A Musical Sense of the Japanese

When we speak of traditional Japanese music, we are refering to a variety of music •E•E•Efrom artistic music to folkloric music. Despite the variety, there are certain characteristics running through them in terms of the Japanese sensibility toward music. It is this musical sense of the Japanese that will provide an important base for the new Japanese music to develop in the future. A sense of rhythm is determined over a long period of certain group's history by the way how they have used their physical body. A majority of the Japanese, for instance, have a "static" sense of rhythm characteristic of the rice paddy farmers. People in the mountains, on the other hand, use their limbs in a flexible way, resulting in a "supple" sense of rhythm. People who live on the islands of Okinawa and Amami, as well as people who live on coastal areas, have a "swinging" sense of rhythm in correspondence to the undulation of ocean waves. A sense of timber is determined over a long period of time by the kind of life style and natural environment people live in. People in Japan have lived mainly by farming and fishing in a climate where the four seasons are distinct. Consequently they developed sharp sensitivity toward changes in weather, making them alert to natural sounds such as a rain and a wind. It is for this reason that the Japanese favor songs and instruments that sound close to natural sounds. Japanese melodies and based on six pentatonic scales. Each consists of two sets of the perfect fourth called the tetrachord. These scales have much in common with the music of Asia and Africa. The Japanese subconsciously feel, though vaguely, the presence of a god or spirit in every object. Such a tendency, or a habit of the mind, is also revealed in music and songs. This attitude, which may correspond to the idea of symbiotism, is demonstrated in the Japanese way of thinking that songs too possess spiritual power.