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ABSTRACT
This article re-examines some arguments about the practice of adding orally transmitted arpeggio-like figures, which I term chordal accretions, to the lute melodies of tōgaku (literally ‘Tang music’), a repertory of secular music imported to Japan from China between the seventh and the ninth centuries AD, and performed to this day. Previous scholarship shows divergent ideas regarding the use of arpeggios in the lute melodies: while some researchers believe that, like the modern practice, orally transmitted arpeggios were inserted into the historical melodies, others argue that the modern practice has no precedence in antiquity. Citing examples from historical and musical sources on Tang-dynasty (618–907) secular music and Japanese tōgaku, I demonstrate that arpeggios do in fact have a strong precedence in the antiquity of lute performance in China, and that the Japanese, to a large extent, preserved the Chinese practice during the early transmission of tōgaku. However, these historical arpeggios were different from those used in modern performance in terms of structure, technique and transmission. It was probably the decline of the tōgaku tradition in the fifteenth century and the misunderstanding of some information in historical sources during the standardisation of the repertory in the early Meiji period (1868–1912) that resulted in a reinvention of the functions and structures of such chordal accretions in the lute music of tōgaku.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on the contributor
Kwok-wai Ng completed his PhD at the University of Sydney, Australia. His research is on the transmission and development of tōgaku [Tang music] in Japan, focusing on aspects of musical notation, structure of modes and orally transmitted performance techniques. He is currently a lecturer at the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts, The Education University of Hong Kong.
Notes
1 From the seventh to the ninth centuries, some Japanese musicians travelled to China together with the diplomatic envoys to study music, bringing back scores, instruments and theoretical texts to Japan. For a detailed account of the Sino-Japanese diplomatic relationship during the Sui and Tang periods, see Tōno (Citation1999).
2 See also Picken et al. (Citation1981: 5–14) for a brief discussion of how the distinctive musical texture of modern Japanese tōgaku resembles no common textural feature within the surviving body of early Chinese tunes. This discrepancy was a major influence in Laurence Picken’s (1909–2007) decision to establish the Tang Music Project in Cambridge and conduct thorough research on the historical notations of tōgaku (see Picken et al. Citation1981, Citation1985, Citation1986, Citation1987, Citation1990).
3 The ensemble also consists of three percussion instruments: the kakko [small barrel drum], taiko [large shallow barrel drum] and shōko [small brass gong]. These instruments are not considered in this article because they do not produce melodies.
4 Examining the modal preludes written in ancient mouth-organ scores and other musical sources, Endō Tōru has just started a research project on the historical development of the chordal accretions in the mouth-organ part of tōgaku (Citation2016, Citation2017). Remarkable research results are expected in due course. On the other hand, a study of the development of finger patterns in the modern zither part must be conducted on the basis of the evolution of finger patterns used in the sōkyoku [Japanese zither music] repertory, because preliminary research has shown that there is a close relationship between the finger patterns of sōkyoku and those used in the modern tōgaku (see Adriaansz Citation1973; Marett Citation2001).
5 Many measured modern tōgaku pieces are performed using a metre that is equivalent to the 4/4 or 8/4 metre in western art music.
6 Errors or puzzling uses of pitch, rest and key signature in Shiba’s transcription have been corrected.
7 In , ties function in the same way as they do in western art music. The slurs, on the other hand, signify the tataku [literally ‘hitting’ or ‘striking’] technique: the performer first plucks the string with the plectrum in order to obtain the first pitch, and the subsequent one or two pitches are obtained by quickly changing the fingering of the left hand without re-plucking the string.
8 Hayashi’s transcription does not indicate the use of the tataku technique.
9 The taiko drumbeats will usually be signified by a sign or symbol, such as a hyaku (百) sign or a large red dot, in historical notations.
10 The original text in Gakkaroku is: 謂掻撥者四絃共掻下之撥也 … 自一絃至于四絃不用意速如一聲弾下也, 是奏楽之法也。
Punctuation has been added to Chinese or Japanese sentences in order to facilitate reading.
11 Another score known as the Biwa Shochōshihon [Various Tunings for the Lute] (838) was inserted into the two available manuscript copies of Nangū Biwa-fu as an appendix. In 1964, Kunaichō Shoryōbu published a facsimile edition of the Fushiminomiya version in full replica form under the title Fushiminomiya-bon Biwa-fu [The Lute Score of the Fushiminomiya Version] (Kunaichō Shoryōbu Citation1964). This facsimile edition also includes the Biwa Shochōshihon.
12 The colophon contains no further information of the lute masters. The original text in the colophon is: 案諸譜, 如唐譜只押一柱弾之, 如師説打加多絃而弾之。
13 Manuscript P. 3539 includes only a short description of the relationship between the tablature signs and lute strings or frets. Manuscript P. 3719 contains only a short and incomplete tablature notation of a lute melody called ‘Wanxisha’ [‘Sands of the Wan Stream’]. These two manuscripts will not be examined in this article.
14 The kō (口) sign found at the end of the notation has a metrical function. It may also have instructed the taiko performer to strike the drum. The tei (⊤) sign means a short pause. See Chen (Citation2005: 18–21) for a summary of scholarly opinions regarding these two signs. These two signs do not affect the structure of the arpeggios discussed in this article.
15 I have consulted Liu Fang’s (Citation2002) English translation of the poem because Liu shows a better understanding of the music in the Chinese text. Liu is a Chinese lute and zither performer who currently resides in Montreal, Canada.
16 The original text in the poem is: 四弦一聲如裂帛。
17 Many scholars have engaged in the research of Dunhuang Pipa-pu (see Chen Citation2005: 170–227; Nelson Citation2012: 14–15). In this article, I focus on these four scholars because their transcriptions reflect the results of early Japanese (Hayashi), Cambridge-based western (Rockwell) and late twentieth-century Chinese (Chen and Ye) approaches to research.
18 Hayashi’s research was first published in English in the Japanese journal Nara Gakugei Daigaku Kiyō 5(1) in 1955. It is entitled ‘Study on Explication of Ancient Musical Score of P’i-p’a Discovered at Tun-huang, China’. I have consulted the Japanese translation of this English article (Hayashi Citation1969b).
19 I have consulted the replica of the Fushiminomiya manuscript copy produced by the Kunaichō Shoryōbu (Citation1964) and a photographic reproduction of the Inzen copy preserved in the Research Institute for Japanese Music Historiography of Ueno Gakuen University.
20 The additional set of preludes in the Inzen copy has been ignored because there are many differences between the pieces in the Fushiminomiya copy and those in the additional section of the Inzen copy. For example, six out of a total of 18 pieces in the additional section of the Inzen copy do not exist in the Fushiminomiya copy. See Nelson (Citation2012: 34) for a comparison of the pieces in these two sources.
21 One of these 12 preludes exists only in the Inzen copy. The analysis in this article hinges on the preludes in the Fushiminomiya copy. I consulted the Inzen copy only when it was necessary to study the prelude available in this copy, or when there was any uncertainty in the Fushiminomiya copy.
22 In the Fushiminomiya copy most notational columns contain only ten to 14 tablature signs, excluding small signs that indicate short pauses or ornaments. The longest piece has 13 notational columns and the shortest piece has only five.
23 The only possible exception is a scribal error. See note 26 for details.
24 The 12 preludes are played using three different lute tunings: fukōjō, hen-pukōjō and ōshikichō. Hayashi Kenzō suggested that the structures of these three tunings are ‘A–c–e–a’, ‘G–A–d–g’ and ‘E–B–e–a’, respectively (Citation1972: 19). However, I referred to the fukōjō, hen-pukōjō and ōshikichō tunings explained in Sango Yōroku in my reading of the Nangū Biwa-fu notation. In Sango Yōroku, the fukōjō and ōshikichō tunings are identical to those suggested by Hayashi but the hen-pukōjō tuning (A–B–e–a) is a major second higher than that given by Hayashi.
25 In the anpuhō section the name of this technique is kō (gou in Chinese) (构). This character is probably a variant of ‘構’, which means ‘assembling or putting something together’. Although the anpuhō section does not indicate the direction of this stroke, there is another symbol that clearly signifies an upward stroke (which will be discussed). It is therefore reasonable to assume that this kō refers to a downward stroke.
26 The only case where the ‘3’ line is not used in the final cadence but in the middle of the notation occurs in the second modal prelude of the hen-pukōjō tuning section in Nangū Biwa-fu. This ‘3’ line is undoubtedly a scribal error because the two tablature signs that are associated with the ‘3’ line refer to the positions of the open fourth string and the first fret of the same string. It is impossible to play an arpeggio with one pluck on a ‘single’ string.
27 The notation of some lute melodies in Gogen-fu also includes this shuzhepie or ‘3’ sign. The music notated in Gogen-fu is for the five-stringed lute, which is also performed using a plectrum. In this article, however, I have decided not to go into detail regarding this line in Gogen-fu because here the use of the ‘3’ sign is somewhat puzzling. In Dunhuang Pipa-pu and Nangū Biwa-fu this line is usually associated with tablature signs that indicate neighbouring strings, whereas in Gogen-fu it is always with tablature signs that signify strings which would be difficult to perform in a single arpeggio. For example, in the piece ‘Hyōjō Kahō’ [‘Fire Phoenix in the Mode of Hyōjō’] this line joins the tablature signs ichi (一), shichi (七) and kyū (九). According to Steven Nelson’s (Citation1986: 43) research, these three tablature signs represent the open or fret position of the first, third and fifth strings respectively. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to quickly pluck only the first, third and fifth strings without touching the second and fourth strings.
28 While the tick-like sign is written in a calligraphic style of ‘
’ in the Fushiminomiya copy, in the Inzen copy it is clearly written in the form of a tick mark (亅), which is very similar to the ti line (
) in Dunhuang Pipa-pu.
29 The original text in the poem is: 曲終收撥當心畫。
30 The meaning of this sign is explained in textual form (四絃一度返撥) in the notation of the fifth hen-pukōjō modal prelude.
31 Bairo sounds like a transliteration of a foreign language and its meaning is unclear.
32 The explanatory notes, glosses and variants of tablature signs added by Fujiwara no Moronaga have been excluded in the Sango Yōroku notation shown in .
33 In the notation of Sango Yōroku, a short horizontal line (–) is used to indicate the end of a musical phrase. It is therefore not difficult to identify the musical phrases in most tōgaku pieces.
34 Gakkyokukō Furoku and other musical sources belonging to the Tayasu Family are now preserved in the Kokubungaku Kenkyū Shiryōkan [National Institute of Japanese Literature] in Tachikawa, Tokyo.
35 Some lute notations collected and recorded by Tayasu Munetake and his followers may have been lost because there were at least three fires that broke out at the houses of the Tayasu family between the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries (Matsukata Citation2003: 41–2). Nevertheless, it is hard to believe that only one lute piece (albeit written in different versions) was preserved or retrieved, especially given the fact that many notations of other tōgaku instruments, such as the mouth-organ, exist in this collection.
36 Many historical and musical records, such as those in Kyōkunshō [Selections for Instructions and Admonition] (Koma Citation1233), indicate that Japanese musicians composed a large number of pieces in imitation of the entertainment music transmitted from China.