Rokudan
Encyclopedia
Rokudan no Shirabe is one of Yatsuhashi Kengyo
's famous pieces. It was originally a soukyoku, a kind of chamber music
with the koto
playing the leading part, but nowadays the part of the koto is more widely known than the original. The music is made from six columns (thus 'Roku' -- six, 'dan' -- columns), and there are exactly fifty-two beats in each column, except for the first row, which has four beats more. Each column first begin slowly, and then gets faster and faster, but slows down to the original tempo at the end. Along with the Midare, it is one of the most popular soukyoku.
Yatsuhashi Kengyo
Yatsuhashi Kengyō was a Japanese musician and composer from Kyoto. The name Kengyō is an honorary title given to highly skilled blind musicians....
's famous pieces. It was originally a soukyoku, a kind of chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
with the koto
Koto (musical instrument)
The koto is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument, similar to the Chinese guzheng, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum and the Vietnamese đàn tranh. The koto is the national instrument of Japan. Koto are about length, and made from kiri wood...
playing the leading part, but nowadays the part of the koto is more widely known than the original. The music is made from six columns (thus 'Roku' -- six, 'dan' -- columns), and there are exactly fifty-two beats in each column, except for the first row, which has four beats more. Each column first begin slowly, and then gets faster and faster, but slows down to the original tempo at the end. Along with the Midare, it is one of the most popular soukyoku.
External links
- 八橋 検校 (Yatsuhashi Kengyo)
- The Insen scale used in Rokudan