etude #9

Here I want to start jumping around a bit. And since I need some practice writing some Japanese folk-inspired music, this seemed like a good exercise to jump to.

So, first things first, I need to pick some instruments. I can change them later, but it’ll help to have something to start with. And since I definitely want to stick with freely-available instruments while I’m still learning, my options are somewhat limited. Eventually, I narrowed it down to:

• koto
• shakuhachi
• some vaporwavey-sounding synth (TBD)
• dungeon synth drums, with maybe a taiko drum if I can find it

Traditional Japanese folk music has been pretty difficult to study, since so much of the literature on music theory is Euro-centric or through a Western lens.

But there was an Ethno-musicologist, Fumio Koizumi, in the 1950s who studied Japanese folk music in-depth, and most of what I’ve been able to find has been based on his research.

Some general properties of Japanese folk music:

• Japanese melodies lack clearly defined intervals. Instead, they have easily moveable notes, and a central note that remains constant (the “nuclear pitch”)
• Some primitive Japanese music has melodies consisting of only 2 notes. The nuclear pitch, and another that functions an an embellishment, or a movement away from home base. This is sometimes called the “stopping pitch”

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Some disorganized notes on Japanese scales, based on Koizumi’s research:

Four modes:

• Yoh mode (folk song mode) G-A
• In mode (Miyakobushi) B♭-A
• Ritsu/Ryo (Yoh mode) B-A
• Ryukyu mode G♯-A

Building these up to make perfect fourths, we get:

• Yoh: E-G-A
• In: D-B♭-A
• Ritsu/Ryo: D-B-A
• Ryukyu: E-G♯-A

(These are called tetrachords because they’re built around perfect fourths, not because they’re tetrads (4-note chords))

If we stack two tetrachords on top of each other (joining them by “jumping” or connecting), we get a pentatonic scale:

• Yoh: A-C-D E-G-A
  • something about B being added to create a strong pull towards A
• Miyakobushi (In): A-B♭-D E-F-A
  • This will sometimes be changed to A-B♭-D-E-G-A when ascending, then return to A-F-E-D-B♭-A when descending.
• Ritsu (Yoh): A-B-D E-F♯-A
  • This also changes when ascending/descending. Use A-B-D-E-F♯-A when ascending (ritsu), but lower the third pitch when descending, giving A-F♯-E-C♯-B-A
• Ryukyu: A-C♯-D E-G♯-A
  • Like Yoh, B is sometimes added