Kamakura, Muromachi, and Tokugawa periods

Melodic principles

The writings of Zeami, such as the Kaden-sho, contain terms reflecting the traditional tone systems and terminologies of former times. A distinction was made between the recitative section (kotoba or serifu) of a play and melodic parts (fushi). The melodies of Noh can be categorized into two basic styles, the strong (tsuyogin) and the lyric (yowagin). Their differences are most evident in the placement of fundamental tones and the use of auxiliary tones around them. In the lyric style the three basic tones (jō, chū, and ge) are a fourth apart. The movement to and from each note is regulated in a manner comparable to the regulated approach to certain intervals in 16th-century Western counterpoint. Similar but different laws are applied to the strong style, the fundamental tones of which are much closer, the standard procedure today being that jō and chū are one pitch and ge is approximately a minor third below.

Melodies contain various formulas and ornamentations, the names of which often reflect earlier traditions in Buddhist chant and secular court songs. The choice of combinations depends on the musical needs of the given dramatic text as well as the position of the music in the general form of the piece. Once more, such restrictions in an “exotic” music should seem reasonable to students of Western art music, with its needs for stylistic restraints. The notation of Noh singing (sometimes called utai) is derived from simpler Buddhist and early biwa forms that used teardrop-shaped neumes along with important pitch names to remind singers of the performance practice of a given passage. That so-called sesame-seed notation (goma-ten) remains basic to Noh vocal music today, and there are many detailed books in modern Japanese to help the initiate follow the music with the aid of a teacher. Variations in notation style and in the interpretation of specific passages are maintained by the various schools of Noh along with the “secret piece” tradition basic to much of Japanese traditional music since its beginnings.

Song types

The musical-dramatic form of Noh has as many variations as any other creative genre, such as an opera or a symphony. One such variation is the jo-ha-kyū, or tripartite form, which is applied in the context of sections (dan) and includes typical placements of Noh musical styles. The jo portion generally consists of the shidai, usually an introduction, the na-nori, which allows the first character to identify himself, and the traveling song (michiyuki), and it is followed by a song emphasizing higher tones (ageuta). In the second and third parts (ha and kyū, respectively), songs with lower melodic emphasis (sageuta) and other styles (issei, kuri, and rongi) mix with more recitative sections (sashi, kotoba) and with entrances (deha), closings (kiri), and dances (kuse and mai).

Within each of those sections and subsections, drama and text have their influence as well. The drama is not all poetic, but many lines of the text are indeed poems or are influenced by poetic form. Although there is great variety in the syllable lengths and combinations, the most common divisions in Noh are into lines of 7 or 5 syllables. Such a 12-syllable line pair may be expanded, for instance, to 16 syllables, to accommodate different settings. The placement of a text rhythmically can be done in three major ways: o-nori, with 1 syllable per beat; chū-nori, with 2 syllables per beat; and hira-nori, in which 12 syllables are worked into an eight-beat frame.

Sometimes, two sections of 7 and 5 syllables may actually be presented as tripartite (4 + 3 + 5)—i.e., in the form of jo, ha, and kyū. Lines of greater numbers of syllables in hira-nori require more beats, and 12-syllable lines themselves can be handled in many other ways. Although no single example can definitively represent the style of Noh text setting, an analysis of the syllable displacements and the melodic contours of any such passage reveals fundamental elements of the internal logic of the music. Indeed, the logic of Noh music, like that of Western art music, is detailed in a complete written music theory.

Function of drum patterns

The principles of Noh text setting extend to the drum accompaniment. The music of the Noh drums consists of a series of named, stereotyped patterns that are aurally perceivable and tend to progress in given orders.

Both drum parts (mitsuji) and the drummers’ drum calls (kakegoe) support the vocal line, although the two drummers may play different patterns. The kakegoe uttered by the drummers are as essential to the performance and recognition of a given pattern as are the drum sounds themselves. They help to give each pattern a unique aural image. Also, the manner in which the calls are performed by the player helps to signal and control the timing of each beat in a music that is often very elastic in rhythm. In performance the spacing of the beats in the vocal line is not always even with that of the drums, though beats 3 and 5 often match. The controlled but subtly varied relations of song to rhythmic accompaniment in Noh drama are analogous to harmonization in Western music.

The taiko stick drum is used only in dance sections of a play. The patterns (tetsuke) played by taiko drummers are divided into families, or tegumi. Once more the principles of harmony in Western music come to mind; i.e., a C-major and C-minor chord are related because they share some common aural traits (the tones C and G in this case). If one looks into a lesson book of taiko music, one will find that, as in many Western harmony books, the student will be told what patterns may appear before or after each item. In Western music one learns in a similar way that certain chords may be preceded and followed by others. In both the Japanese and Western cases there is a selection of permissible choices of preceding or following events for each pattern. Thus, it would seem that the concept of prediction and anticipation is fundamental to the listener’s sense of logical progression in the music of both cultures. The major difference in this case is that the aurally perceivable, named, stereotyped pattern of Western traditional music is a vertical sonority called a chord, whereas in Noh music it is a horizontal time unit called a tetsuke.

Role of the flute

The music of the Noh flute (nō-kan) too has many stereotyped patterns, but it functions in rather different ways from the drums of the hayashi ensemble. Although it seems to have related originally to the vocal line, today it does not play the singer’s melodies. The Noh flute looks like the ryuteki flute of gagaku, but a short cylinder has been inserted inside its tube so that the upper holes of the flute overblow a seventh (as A–G) rather than the octave, as with all other flutes. That unique characteristic of the flute seems to reflect the tonal principles of Noh mentioned earlier, whose three basic notes, each one fourth apart, outline a seventh. The flute may give a specific pitch to set the tonality of a vocal entrance, but its normal functions today are to signal sections of the form and to play one of the dozen standard dance pieces used in various Noh dramas. The dance pieces are set in sections (dan). Each piece is learned by rote or by a notation consisting of flute mnemonics placed in a frame of eight squares representing beats in a manner rather like Korean notation. The flute’s seven holes are fingered by the middle joint of the finger rather than the fingertip, producing an impressively fluid melody that would not fit into the graphic notation system of traditional Western music. At the same time, it does not compete with the Noh vocal line by being too melodically clear. Indeed, a discussion of the Noh flute seems to be a particularly appropriate finale in this brief survey of Noh music (nō-gaku), for it shows that the form of each musical item—whether performance practice, pitch relations, structure, or notation—follows the needs of its functions. The music of Noh drama seems on first hearing to be one of the most puzzling of East Asia’s sounds, but a study of its principles reveals it to be as reasonable and as beautiful as a Bach cantata.