EAST ASIA'S GREATEST HITS

Piece #1: Rokudan no Shirabe

For the first in a limited series of classic music pieces from the Far East
(limited only by the number of sheet musics I can get my hands on),
I have chosen two versions - koto solo and koto accompanied by shakuhachi -
of Rokudan no Shirabe (translation: "A Study of Six Levels"). This is one
of the better known of the Japanese classics, and by far the best known
piece of the type called danmono ("leveled pieces").

The danmono format is one of the oldest formats of Japanese music,
the other being kumiuta ("assembled songs"). A danmono piece
consists of a number of sequential "levels", each of which varies
slightly from the one before, and each of which use the material
given in the first level. The "material" of the music is mainly
a series of ascents and descents in fifths, and the main cadence,
in terms of key C as the basis, is G-D-C. Most of the danmono are
written in the tuning system called "hira-jo_shi", a pentatonic
scale for which the open-string notes are C-D-D#-G-G#-C'.
Intermediate pitches are made on the koto - a long zither tuned
by raising the strings off the soundboard with bridges - by
manipulating the non-playing area of the strings on the left
side of the bridges with the left hand. The first string on the
koto - the farthest from the player - is one fifth ABOVE the
second string, and in fact has the same pitch as the fifth string.
This first string is only used alone, or in combination with the second
string to produce the open fifth chord called "shan", or when it
will be echoed or accompanied by the fifth string. The "shan" chord,
as will be heard, incorporates two of the primary registers of the
tuning system, and therefore the melody departs from and returns
to either or both of these pitches. The "shan" chord in some cases
can be likened to a drone for musical purposes, and this seems
an especially good analogy considering the drone of Scottish bagpipes
consists of the same open fifth chord.

Danmono begin with a cadence which expresses the three primary notes
of the tuning system used. After this opening cadence, called the "kando_",
come the levels, one after the other, each level containing 104 regular
beats. The first level, from which all susbsequent levels depart, has
basically three parts. In the first part, the piece reiterates the cadence,
then slowly rises in register, eventually covering all the strings on the koto. This task completed, a short state which one musical analyst calls "crisis" or "climax", ensues in which the piece "knocks its head against the ceiling" - remaining mostly in high register, but marked by irregularly paced phrases and
often unusual notes which are rarely found at any other time in the given
level. Finally, a descent is made, first hesitant, then in earnest, back
down through the registers, and finally sets itself up to repeat the main
cadence, thus drawing the level to a close and readying for the next level.
The final level often has a "hanging ending", which sets up for playing the
cadence but never actually does so.

#2 Godan ("Five Levels")

This is the other Danmono piece I've chosen to include, partly because it is
the shortest danmono piece, and partly because upon inspection I found that
this piece makes a nice demonstration of the "tsuki-iro", or "stabbing color"
technique described below. This technique occurs only once in Rokudan, but
is used extensively in Godan to add "lilt" to certain notes in the middle
of melodic strings.

Enjoy!

Oh, and... get some tea to drink. This piece is LONG. It took up nearly 60 blocks
in the Soundsmith document.

Times on my own computer for these pieces are:

Rokudan: 7:35
Haya-Rokudan: 5:00 (same piece as above, but different tempo changes)
Godan: 4:30

Thanks to Huibert for adding the pitch-sliding effects, which are NECESSARY
to simulate the "ato-oshi" (after-push) which raises the pitch of a string
after it is sounded, and the "tsuki-iro", which occurs in the first dan of this
piece, in which a string is played, then the tuning part of the string is "stabbed",
making a quick "lilting" rise and fall in the pitch. Thanks also for the tempo
change effect, which makes simulation of the accelerating nature of Asian songs
a lot easier.

More pieces for the koto and the shakuhachi ("One Foot Eight Inches" - the
length of the vertical flute called by this name), and a few others for
Chinese stringed instruments ch'in and cheng, will follow as soon as I
get some time.



