The music culture I shall be talking about is Japanese Noh. The thing that surprised me the most when watching the video was the lack of lyrics like India Classical Dance Songs. The arrangements of musicians contain four members that play and sing simultaneously. The only other member in the entire performance is the dance that dances according to the tempo of the background music. The mask worn by the dancer expresses a felling of mystery. The music is contains a nonpulsatile kind of melody. The high pitch noise is called the nohkan which is a flute kind instrument which provides the melody and the expressions for the drama. The song also contains three drummers; two of the three drums keep the beat of the song whilst the ko-tsuzumi (drum with strings) provides the accent points in the song.
The dance does seem to have been influenced by Chinese opera. Since both the types of drama utilizes headgear to express the emotions and mood of the space. The dance does not contain any complicated movements, rather contains simple movements such as walking and swinging of the Japanese fan. The drummers seem to have a certain pattern they play but each drummer uses a different pattern. The fact that surprised me the most was that the pattern played by the drummer is not coordinated since they have full freedom to play what they feel. The song talks about a mystery in someone’s life since all Japanese Noh songs are derived from myth or ancient narratives.
The video can be found here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUhtCLKFMx0
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