The Instruments of the Gagaku Orchestra

Winds

The winds are the heart of the gagaku orchestra, playing a role similar to that of strings in a Western orchestra.

The winds play the melodic line, construct the harmony and provide the orchestra's depth of sound. There are

three types of winds used in gagaku: hichiriki, fue, and sho.

Hichiriki

The hichiriki is a small double-reed instrument made of bamboo. It has nine finger-holes, seven on

the front and two on the back. It has a nasal tone like an oboe, but is much broader in sound, due

to the thicker reed and looser embouchure with which it is played. This embouchure allows the

pitch to be readily bent as much as a half-step up or down. Due to its volume and strong tone, the

hichiriki serves as the center of the gagaku orchestra and is found in all types of gagaku music.

Not everyone enjoys the sound of the hichiriki. In her Pillow Book, Sei Shonagon writes:

The horrible sound of the hichiriki is like the noisy crickets of autumn .I can't stand to be in the same room with that sound. One festival day, when I was in the waiting room attending upon her Majesty, I was entertained by the lovely sound of someone playing the flute. Then suddenly another person joined in on the hichiriki. It made my hair stand on end!

Here's an example of a hichriki being played

Fue

The term fue refers to the flutes used in gagaku, of which there are three. The first is the

kagura-bue (also known as the Yamato-bue), a simple six-holed bamboo flute. Along with the

wagon, it is one of only two Japanese-derived instruments in the gagaku orchestra. It is used

primarily in special ceremonies. The second, much more common type of fue is the ryuteki, a

seven-holed transverse bamboo flute of Chinese origin which is used for To-gaku pieces. It is the

largest of the gagaku flutes. The third of the fue is the Koma-bue, a thinner, shorter transverse

bamboo flute with six holes. The Koma-bue is Korean origin and is therefore used for

Koma-gaku pieces. It is the smallest of the gagaku flutes.

All of the fue serve basically the same purpose in the orchestra; mirror the melody as played by the

hichiriki, but vary it slightly as it is played. This produces rich, interesting harmonies.

Here is an example of a fue playing Etenraku

Sho

The sho is undoubtedly the most interesting instrument in the gagaku orchestra. It consists of a

cup-shaped wooden air chamber, or wind chest, with a set of seventeen reed pipes, two of which

are silent in modern instruments, tuned to various pitches. The player blows into the air chamber

and, by closing off certain pipes and opening other, produces a series of chords, like a miniature

pipe organ. In fact, the Chinese predecessor of the sho, the sheng, is the world's oldest pipe

organ. Legend has it that the ethereal sound of the sho is supposed to imitate the cry of the

phoenix.

The sho does plays melodic lines in some Koma-gaku pieces and in some vocal forms, its main

purpose, however, is a harmonic one. The sho has eleven chords of five or six notes available to it.

Here is an example of a sho playing chords

Now that we've talke about the instuments we can talk about orchestration:

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