The Mystery of the "Secret Piece" (from the History of Music for Koto)

Main Article Content

Natalia F. Klobukova (Golubinskaya)

Abstract

Subject of the given article is the notion of privacy in traditional Japanese music for the koto zither, in particular, in the vocal-instrumental genre of kumiuta. The esoterism of musical knowledge is commonly known to constitute the ideology of Japanese medieval music. In addition to the secrecy of the koto playing tradition and to its being restricted to a circle of some elected musicians, it also includes the so-called "secret" music (hikyoku). Until recently these plays were inaccessible to research. The author considers the musical and poetic contents of the kumiuta-hikyoku piece with the title "Yaegaki" ("Osto-layer fence," "Eight-layer fencing"), written by the Japanese composer Shin Yatsuhashi Kengyo by the end of XVII century. In the course of the analysis the author draws some surprising conclusions in regards to the sanctity of the composition, which is primarily to be assigned to secular music. The sanctity is attributed to the text due to the "spirit of words" kotodama and the magic energy of every word, in combination with an uncommon for the kumiuta-genre way to tune the koto, as wells as to refinement of vocal and instrumental parts. In opinion of the author these criteria have added to the "concealment" of the given play.

Keywords: non-European cultures, Japanese music, cither Koto, kumiut, vocal art of Japan

Article Details

How to Cite
Klobukova (Golubinskaya), N. F. (2007). The Mystery of the "Secret Piece" (from the History of Music for Koto). Music Scholarship / Problemy Muzykal’noj Nauki, 1(1), 151–158. Retrieved from https://musicscholar.ru/index.php/PMN/article/view/821
Section
Musical Culture of the Peoples of the World
Author Biography

Natalia F. Klobukova (Golubinskaya), Moscow State P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Center “Musical Cultures of the World”

Natalia F. Klobukova (Golubinskaya) is the Principal of the Center “Musical Cultures of the World” at Moscow State Conservatory. She is the teacher of the History of Japanese Music at the Institute of Eastern Cultures and Antiquity of the Russian State Humanities University, as well as at the Department of History of Japan at the ISAA of the Moscow State University

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