Instrumental music

Sharp hits, gentle reverberations, eerie shouts, long, yet meaningful silences, piercing flute shrills – the music of nō does not reflect the mainstream aesthetics of Western popular music, which have now become dominant also in Japan. Yet the evocative power of the instruments can elicit a myriad of emotions and the cumulative effect can be entrancing. Each instrument has a distinct character. Their combinations and overlaps give depth to the performance. After introducing each of the instruments, we turn to their ensemble variations and to the ways they work together with the lyrics.

In this section

• Instruments
• Instrumental music for long dance sections
• Entrance music and other instrumental sections
• Aesthetic features of nō music

Instruments

Nō uses four musical instruments: the nōkan or fue (flute) and three drums: large and small hand drums (ō-tsuzumi and ko-tsuzumi) and stick drum (taiko). Each instrument is played by a musician who specializes in it. The instruments (hayashi) accompany the chant, and also play entrance music as well as music for dances without chant. The videos below show how they are played.

Nōkan (nō flute) 能管

The nōkan is a bamboo transverse flute with seven holes. The bamboo body is reinforced by winding a string fashioned from the outer bark of the cherry tree around all of it except for the finger holes and mouthpiece. Although its exterior appearance seems to be almost identical with the transverse flute played in gagaku, known as the ryūteki, the nōkan differs from the ryūteki in having red lacquer painted around the mouthpiece and around each finger hole. It also has a metal fitting at the head end. A dragon or other image sculpted into the metal fitting often inspires the name of the flute. 

The biggest difference with the ryūteki, however, is the insertion of a bamboo tube (nodo) between the mouthpiece and the first finger hole, constricting the passageway. The insertion of the nodo makes it impossible for the nōkan to play a western scale. It is not clear why or when the nodo came to be inserted in the flute, but its presence produces a sharp timbre and reduces the number of overtones. It plays a base note textured by one overtone which is not a true octave. In addition, no two nōkan are tuned exactly the same, resulting in dissonance if multiple nōkan play together.

The nōkan does not play the same melody or rhythm as the utai even when playing at the same time. Rather, it deepens the atmosphere of the scene at discrete intervals. At these times (ashirai) the nōkan rhythms are not matched to the drum beats, but even so, it does not improvise. For instance, to embellish the shōdan segment called ageuta, the flute plays three prescribed melodies at specific places: a takane, a naka-no-takane, and a kote. The number of lines to an ageuta may vary and are chanted in several styles – slowly, or vigorously – depending on the content. The flute complements the content changing its tempo and adding embellishments, all within the framework of the three patterns. There are quite a number of shōdan that incorporate short flute patterns, such as the kuse, and the entrance issei.

Ko-tsuzumi (small hand drum) 小鼓 and Ō-tsuzumi (large hand drum) 大鼓

The small and large hand drums (ko-tsuzumi and ō-tsuzumi) have an hourglass-shaped body and skin drum heads at either end that are lashed to the body with hemp ropes before each performance. The skins are from horse hide that has been dried and clamped to an iron frame. While the skins of the ō-tsuzumi must be dried over a brazier before each performance, those of the ko-tsuzumi need to be kept moist and pliable so they can produce several pitches depending on how tightly the player squeezes the lashing ropes. One often sees the ko-tsuzumi player blow moist air on the skins or wet them with his finger during performance.

The ō-tsuzumi and ko-tsuzumi function as a pair, playing together to construct the rhythmic patterns. Broadly speaking, the ō-tsuzumi takes charge of the odd number beats that form the rhythmic framework and the first half of the phrase, while the ko-tsuzumi governs the even number beats and the last half of the phrase. The ō-tsuzumi produces a sharp sound with little variation and creates the foundation of the rhythm, the ko-tsuzumi plays ornamentation between the ō-tsuzumi beats using variations in timbre and rhythm.

The hand drum players, particularly the ō-tsuzumi drummer, measure the beat interval (ma) with an internalized cue before beating. This preparatory measuring, whether to ‘take the ma’ quickly, or slowly and deeply, may be considered as even more important than the actual sound of the drumbeat. Again, most often the drummers’ calls precede the drum beat, and the type of call greatly influences the impact of the rhythmic pattern. The number of rhythm patterns are limited, but the same patterns, depending on the way the calls are voiced and the way the ma is taken, are adapted to express totally different nō plays — women’s kazura nō, formal deity waki nō, and warrior shura nō.  By adjusting the rhythmic formulation and the drummer’s calls, the same rhythmic patterns are used when accompanying song and when playing with the flute for an instrumental dance section.

Taiko (stick drum) 太鼓​

The taiko is played with two sticks, and thus different from the large and small tsuzumi, which are beat with the hand. While the two tsuzumi play primarily on the downbeats, the taiko strikes both on downbeats and upbeats. Alternating striking with the right hand on the down beats and the left on the up beats creates an impression of an even pace, and helps create a greater sense of a regular rhythm. In fact, the tempo accelerates and retards to intensify the mood or mark closures and transitions between sections (dan).

Capitalizing on these characteristics, the nō repertory only uses the taiko for some plays and then only for certain sections in them, specifically the taiko enters when evoking a non-human world. For instance, in Takasago, the taiko does not play in the first half of the nō when the shite and tsure perform the roles of an old couple who are deities in human form, but it does enter in the second half when the shite plays the deity of Sumiyoshi. 

In nō were the second half enacts a prayer for the deceased, such as Tomonaga and Sanemori, the taiko plays only for the section of the religious service. The same goes for the inclusion of the taiko accompaniment for instrumental dances. The taiko does not play for the jo-no-mai dance in nō featuring aristocratic women, like Izutsu and Nonomiya, but it does play for the jo-no-mai danced by spirits of plants, such as in Kakitsubata (The Iris) and Saigyō-zakura (The Willow and Priest Saigyō), and for the Moon Maiden in Hagoromo.

Exceptions occur when there are intense human emotional elements. Although generally non-Japanese characters perform dances that include the taiko, the jo-no-mai played for the beautiful courtesan Yōkihi does not. Likewise, although Bashō features the spirit of a plantain, the jo-no-mai has no taiko accompaniment. The human theme of intense love in the former and the strong religious element in the latter preclude the use of the taiko. The inclusion or absence of the taiko provides a window into understanding how their authors viewed the plays.

Instrumental music for long dance sections

As discussed in Dance, the mai dances in nō include pure dance intended to highlight the dancing figure and the beauty of the movement, as well as explicitly evocative dances that imitate dances and music from China (gaku) or that are performed by Shrine maidens (kagura). In addition, there are shorter “action dances” (hataraki) that add a dramatic element.

The pure dances go by various names reflecting the type of role: slow dance (jo-no-mai), deity dance (kami-mai), man’s dance (otoko-mai). The jo-no-mai are performed by the spirits of beautiful women to a very slow tempo, while kami-mai performed by vigorous male gods and the otoko-mai performed by men have quick tempos. In essence, however, they all have the same basic flute melody matched to the beat, and the drums adjust their patterns to this. The basic flute melody consists of four lines set to the eight-beat unit. The lines are repeated in cycles. By adding embellishments and changing the style of playing, the model form is adapted to gentle refined dances and vigorous dynamic dances. One melody and drum score serves multiple expressions.

Although the notes are the same for both jo-no-mai and otoko-mai, their tempos and the way the notes match the beat differ. While jo-no-mai has long extended notes that bridge the pulse, otoko-mai rides the beat creating a sense of vigorous energy.

Learning the flute part and coordinating the ensemble for instrumental music relies on singing the tune. Before actually putting flute to mouth and blowing the tune, the flute player learns to intone a solfège (shōga), syllables used to represent the melody and rhythm, while fingering the holes on the instrument. This solfège also serves as a base for the drummers and dancer, who sing the tune in their minds while practicing their parts. 

The construction of these pure dances consists of a number of sections (dan). A single dance generally has three, or five, such sections (see Dance). Each section of the dance has a set number of repetitions (adjusted to the shite school) of this basic melody. The end of each section is marked by a closure (“iya” drummer’s call) and the next section begins with a distinctive opening melody. A few lines of special melodies (oroshi), unique to each type of pure dance, are inserted between lines of the basic four-line repeat at an early moment in each of the middle sections of the dance. The oroshi marks a focused moment when tempo slows.

Although the musical structure of all these dances is fundamentally the same, the differences in their tempos means that, for instance, the kami-mai may take eight minutes to perform, while the jo-no-mai may take up to fifteen. Since the costume and mask are also different, these dances appear as totally different to the audience.

Dances to instrumental music intended to enact another art form include gaku (dances to court music) and kagura (Shinto dance). These, too, are built around repeated flute passages and have five sections, but their melodies are unique to each. Gaku imitates the music for bugaku, which was introduced from the China, so the flute melody, instead of accenting the even-numbered beats, accents the odd numbered beats, beginning with beat 1. By making the odd number beats strong, the even number beats weak, and alternating strong and weak, gaku expresses a sense of foreignness distinct from indigenous Japanese music. For kagura, which imitates the music for ritual dances performed by shrine maidens (miko), the flute plays a yuri pattern with trills – represented in the solfèlege as a quick succession of notes “ra ra ra”. Although the flute melody is varied this way, the basic drum patterns remain the same as for other mai dances, with some special patterns inserted. Likewise, the basic choreography does not change, although the shite has more stamps in gaku and holds a stick with folded paper streamers (gohei) instead of a fan for kagura.

Instrumental music for ‘dramatic action’ dances (hataraki goto) include the ‘exorcism’ inori where a priest battles with the jealous spirit of a daemonic woman, the kakeri where a mother wandering in search of her lost child or a warrior in warrior’s hell are exposed, and the tachimawari performed by a courtier seeking to prove his love by coming nightly to her door or an old woman wandering through high mountains. For all except the maibataraki, the flute plays unmatched (non-congruent, ashirai) patterns drawing them out or shortening them as necessary while the drummers follow an eight-beat unit, all-be-it with varying tempos.

Entrance music and other instrumental sections

Generally instrumental music plays before a figure appears on stage, setting the atmosphere and calling them out into the performance arena. The various types of entrance music reflect where the character stands on a scale of human to totally other worldly. For human figures (including figures in “dream nō” appearing the form of women and old men), neither flute nor hand drums play keeping a rhythmic pulse (examples are the shidai and nanoribue). Among human roles, crazed women, somewhat brave men, and old men, even if only in the guise of an old man, are introduced with more rhythmical playing in the hand drums, but unmatched flute melody (example: issei). In the second half when the character is not human, but a deity, spirit of a plant, or ghost of an aristocrat, the taiko joins the ensemble and the drums play with the beat, but the flute melody is not matched to their rhythms (example: deha). A demon, beast, malicious spirit, however, is announced with all the instruments matched to the eight-beat unit (example: hayafue).

Instrumental passages may bridge sections in the performance. In Hagoromo, for instance, for the onstage costume change (monogi) when the Shite retires to the rear and attendants place the feather robe (a chōken) on her, the hand drums and flute fill this time of suspended action with music timed to costuming (mihakarai). Sometimes instrumental music also accompanies exits before an interlude (example: raijo). Often the slow, stately raijo switches, after the Shite has disappeared, to lighter faster music announcing an ai-kyōgen who represents a deity from a subsidiary shrine. The musicians lighten their calls and beats to accompany the kyōgen dance.

Aesthetic features of nō music

Minimalism

The shōdan are performed with designated melodies and rhythmic patterns. These are slowed down or speeded up, the pitch raised or lowered, the tone strengthened or softened. The rhythms may be more dominant or subdued; the intervals between the beats lengthened for shortened to bring out the atmosphere and emotional tenor of the piece. Such variations create the interest of nō and are held important. As explained above, nō music uses small units assembled into segments, sections, and scenes to create a full piece. The same units are used for warriors and for beautiful ladies in love stories, for pieces only grand masters are allowed to play and for pieces performed by young novices. The number of commonly used units are few.

Kurai

At the root of the expressive capacity of nō lies the concept of kurai. The basic meaning of kurai is “rank” and Zeami in his Goi (Five Ranks) and Kyūi (Nine Ranks) used it to describe various levels of ability and capacity to create stage presence, or “effects”, which he expressed in mysterious imagery. Today, nō plays are classified by their kurai, with “masterful” pieces (taikyoku) having “heavy” kurai and beginner pieces having “light” kurai.  The “weightier” kurai pieces are performed slowly with large intervals between beats and the pitch of the utai as well as the drummers’ calls is low. For lighter kurai nō, the tempo is faster and the song and calls pitched higher. There is an added gravity and subtlety of rendition to the high kurai. Still, even if a given nō is ranked as taikyoku, “high ranking” does not necessarily imply that the song or flute melody is particularly complicated, or that the drum patterns differ greatly from the standard ones. Special patterns might be inserted in one section, but fundamentally, all nō are performed with the same type of melodies and rhythmic patterns. It is the intent behind their rendition that distinguishes high and low, heavy and light, masterful and novice-like. 

Contributor: Takauwa Izumi and Monica Bethe