- Gagaku – History, instruments, ensemble types, and music forms.
- Gagaku – History of the music and photographs.
- Gagaku Home Page – Introduction to gagaku, or Japanese court music, its instruments, and FAQ.
- Gagaku Roots – History, photographs, and audio samples.
- Hideki Togi – Profile of the performer.
- The Japan Gagaku Society – Overview and contact information. [English/Japanese]
Gagaku (literally «elegant music») is a type of Japanese classical music that has been performed at the Imperial court for several centuries. It consists of three primary bodies: native Shintoist religious music and folk songs, saibara, as well as a Korean form, komagaku, and a Chinese form, togaku. By the 7th century, the gakuso (a zither) and the gakubiwa (a short-necked lute) had been introduced in Japan from China. Various instruments including these three were the earliest used to play gagaku.
Komagaku and togaku arrived in Japan during the Nara period (710-794), and settled into the basic modern divisions during the Heian period (794-1185). Gagaku performances were played by musicians who belonged to hereditary guilds. During the Kamakura period (1185-1333), military rule was imposed and gagaku was performed in the homes of the aristocracy, but rarely at court. At this time, there were three guilds based in Osaka, Nara and Kyoto.
Because of the Onin War which was a civil war from 1467 to 1477 during the Muromachi period, gagaku in ensemble had been stopped playing in Kyoto for about 100 years. In Edo era, Tokugawa government re-organized the court style ensemble which is the direct roots of the present one.
After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, musicians from all three guilds came to Tokyo and their descendants make up most of the current Imperial Palace Music Department. By this time, the present ensemble style which consists of three wind instruments i.e. hichiriki, ryuteki, and sho (bamboo mouth organ used to provide harmony) and three percussion instruments: kakko (small drum), shoko (metal percussion), and taiko (drum) or dadaiko (huge drum), supplemented by gakubiwa, gakuso had been established.
Related to gagaku is theater, which developed in parallel. Noh was developed in the 14th century.
Beginning in the 20th century, several western classical composers became interested in gagaku, and composed works based on gagaku. Most notable among these are Henry Cowell (Ongaku, 1957), Alan Hovhaness (numerous works), Olivier Messiaen (Sept haïkaï, 1962), and Benjamin Britten (Curlew River, 1964).
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