The in scale (also known as the Sakura pentatonic scale due to its use in the well-known folk song Sakura Sakura) is, according to a traditional theory, one of two pentatonic scales used in much Japanese music, excluding gagaku and Buddhist chanting. The in scale, which contains minor notes, is used specifically in music for the koto and shamisen and is contrasted with the yo scale, which does not contain minor notes.[1]
"Sakura Sakura", also known as "Sakura", is a traditional Japanese folk song depicting spring, the season of cherry blossoms. It is often sung in international settings as a song representative of Japan.
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale more familiar to Western tradition that has seven notes per octave.
Gagaku is a type of Japanese classical music that has been performed at the Imperial Court in Kyoto for several centuries since the 7th century. It is today performed by the Board of Ceremonies at the Tokyo Imperial Palace. This kind of music was first imported into Japan from China; however, artistically it differs from the music of the corresponding Chinese form yayue which is a term reserved for ceremonial music. Gagaku consists of three primary repertoires:
Native Shinto religious music and imperial songs and dance, called Kuniburi no utamai
Vocal music based on native folk poetry, called Utaimono
In scale on D with auxiliary notes (F) & (C) Play(help·info).
More recent theory[2] emphasizes that it is more useful in interpreting Japanese melody to view scales on the basis of "nuclear tones" located a fourth apart and containing notes between them, as in the miyako-bushi scale used in koto and shamisen music and whose pitches are equivalent to the in scale:[3]
A fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth is the fourth spanning five semitones. For example, the ascending interval from C to the next F is a perfect fourth, because the note F is the fifth semitone above C, and there are four staff positions between C and F. Diminished and augmented fourths span the same number of staff positions, but consist of a different number of semitones.
Miyako-bushi scale on D, equivalent to in scale on D, with brackets on fourths Play(help·info).
In scale in the other musical traditions
In Indian classical music, Gunkali (Hindustani) and Karnataka Shuddha Saveri (Carnatic) are nearly identical to the pentatonic in scale, highlighting the shared past of their origins. Some rare examples of ancient genres of Andean music (e.g. k'antu) use a scale similar to the in scale combined with melody leading with a parallel fifths and fourths. For example listen to Machulas Kantu by Bolivia Manta folk group (Wiñayataqui, 1981).
Karnataka Shuddha Saveri is a rāgam in Carnatic music. It is an audava rāgam. It is a janya rāgam, as it does not have all the seven swaras.
Andean music is a group of styles of music from the Andes region in South America.
In music theory, a perfect fifth is the musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so.
Hirajōshi scale, or hira-choshi is a tuning scale adapted from shamisen music by Yatsuhashi Kengyō for tuning of the koto. "The hirajoshi, kumoijoshi, and kokinjoshi 'scales' are Western derivations of the koto tunings of the same names. These scales have been used by rock and jazz guitarists in search of 'new' sounds."
The Japanese mode is a somewhat inaccurate term for a pentatonic musical scale which is used commonly in traditional Japanese music. The intervals of the scale are major second, minor third, major fifth, and minor sixth - which is essentially a natural minor scale in Western music theory without the subdominant and subtonic, which is the same operation performed on the major scale to produce the pentatonic major scale. The more correct term would be kumoijoshi, as given by William P. Malm for one of the three tuning scales of the koto adapted from shamisen music.
A variety of musical scales are used in traditional Japanese music. While a twelve-tone (dodecaphonic) Chinese scale has influenced Japanese music since the Heian period, in practice Japanese traditional music is often based on pentatonic or heptatonic scales. In some instances, harmonic minor, like in the famous piece Sakura Sakura, is used, while the melodic minor is virtually unused.
Sources
↑ Titon, Jeff Todd (1996). Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples, p.372. ISBN0-02-872612-X.
↑ Koizumi Fumio (1974). Nihon no ongaku (Japanese music), 76. Tokyo: National Theater of Japan.
Hewitt, Michael. 2013. Musical Scales of the World. The Note Tree. ISBN978-0957547001.
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.
In music theory, the term minor scale refers to three scale patterns – the natural minor scale, the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale – rather than just one as with the major scale.
In music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is a descending scale. Some scales contain different pitches when ascending than when descending, for example, the melodic minor scale.
In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice era of Classical music to the 21st century. Chord progressions are the foundation of Western popular music styles and traditional music. In these genres, chord progressions are the defining feature on which melody and rhythm are built.
A jazz scale is any musical scale used in jazz. Many "jazz scales" are common scales drawn from Western European classical music, including the diatonic, whole-tone, octatonic, and the modes of the ascending melodic minor. All of these scales were commonly used by late nineteenth and early twentieth-century composers such as Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky, often in ways that directly anticipate jazz practice. Some jazz scales, such as the bebop scales, add additional chromatic passing tones to the familiar diatonic scales.
A chord, in music, is any harmonic set of pitches consisting of multiple notes that are heard as if sounding simultaneously. For many practical and theoretical purposes, arpeggios and broken chords, or sequences of chord tones, may also be considered as chords.
The shamisen or samisen (三味線), also sangen, is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument sanxian. It is played with a plectrum called a bachi.
Okinawan music, also known as Ryukyuan music, is the music of the Okinawa Islands of southwestern Japan. In modern times, it may also refer to the musical traditions of Okinawa Prefecture, which also covers the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands, and sometimes the Amami Islands.
In music theory, the harmonic major scale is a musical scale found in some music from the common practice era and now used occasionally, most often in jazz. It was named by Rimsky-Korsakov. In George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept it is the fifth mode (V) of the Lydian Diminished scale.
The yo scale, which does not contain minor notes, according to a traditional theory is a pentatonic scale used in much Japanese music including gagaku and shomyo. The yo scale is used specifically in folk songs and early popular songs and is contrasted with the in scale which does contain minor notes. The in scale is described as 'dark' while the yo scale is described as 'bright' sounding.
Jazz improvisation is the spontaneous invention of melodic solo lines or accompaniment parts. It is one of the defining elements of jazz. Improvisation is composing on the spot, when a singer or instrumentalist invents melodies and lines over a chord progression played by rhythm section instruments and accompanied by drums. Although blues, rock, and other genres use improvisation, it is done over relatively simple chord progressions which often remain in one key.
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, especially when applied to contrasting features of the common practice music of the period 1600–1900.
In music, harmonization is the chordal accompaniment to a line or melody: "Using chords and melodies together, making harmony by stacking scale tones as triads".
Insen is a tuning scale adapted from shamisen music by Yatsuhashi Kengyō for tuning of the koto. It only differs from the hirajoshi scale by one note.
The heike shamisen, is a Japanese musical instrument, member of the shamisen family. Like its other counterparts, the heike shamisen has three strings, a slender neck, a body taut with skin, and it is plucked with a plectrum called a bachi.
Musicology commonly classifies scales as either hemitonic or anhemitonic. Hemitonic scales contain one or more semitones, while anhemitonic scales do not contain semitones. For example, in traditional Japanese music, the anhemitonic yo scale is contrasted with the hemitonic in scale. The simplest and most commonly used scale in the world is the atritonic anhemitonic "major" pentatonic scale. The whole tone scale is also anhemitonic.
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