was ushered in.
The tradition of dance music gradually fell from the hall, and at this time, Chinese scattered music and acrobatic performances were also introduced to Japan, and together with the "Tian Dance", Tian No le was formed, which was loved by the samurai. Hojo Takashi and Ashikaga Takashi all loved Takuno to perform.
Noh is composed of three parts: the cube, the ground ballad, and the miscellaneous square, and the instrumental music uses a delicate flute called "noh pipe" to lead the performance, while the vocal instruments are mainly large drums and small drums.
Secular music widely recognized by the people
Maybe you haven't heard of Nagato, but you must know a thing or two about Kabuki. As a "qu art field" of civic entertainment, it has led secular music to the mainstream.
After the 17th century, Japanese music culture finally returned to the folk. Shamisen, Hu Bow, Shakuhachi, Ichisen, and of course, the pipa, which grew up with Japanese music, became the most important members of Japanese music in recent times.
The Nagato, which arose during the Edo period, was the platform for the fusion of these instruments, especially the shamisen and dance. In fact, "Nagato" is strictly a long-tone song, which takes the song as the main body, and is a drama song born of Kabuki, so to speak, just like a traditional "musical" of the Japanese wind, but the theater is not their final destination.
How did that sentence come about? A chief flew out of the window.
The independent Nagaba even had its own personality, forming various small songs, and feeding most of the "pop music scene" of the Edo period.
During this period, the "shakuhachi" introduced to Japan by the Tang Dynasty in the Nara period gradually formed its own characteristics through the improvement of the nihilistic monks, and participated in most of the music creation.
Puppet pure glass also gradually developed, "pure glass" is a Buddhist music genre, at the end of the 16th century, "mages" manipulated puppets to play shamisen to perform to make a living.
By the 19th century, vocal music, a traditional Japanese music, had taken shape. Or for singing, or for narrative arias, its scales and modes are mostly five-tone modes with no adrents or accompanied voices; the former has folk mode and rhythm mode; the latter has a metropolitan mode and a Ryukyu mode; in modern times, it has also formed a four-seven major mode and a five-tone mode. Rhythmically, it is divided into fixed beat rhythm and loose plate rhythm.
Fusion of Western music, the birth of a master
In the 19th century, Japan experienced a period of great political, social, and cultural transition from the modern era to the modern era, and even the traditional Music of Japan itself underwent major changes such as the reorganization of music projects.
The entry of military music and Christian churches brought a new musical system - Western music.
At the beginning of the 20th century, in line with the music curriculum system, Taki Ryotaro composed the school songs "Flower" and "Deserted City Moon".
During the Taisho period, Yamada Kosho, a generation of grain producers, began to try to integrate traditional Japanese music with the West, and he was the first to compose the orchestral piece "Mandala Flower".
In addition, there are the national song "Kuzuru" by Tuan Yi Jiuma and the "Three Chapters of String Music" by Yashi Wasagawa.
Famous composers such as Takemitsu and Miyoshi Akira are also the leaders in this trend, and Takemitsu's "Ladder of November" is refreshing in the international music scene.
Japanese music, reborn in the new "crisis", especially in the Japanese music industry after the 20th century, can be described as a master, has its own voice on the world platform.
National style music in recent years
It also borrows a lot of Japanese anime music
Do you have a favorite Japanese music?
What do you think about Japanese music masters?
↓ Welcome to leave a message, and share it with Xiaoyin~
Key references
Park Yu-min, ed., A Brief Introduction to Contemporary Movements and Art Trends in The World's Music, Jilin Publishing Group Co., Ltd., January 2015.
Li Fei, "Translation of Japan's Acceptance of Western Music in the Nineteenth Century" and Book Review, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Master's Thesis, 2009.
Feng Peijie: "From the Music of Spirited Away to the Artistic Personality of Japanese Animation", Hebei University, Master's Thesis.
Masaya Ogawa: The Dual Significance of Hansrick's "On The Beauty of Music: Establishment of Music Aesthetics and Fundamentals of Musicology", Young Researchers Forum, Keio University.
History of Japanese Music: http://jtrad.columbia.jp/jpn/history.html