Chinese and Japanese Music-Dramas by J. I. Crump

Author:J. I. Crump
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Michigan Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Lines 4 and 5 of Example 6 continue to illustrate the principle under consideration. The 6 + 5 line is "filled out” by an extension of time spent on the syllable no, and this more complicated situation is given firmer rhythmic support with a more active pattern (tsuzuke) played in a more rigid form. Note how the final syllable te is strung out to make up the beginning space of the next eight beats. Line 5 presents yet further compositional demands as only seven syllables are present and they are in the last half of the phrase rather than the first half seen in line 2 and in Example 5. To help out this extension of the former text phrase and the first syllable of the new line, the ō tsuzumi plays a pattern which avoids its usual accent on beat 3. At the same time, the first entrance of the ko tsuzumi is delayed by half a beat in order that the subsequent five syllables get off to a secure start.

The degree to which this give-and-take of rhythmic placements is practiced is not always evident, for professional copies of drum parts merely give the name of the pattern to be used at the spot in the text where it starts. Fortunately, the lesson books in the style of Example 6 give us a fairly clear indication of the degree of flexibility allowed within the tradition. Unlike the lead sheets of Western jazz and popular music, the drum notations of professional Noh are not the basis for improvisation. However, variations in the interpretations of a given passage occur both between performances of different schools of Noh and of different artists in one school. In the preparation for this discussion, a study was made of two different publications of the kuse section of the play Takasago (Kojima, 1900, Vol. 3, pp. 16–25; Senka, 1913, Vol. 4, pp. 1–3) and a recording of the same work (Victor SJ 3005). The degree to which they were the same and to which they were different is a study in itself. An additional fact that it may add to our present research is its implication of the "secret” tradition so common in Japanese music. There is always a “correct” way of performing a piece, but the details of such a rendition are seldom available to the uninitiated. Those of us outside the guilds can only be grateful that so much musical information is available in Noh and that the creation of recordings has frozen given performances for our perusal. One hopes that similar sources may be available in the equally interesting field of Chinese theatrical music.

Examples 5 and 6 give one the impression that Noh music is set in a constant series of eight-beat phrases, but this is not so. The three different overall rhythmic structures (ō, chū, and hira nori), the variety in the number of syllables in a line, and the artistic prolongations of the length of a hold on one syllable create many situations which require longer or shorter phrases.

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