Gagaku Music
With the repopularization of Gagaku music during the Meiji Restoration, the task of restoring the Gagaku repertoire fell to the court musicians of the Imperial household. It may be said that, like many other historic attempts at restoration, Gagaku music was not simply resurrected but re-created. More modern methods of musical analysis and composition were used as foundational material, applied to what historical aspects of Gagaku were known, and then a set of musical principles based upon history and modern musicology were laid down and applied (Gottschewski, 241).
The Gagaku repertoire as it is known today was principally created as the work of a professional collective. The first members of the restored court music department (founded in 1877), officially called the Department of Chamber Ceremonies in the Imperial Household Ministry (now called the Music Department of the Imperial Household), were accomplished musicians in their own right, well-versed in western music. In fact, many of them would later go on to compose western-style classical music in addition to Gagaku. Rather than attributing a specific song to a single member of the department, compositions were written in the name of the entire department represented by an individual member (Gottschewski, 243).
Whether lyrics were applied to melodies or not, poetry became the basis for Gagaku composition. Sections of verse were written first, and then had melody applied after the fact. Rhythm and tempo were based upon these particular passages of verse (even when no words would be part of the composition), in order to reflect specific ideas. The court musicians were responsible for applying some form of standardization to Gagaku, establishing accepted rhythms, meter, phraseology, etc. (Gottschewski, 248).
The Rhythm of Gagaku is supported by accompanying instruments, but is initiated by the beating of the shakubyoshi, a type of wooden clapper. Rather than thinking of the rhythm as a steady beat like a western metronome, the rhythm of Gagaku comes more as a cycle. To western ears, it may sound syncopated or even completely disjointed. It is rather free-formed, as compared to traditional western music, and the tempo is usually maintained at a slow to moderate pace (https://ccrma.stanford.edu/groups/gagaku/theory/rhythm-en.html).
Melody in Gagaku is particularly different from western music in that there is no repetition of melodic tunes. Use of the wagon provides a steady harmonic pulse, along with various drums, while wind and string instruments (and the occasional use of the shoko) create what might almost be described as ordered soundscapes that meet and diverge in such a way as to create a sound that is organically unified and yet sounds almost improvised (Gottschewski, 244-247). They might best be described as having a “linear form” (Gottschewski, 253).
The Gagaku Scale is a variation of the western pentatonic scale: the ryo and ritsu, which can be classified into three modal systems (Gottschewski, 249). “Only the following four pitches are used as fundamental tones: D, A, E, and B, within each of the modes they act as pillar-tones. [The figure below] shows the three modal systems where the pillar-tones are indicated as a half-note” (https://ccrma.stanford.edu/groups/gagaku/theory/pitch-en.html).
