THE MUSIC ARCHIVE O F MONASHUNIVERSITY

presents

A SUNDAY AFTERNOON OF MUSIC FROM CHINA AND JAPAN

featuring Wang Zheng-Ting, sheng 笙 Brandon Lee, koto 箏 Lindsay Dugan, shakuhachi 尺八

in the Music Auditorium

Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music

followed by

AN EXHIBITION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND ARTEFACTS FROM

CHINA AND JAPAN

in the Foyer of the Music Auditorium, launched by

Ms. Prue Holstein Sunday 2 June 2019

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Concert Program ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….4

Program Notes …………………………………………………………………………………………………………...5

Performer Profiles ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..7

The Exhibition ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8

Music of China …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9

Chinese Musical Instruments on Display ………………………………………………………10

Music of Japan …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..14

About the Japanese Instruments on Display ……………………………………………….15

Japanese Music Archive, Monash University ………………………………………………17

Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………………………………………19

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CONCERT PROGRAMMUSIC OF CHINA

Wang Zheng-Ting, sheng 笙 (Chinese ‘mouth organ’; see p. 12)

The Beauty of the Peacock, Composed by Yan Haideng

Heaven and Hell, Composed by Wang Zheng-Ting

Melody of Shanxi Opera, composed by Yan Haideng

INTERVAL

JAPANESE AND CHINESE MUSICAL COLLABORATIONWang Zheng-Ting, Brandon Lee and Lindsay Dugan

Chidori 「千鳥の曲」

Purple Bamboo

INTERVAL

MUSIC OF JAPAN

Brandon Lee, koto 箏 (13-stringed board zither; see p. 15)Lindsay Dugan, shakuhachi 尺八 (vertical bamboo flute; see p. 16)

Daha, shakuhachi solo honkyoku「打破」尺八本曲

Tori no Yō ni, koto solo, Tadao Sawai 「鳥のように」（沢井忠夫）

Sekishun, koto and shakuhachi duet, Yokoyama Katsuya 「惜春」（横山勝也）

LAUNCH OF THE EXHIBITION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND

ARTEFACTS FROM CHINA AND JAPAN

PRESENTED BY THE MUSIC ARCHIVE OF MONASH UNIVERSITY (MAMU)

byMs. Prue Holstein

(former posts: Trade Commissioner and Consul for the Australian Government in Chicago, USA and in Osaka, Japan; Commissioner for Japan and Korea, for the Victorian State Government; Executive Director, the Asia Society AustralAsia Centre)

The Exhibition is open weekdays from 9am to 5pm in the Performing Arts Building, 55 Scenic Boulevard, Monash University, Clayton.

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PROGRAM NOTES

Music of China

The Beauty of the Peacock, Composed by Yan Haideng

Adapting a Shanxi folk song as source material, this piece depicts the beauty of the peacock as it welcomed the spring with its colourful wings.

Heaven and Hell, Composed by Wang Zheng-Ting

This piece was commissioned by the American Composer’s Forum in 1996. The music is inspired by the Buddhist concept of Karma, which advocates that one’s afterlife is determined by one’s previous existence. It is, in fact, possible for deliverance from Karma through the performance of beneficent deeds. The performing techniques of the piece are borrowed from different musical cultures. A soundscape recording was used for the piece featuring a didgeridoo to represent the sounds of Australia.

Melody of Shanxi Opera, Composed by Yan Haideng

This piece is based on the melody of Shanxi Opera, and is one of the most well-known Sheng solo pieces. The piece is quite dramatic, vividly imitating the characters of the Opera.

Japanese and Chinese Musical Collaboration: sheng, koto, shakuhachi

Chidori 「千鳥の曲」Composed by blind composer Yoshizawa Kengyō (1800-1872).

In this classical jiuta 地 歌 piece, an instrumental prelude (maebiki) and interlude (tegoto) separate two songs about plovers on the shore. Only the instrumental sections are heard in today’s performance, where koto and shakuhachi are joined by the sheng to create a unique timbre. In Japan, the equivalent instrument, shō, would never be used in the traditional jiuta ensemble, so genre boundaries and national boundaries are being crossed in this collaboration.

Purple Bamboo Tune (Traditional)

This music used to be a popular love song in Suzhou, an ancient and beautiful city of the Jiangsu province in China, and was later adopted by the Shanghai local opera Huju. Because of its beautiful melody the tune has become a well-known piece of Chinese music.

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Music of Japan

Daha「打破」, shakuhachi solo honkyoku 尺八本曲.

This traditional piece is one of a body of shakuhachi music transmitted by itinerant monks called komusō (“priests of nothingness”), of the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism. The title, Pounding Waves, invokes an image of waves eroding rock over eons, symbolizing the erosion of one’s own illusions.

Tori no yō ni「鳥のように」, koto solo, by Tadao Sawai 沢井忠夫.

This is one of the masterpieces of Tadao Sawai (1938-1997), a composer who was born into a family of traditional musicians. It has become a modern classic performed by players from many different schools of koto.

Elizabeth Falconer wrote about Sawai’s music:Sawai's music is dramatic and intense, yet with an element of lightness intertwined, leaving the listener spiritually refreshed. His works have as themes not only the traditional water and seasons often found in koto repertoire but reflect his own perspective of nature that include movement and flight, a feeling of weightlessness; Tori no yō ni (Like a Bird) and Habataki (Taking Flight) are examples of this. He was also quite moved by the quiet and sometimes brilliant beauty of flowers, and wrote pieces with names such as Hana Ikada (Flower Raft), Manjushage (Amaryllis) and Hyakkafu (Multitude of Flowers). Pieces such as these have the left and right hands working constantly, building shifting patterns and utilizing dual rhythms, intertwining textures by using a number of different plucking techniques, some of which he invented and developed. He was a genius when it came to combining soft harmonics and pizzicato with percussive hitting of the strings and tremolos that move across the strings. There is a strength around which the grace of his music is built, and it pulls the listener in.

Sekishun「惜春」, koto and shakuhachi duet, by Yokoyama Katsuya 横山勝也, 1981.

A duet for koto and shakuhachi composed by shakuhachi genius Yokoyama Katsuya (1934-2010) in 1981. Yokoyama paid homage to the famous Haru no umi, with the tuning of the koto, and the same length of flute (1.6 shaku instead of the standard 1.8). He succeeded in creating a subtle ensemble of the two instruments proper to chamber music. The piece conveys a mood of regret and sadness at the passing of spring and the loss of youth, both only a fleeting moment.

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Performer profiles

Wang Zheng-Ting graduated from Shanghai Music Conservatory and completed a MA at Monash University and a PhD in Ethnomusicology at the University of Melbourne on the history of Chinese Performing Arts in Australia. He currently coordinates the Chinese Instrumental Music Class at the University of Melbourne. He has been a visiting scholar at the City University of New York, and at Xiamen University, China, research fellow at Sichuan Conservatory of Music in China and had served as Melbourne International Festival Ambassador. He has held recitals in USA, UK, Swaziland, Germany, New Zealand and Vienna. He has performed with the Venice Chamber Orchestra in Italy, with New Zealand String Quartet in Wellington and alongside Christine Sullivan at the Shanghai International Spring Festival. Last year he conducted lectures at Institut fur Volksmusikforschung und Ethnomusukologie, Vienna; Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Institut fur Musikwissenschaft, Bern.

Brandon Lee is a performer of the Japanese koto based in Melbourne. Originally from Malaysia, he started studying koto while attending university in Melbourne. He later moved to Tokyo and was a live-in apprentice for koto virtuoso Kazue Sawai. In 2011, he obtained his teaching and performance license from the Sawai Koto School. In 2014, he graduated with a Master of Music from Monash University. Brandon has actively performed all around Australia, including Melbourne, Sydney, and Broome. He has performed at events and festivals such as, NGV’s Cool Japan, Broome’s Shinju Matsuri, and more. He has also performed internationally in Japan and America. Brandon performs both classical and contemporary koto music and is also interested in cross-cultural collaboration in music. He has worked with musicians such as Anne Norman, Peter Knight, Andrea Keeble, and Sandy Evans.

Lindsay Dugan lived for ten years in Japan, studying classical honkyoku with Katsuya Yokoyama and Kaoru Kakizakai, and Kinko-ryū honkyoku and gaikyoku with Jūmei Tokumaru. He holds Masters degrees in shakuhachi performance from Tokyo University of Arts and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and is a shihan of the Chikushinkai/KSK. He is currently completing doctoral research on the variations in honkyoku between three generations of teacher-student transmission: Watazumi Dōso (1911-1992), Yokoyama Katsuya (1934-2010), and Yokoyama’s students.

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THE EXHIBITION

Australia is blessed with a rich tapestry of peoples and cultures, many of them from distant lands. Our monthly concert series presents examples of music and dance enjoyed and performed by members of some of the cultural groups who have made Australia their home. To demonstrate the general wealth and breadth of the artistic traditions that have helped propagate the various performances for your viewing and listening pleasure, each concert is accompanied by an exhibition of associated instruments, artefacts, books and audio/visual media.

This month we are focussing on China and Japan as the information on the previous pages indicates. We are very fortunate to have as part of our MAMU team Associate-Professor Alison Tokita who is an Adjunct Researcher and Director of the Japanese Music Archive within MAMU at Monash University, and a Guest Professor at the Kyoto City University of Arts. More importantly for the purposes of this Concert and Exhibition, Alison is a recognised specialist researcher on the music of East Asia, particularly Japanese musical narrative traditions. In recent years, she has researched music and modernity in East Asia, focusing on the piano and the art song. From the 1980s to 2010, she belonged to the Japanese Studies Department at Monash University and from 1995 to 2004, she was Director of the Japanese Studies Centre. Alison has held professorial appointments at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (2010-2013), Doshisha University (2013-2014), and the Kyoto City University of Arts, where she was Director of the Research Centre for Japanese Traditional Music from 2014 to 2018. Alison has also been the recipient of several awards including the 33rd Tanabe Hisao Prize for her monograph Japanese Singers of Tales: Ten Centuries of Performed Narrative (Ashgate 2015), the 28th Koizumi Fumio Prize for Ethnomusicology (in 2016), and the Kyoto Newspaper Prize (Academic). We are therefore delighted that she has agreed to be co-curator of the Exhibition, and the MC for the Concert. Moreover, we are grateful for her valuable advice and assistance during the organization phase of the Concert.

In the Catalogue, we have provided background information on the relevant music cultures to establish a general context for the items on display. Alison authored the piece on the Music of Japan and provided the informative captions embedded with the Japanese audio-visual examples on the interactive iPads. Bronia Kornhauser researched and authored the piece on the Music of China, with valuable input from Margaret Kartomi, Director of MAMU. The contributions and efforts of our assistant archivists Anthea Skinner and Annette Bowie, and our intern Tate Lawler, ensured the completion of the Catalogue, the displays and the iPad data. We hope you enjoy browsing the exhibits.

Bronia KornhauserArchivist and Curator

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Music of China

Court scholars of the Zhou dynasty (1046-256 BCE) may be credited with inventing the world's earliest system of musical instrument classification. The Zhou Li text identifies eight distinct resonating materials used in instrument construction: metal, stone, clay, skin, silk, wood, gourd and bamboo; hence the classification is named ba yin, meaning 'eight tone'. (Alan R. Thrasher. 2000. Chinese Musical Instruments. New York: OUP)

Instruments made from each of these eight materials controlled one of the dances performed at rituals, which in turn could induce one of the eight winds emanating from each of the eight compass points shown in the diagram. The eight-part concept of music and instruments were thus part of the calendrical system, the weather, the seasons, and even cosmological thought.

From Joseph Needham and Kenneth Robinson. 1962. ‘Sound Acoustics’, Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 4: Physics and Physical Technology, Part 1. Physics. UK: Cambridge University Press, pp155-56:

“First, autumn is the season when the Yang forces of nature are in retreat, and bells or metal slabs were the instruments sounded when a commander ordered his troops to retire.

In winter there occurred one of the most solemn ceremonies of the year, when the sun was assisted over the crisis of the solstice by the help of sympathetic magic. The primeval instrument, the drum, was essential to this ceremony, and there could be none more fitting to announce the sun’s renewed advance than the drum which also sounded the advance in human conflict and battle.

In spring when men desire trees to bud and crops to grow, the most potent instrument would naturally be one made of bamboo, a plant of such vitality that it remains green even in winter. The various types of bamboo, then, through which men’s chhi flows causes a similar chhi in Nature to respond, were the instruments of spring, and even in the orthodox eightfold classification the other vegetable substances, wood and gourd, were associated with this season.

Finally, in summer when the silkworms are fattening on mulberry leaves, or spinning their cocoons, it was appropriate to play an instrument whose strings were of silk. Moreover, summer was the time when drought was to be feared, and the zithers which accompanied rain-making songs were believed to be excellent implements of magic.

The association of the instruments with the points of the compass was no less straightforward. If autumn is the season of decline, the west is its direction, whereas spring and the east are contrary. Similarly, the north and winter must be associated with cold, and the south and summer with heat.”

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Chinese Musical Instruments on Display

STONE The qing 磬 (sounding stone) instruments include fish-shaped percussion rattles. Our specimen (donated by Dr David Mitchell and Dr Tuti Gunawan and made of metal) is from Yunnan Province and contains rice grains that make a soft sound when shaken. It occurs in several sizes, with the largest suitable for storing grain. A large version of the instrument was shaken rhythmically to accompany the Ceramic Ring Fish Dance (tao xiang yu) in the Han dynasty (221 BCE-206CE). Several ancient specimens of this instrument have been found in the tombs of kings of ancient China, when they were buried with their possessions to show their status, as in the case of

the famous archaeological tomb of the Marqis Yi of Zeng, Zeng Hou Yi Mu. When the instrument is shaken it produces a soft sound. It was possibly used by lovers communicating softly in order not to be heard by their parents.

The qing group of instruments also include stone chimes (not on display) that are flat and L-shaped and struck with a mallet. Sets of tuned stones are known as bian qing 編磬 (arranged qing) and were an important instrument in China's ritual and court music going back to ancient times. Some of these chime bells have been dated at between 2,000 to 3,600 years old, but modern sets are also played in some large Chinese orchestras today.

METALBian zhong 編鐘 (tuned set of bells): a miniature replica of an ancient Chinese musical instrument that is still performed in modern Chinese orchestras. The zhong (clapperless bronze bell) was used to punctuate ritual melodies in large court orchestras, and when arranged in tuned sets, the term became bian zhong (arranged zhong). The bells are suspended from a wooden frame and struck with a mallet to produce melodies and rhythms. (Not on display.)

Bronze casting, one of the greatest achievements of the Shang (1600-1046 BCE) and Zhou (1046-256 BCE) dynasties, was used mainly for construction of ritual implements such as bells and vessels. There is etymological and structural evidence to suggest that the Chinese clapperless bells may have evolved from grain scoops. Some bells were used as signalling instruments on the battlefield. In modern orchestras, the bian zhong can comprise at least 60 bells.

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SILK For millennia, silk was the traditional material used for the strings on Chinese plucked and bowed stringed instruments such as zithers (zheng 箏) and lutes (xin 琴 , pipa 琵琶 and sanxian 三線). The Liji (Record of Rituals from around the first century BCE) suggests that silk strings represent ‘purity’ ( li an) and ‘determination’ (zhi), an indication of the high value assigned by Confucian scholars to stringed instruments. (Alan R. Thrasher. 2000. Chinese Musical Instruments. New York: OUP, p18.)

Silk strings were gradually replaced by other materials such as metal and nylon. In fact, it was only in the mid-1950s that the pipa’s (plucked lute) strings changed from silk to steel.

The pi’pa 琵琶 is a four-stringed plucked lute, with 24–30 frets and a pear-shaped body, which is held upright when played. An instrumentalist

uses five small plectra attached to each finger of the right hand to pluck the strings, although over the centuries, a finger-picking technique has also developed. The pi’pa's history can be dated back at least 2000 years during which the scale used has evolved from pentatonic to the 12-

tone equal temperament scale. This instrument also has a very wide dynamic range and remarkable expressive power. It is the prototype of

the Japanese biwa 琵琶.

Often referred to as the ‘Chinese Guitar’, the ruan 阮 is a plucked stringed instrument with a long neck, four strings, a fretted fingerboard and a resonator box shaped like a full moon. Nowadays there are three sizes of the instrument, the zhong ru an (medium ru an) being the most popular.

The erhu 二胡 is a bowed Chinese two-stringed fiddle with a body and neck made of wood, and a bow usually of bamboo and horsehair. Two tuning pegs are attached to the top of the neck. At the lower end of the erhu is a short hexagonal-shaped tube resonator, the front of which is covered with snake skin, on which in turn is attached a small wooden bridge to bear the two strings.

The erhu has some unusual features. Its characteristic sound is produced through the vibration of the python skin by bowing. The horse hair bow is never separated from the strings (which were formerly of twisted silk but which today are usually made of metal); it passes between them as opposed to over them. There is no fingerboard; the player stops the strings by pressing fingertips onto the strings without the strings touching the neck. Although there are two strings,

they are very close to each other and the player's left hand in effect plays as if on one string. These 13

instruments come in several sizes. In the 1940s the influence of Western music and styles of performance on Chinese music resulted in the emergence of large folk instrumental ensembles with a broader sound range similar to a Western symphony orchestra.

WOOD

Gu 鼓 (drum) is the generic term for membranophone and is usually accompanied by a prefix to specify the type of drum being played. Widely varied in size and usage, most indigenous Chinese drums have a barrel-shaped body with the skin being tacked on (rather than laced to) the upper, or upper and under side of the body. The drum on display is a double-sided xiao tang gu beaten with two mallets.

GOURD

The sheng 笙 is a traditional mouth organ originally used in ritual ceremonies as well as for entertainment. According to Chinese historical literature, ancient instruments similar to the sheng are considered to date from the Shang (1600-1046 BCE) and Zhou (1046-256 BCE) dynasties. The body of the instrument was made of gourd with holes for inserting the bamboo pipes generating the sound in a similar manner to the modern sheng. The base, which today may be made of gourd, wood or metal, acts as a resonator. One of the sheng on display has a lacquered wooden bowl and bamboo pipes, the other has a metal-plated bowl with bronze-topped bamboo pipes. It is the cognate instrument of the Japanese shō 笙.

BAMBOO

The naturally hollow interior of bamboo symbolises humility and modesty and the hardiness of the material represents human endurance and longevity. Since antiquity, these qualities were imbued into Chinese flutes, some of which are still highly venerated. The two main types of flute used in China are the dizi 笛子 (transverse flute) and xiao 簫 (vertical flute).

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The dizi 笛子 is a side-blown flute originating during the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). The instrument has six finger holes, with another hole between the mouthpiece and first finger hole. The extra hole is covered by a thin membrane which vibrates when a player blows into the mouthpiece, creating a bright buzzing nasal timbre which is a distinguishing feature of the instrument. The dizi's range is about two and a half octaves. Modern dizi are factory produced and usually finished with a coat of paint or lacquer and come in varied lengths for specific tone qualities and effects. Although there have been recent attempts to improve the dizi by adding extra finger holes and keys, most players prefer the traditional six-hole keyless model. The dizi on display was donated by Dr. R. Yu and is made of lacquered wood.

Although shaped like a flute, the bawu 巴烏 is a free reed instrument, with a

single metal reed and played in a transverse manner. Some modern ones can be played vertically. The bawu's cylindrical bore is made of a tube of bamboo closed off at one end by a natural node. Near the closed end, a small square hole is cut and a thin reed of bronze or copper is fastened with a plastic or bone mouthpiece around it. The mouth must cover the entire mouthpiece to produce a sound, which has been described as clarinet-like. Our bawu has seven fingerholes on the front and one thumbhole on the back.

Before the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) the xiao 簫 referred to Chinese panpipes; subsequently it came to denote a vertical, end-blown flute. In our display, the xiao is a vertical notched bamboo flute with four

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(others may have five) finger holes in the front and one hole at the back and has a pitch range of about two octaves. It is the prototype of the Japanese shakuhachi 尺八.

Music of Japan

The Japanese Archipelago has been inhabited for at least 16,000 years, and the earliest communities held rituals with musical elements such as chant, drums, flutes and plucked strings. This is the origin of the wide range of shrine and festival music still practised in Japan today that can be called indigenous music. With the active adoption of Chinese court music (gagaku 雅 楽 ) from the 17th century, the continental instrumentarium entered Japan, including biwa 琵琵 (short-necked fretted lute), koto 箏 (long board zither), shakuhachi 尺八 (end-blown bamboo flute) and other wind and percussion instruments. These were actively played in court, temples and shrines, and formed the basis of Japan’s subsequent instrumental music. Buddhist liturgical music also entered Japan from the 6 th century, and eventually interacted with indigenous music to form Japan’s distinctive vocal and story-singing genres.

The modern koto and shakuhachi both originated in the prototype instruments of the gagaku ensemble that in later centuries crossed into a number of different contexts. In the Edo period (1600-1867) the koto was developed as a new kind of art music in the guild of blind musicians. The shakuhachi became a monopoly of the Fuke Zen sect from the 16 th

century as a meditative practice, not strictly music, but it eventually became part of the blind musicians’ ensembles.

The shamisen 三 味 線 (three-stringed long-necked lute) was a much later import from China. It had crossed to the Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa) by the 14 th century, and entered Japan by the late 15th century. It was taken up by the blind story-singing biwa players (‘lute priests’ or biwa hōshi 琵琶法師 ), whose instrument had derived from the gagaku biwa. They developed new narrative and lyric musical applications for the instrument, notably in combination with koto, the bowed kokyū 胡弓 (long-necked stringed instrument), and later the shakuhachi.

This ensemble of koto, shamisen and shakuhachi is one of the most widespread forms of traditional music in contemporary Japan, called jiuta 地歌 . Both koto and shakuhachi have extensive solo repertoire, but shamisen is mostly performed together with song or narrative.

The shamisen diversified to become the accompanying instrument for a great number of genres. In the story-singing genre of jōruri 浄瑠璃, it replaced the biwa, and is used in the puppet theatre and in kabuki theatre. In the lyric chamber music domain, it is the core of jiuta, with a large repertoire of vocal pieces, and in ensemble with koto, shakuhachi or kokyū. Shamisen is also used in naniwa-bushi 浪花節 (another story-singing genre), and in folk music. The jazzy Tsugaru-jamisen 津軽三味線 has become known widely outside Japan.

In the modern period, under the impact of Western music, both koto and shakuhachi actively developed new repertoire, styles and techniques within the hereditary structures,

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by composers who grew up as traditional performers. In the post-war period in particular many western-style composers have created works for these instruments; they are outside the tradition, and use the instruments as sound resources for their compositions. Most performers are at home with both types of piece.

Alison TokitaCo-Curator

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About the Japanese Instruments on Display

Koto 箏 – new and old

The koto is a board zither, made of pawlonia wood, strung with thirteen strings of silk or tetron, supported by bridges of ivory or plastic. The bridges are movable, allowing for a number of different tunings; they may be moved during a piece to achieve modulation or pitches required momentarily. The strings are plucked with the thumb and index and middle fingers of the right hand, which wear ivory “nails” (tsume) or picks. The Chinese prototype of the instrument, the zheng, is basically the same structure. In both countries, the number of strings of the koto / zheng has been expanded in modern times to make multiple versions. In Japan, a seventeen-string version, or bass koto, was created by Miyagi Michio in the 1920s; in the postwar period kotos with twenty, twenty-five and thirty strings have been made and repertoire has been developed for them.

Illustrated on the right is the honjitate nagaiso koto (lit. “original”, long-“rocky shore” koto) featuring gold inlay, lacquer work and tortoise shell. The crest of the former owner is inlaid into the side of the instrument. The five layers of brocade at the top indicate high status. It retains the shape of koto used in gagaku (usually called gakusō 楽箏).

On loan from Alison Tokita.

Illustrated on the left is the standard koto in common use today, differing in length, shape and amount of decoration (MAMU). The nagaiso koto on display is 192 cm in length, whereas the standard one is 182 cm. The length of koto has varied over the centuries and until recently, the style of koto varied considerably in different parts of Japan. The nagaiso koto was commonly used in the Ikuta-ryū lineage in Kyoto up until the Second World War. This one probably dates from the 1920s or 1930s (personal communication from Professor Makoto Hasegawa, Shizuoka University). It was acquired by Alison Tokita from a container-load of miscellaneous antiques in Melbourne, and was re-strung.

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Shamisen 三味線 (three-stringed plucked lute)

On display is a shamisen used to accompany kiyomoto-bushi 清元節, one of the many styles of story-singing called jōruri. Other jōruri genres include gidayū-bushi (used in the puppet theatre), tokiwazu-bushi, shinnai-bushi and so on. Kiyomoto-bushi and tokiwazu-bushi accompany kabuki dance. Displayed are a wooden practice bachi plectrum, circular pitch pipes, and thumb glove. Professionals as much as possible use ivory bachi. Jiuta performers use an ivory bachi inlaid with tortoise-shell tips.

On loan from Alison Tokita.

There are many genres of shamisen music, and although all are the same length, each has different thickness of neck, size of body, size and weight of plectrum and bridge, and thickness and weight of strings. The strings are always silk. The preferred skin of the shamisen is traditionally cat, or cheaper and more durable is dog skin. Experiments with synthetic materials are widespread, and recently kangaroo skin is being used.

Shakuhachi 尺八 (Old bamboo pipe; on loan from Alison Tokita)

The shakuhachi is a vertical bamboo flute with four holes on top, and one thumb hole underneath. The standard pipe is 54 centimetres in length, but longer and shorter ones are commonly used in order to be able to play in different keys. The modern shakuhachi has the bamboo pipe bored and lacquered to create regular inner space and facilitate pitch placement.

However, some performers favour the old unlacquered instruments (jinashi 地無し), harder to play but said to produce a more authentic tone. While the best instruments are hand-crafted and can be extremely expensive, because it is a very popular instrument, flutes made of wood, and of plastic, are available cheaply.

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Musical notation example

In Japanese music each instrument and each genre has its own unique notation system. This is the performance score of the nagauta vocal and shamisen piece Aki no irokusa. It is arranged along the vertically written sung text, using cipher notation where 1 is C or do, but the shamisen tuning and the nuclear tones are 7, 3, 7, or B, E, b. The traditional solfege or kuchi jamisen is also written in. The red pencil markings are personal indications for the shamisen written in by the former owner of the score.

Japanese Music Archive, Monash University

The JMA was established in 1988 through the initiative of Professor Jiri Neustupny and Professor Margaret Kartomi. Alison Tokita was appointed Director. A joint initiative of the Institute for Contemporary Asian Studies, the Department of Japanese Studies and the Department of Music, it was located in the Music Library on the 8 th floor of the Menzies Building. Its purpose was to provide a focus for research in Japanese music, and to foster knowledge and appreciation of Japanese music at Monash and the wider community. It was a collection of research materials, books, scores, recordings and instruments. Alison Tokita obtained substantial funding from the Osaka Expo Fund and the Japan Foundation for systematic acquisitions, and also solicited donations of materials from a wide range of researchers and performers in Japan.

A catalogue of the JMA holdings was published in 1993, and in conjunction with an exhibition of selected holdings, this was launched with a ceremony and performance by Satsuki Odamura and Anne Norman in the newly refurbished Mathieson Library. After the Music Library re-located to the Main Library, the JMA was dispersed. Instruments were being used in various locations, including the Japanese Studies Centre where group and individual teaching took place. Books were gradually catalogued and incorporated into the Japanese Studies Collection of the Matheson Library. Recordings (LP records, cassettes and some CDs) are partially catalogued. Scores have never been catalogued but are available for inspection if needed.

It is hoped that the JMA can make a useful contribution within MAMU, and to Japanese Studies, as well as enhancing the profile of Japanese music research and performance in Australia. Alison Tokita’s personal collection of recordings, books, scores and instruments relating to Japanese music accumulated over 45 years of research will be made available to MAMU over time. Areas of strength include materials relating to heike, noh, kōwaka, shamisen music, jōruri, naniwa-bushi, modern piano and art song. In addition, the traditional and modern music of Korea, China and Taiwan are well represented.

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Further Reading on music of Japan

Hugh de Ferranti, Japanese Musical Instruments, Oxford University Press 2000Hugh de Ferranti, The Last Biwa Singer: a blind musician in history, imagination and

performance, Cornell East Asia Series 2009Hugh de Ferranti & Alison Tokita (eds), Music, Modernity and Locality: Osaka and Beyond,

Ashgate 2013Luciana Galliano, Yogaku: Japanese Music in the Twentieth Century. Scarecrow Press 2002Gerald Groemer, Goze: women, musical performance, and visual disability in traditional Japan,

Oxford University Press 2016David W. Hughes, Folksong in Modern Japan: Sources, Sentiment and Society, Global Oriental

2008Henry Johnson, The Koto: A Traditional Instrument in Contemporary Japan, Hotei 2004Henry Johnson, The Shamisen: Tradition and Diversity, Brill 2010Alison McQueen Tokita & David W. Hughes (eds), The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese

Music, Ashgate 2008Alison Tokita, Japanese Singers of Tales: Ten Centuries of Performed Narrative, Ashgate 2015Bonnie C. Wade, Composing Japanese Modernity, Chicago University Press 2014

Further Reading on music of China

Mark Bender, Plum and Bamboo: China’s Suzhou Chantefable Tradition, University of Illinois Press, 2003

Frederick Lau, Music in China: experiencing music, expressing culture, Oxford University Press 2008

Lee Yuan-Yuan and Shen, Sinyan. Chinese Musical Instruments (Chinese Music Monograph Series). 1999. Chinese Music Society of North America Press

Jingzhi Liu, A Critical History of New Music in China, Chinese University Press 2010Helen Rees, Lives in Chinese Music, University of Illinois Press 2009Sin-Yan Shen, Chinese Music in the Twentieth Century, Chinese Music Society of North America

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to Brendan McLeary and Jarryd Redwood of MPavilion and the Campus Centre for organizing and attending to the promotional work and materials for the Concert, and to Karl Willebrandt and his resource team for taking care of all our needs for the Concert and Exhibition.

Thank you to the talented performers for their participation in today’s Concert. Your dedication, hard work and striving for excellence have enriched our enjoyment of the event.

Many thanks to Ms Prue Holstein for launching our Exhibition and bringing her long experience of Japan, Korea and East Asia to bear on the occasion.

Thank you to Professor Margaret Kartomi for all her behind-the-scenes activity; our amazing team at MAMU: Dr Anthea Skinner who stepped into the breach during my absence; Dr Annette Bowie for attending to the myriad tasks required to sort and mount the items, as well as for supervising the interns (especially our intern Tate Lawler who was thrown in at the deep end and successfully rose to every task). Thanks also to Dr Alison Tokita for producing the concert and facilitating the Japanese side of the exhibition; our MPavilion team; and the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music resource team for always achieving the impossible!

And finally thank you to all the generous individuals and incorporated bodies who have donated and/or helped procure the instruments, recordings, books and artefacts that reside in MAMU and that are in today’s Exhibition.

Bronia Kornhauser

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MPavilion and Music Archive of Monash University (MAMU) Concert and Exhibition series at Monash University,

Semester 1, 2019

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