Koto (instrument)
The koto (Japanese琴), a strung with silk Wölbbrett zither, is a Japanese musical instrument that is based on the Chinese guzheng.
Structure of the Koto
An average Koto is a 1.80 m long and 25 cm wide, fabricated from paulownia, hollow stringed instrument. The instrument body is slightly curved upwards, has two sound holes in the bottom and two small bridges over which the strings are stretched looser. It is strung with 13 strings, which today are mostly made of nylon or Teflon, since these are more durable and almost the same sound quality as have silk strings.
The strings all have the same voltage and at 13 movable bridges, the so-called Ji curious. By shifting the Ji, along the Koto, the different tones can be set or changed during the game. Passed the Ji earlier rosewood or even ivory, the plastic version is mainly used today.
For each part of the Koto, there is a mythological description, the shape of the Koto is often compared with that of a dragon. That's the name of the upper back of the Koto "dragon armor" (竜 甲, Ryuko ) ( as Asian dragon, like a turtle should have a tank ), the lower part of "dragon belly" (竜 腹, Ryūhara ), the rear part is the " Dragon's Tail " (竜 尾, Ryubi ), the front bridge " Dragon horns " (竜 角, Ryukaku ) and the rear bridge " seat of the angels " (天 御, Tenmiyo ) or" clouds horns " (云 角, Kumokaku ), indicative of the clouds over the horns of the dragon.
Playing the Koto
The game of Koto is a traditional Japanese arts of the imperial court and is still maintained. Even in Genji Monogatari ( The Tale of Genji ), perhaps the oldest novel in the world, is mentioned the Koto due to its great popularity in the Japanese court.
The koto is played either kneeling on the floor ( in the traditional way ) or with the help of wooden legs while sitting. The strings to pluck at the right end sitting at the right hand. This one carries three claw- like picks, the Tsume (爪, fingernails ), like rings on his fingers. Tsume is available as ivory picks with bamboo rings up entirely of plastic manufactured in several variants. With your left hand sound effects are produced, plucked strings or increases the tones by a half or whole note by depressing the corresponding pages.
The mood of the Koto Hirajōshi called ( the standard tuning ). The strings are tuned from back to front in the following order: D, G, A, Bb, D, Eb, G, A, Bb, D, Eb, G, A. There are many other scales, such as Gakujoshi or Nogijoshi, which is usually assumed that the mood Hirajōshi.
The way of playing the koto is divided into the Ikuta and Yamada school. The difference between the two is the one in the different picks. Yamada have fingernail- like and Ikuta -shaped picks. On the other hand, there is the difference in playing styles. In addition, the Yamada School has focused its vocal accompaniment to Koto.
By sliding the webs Koto is very flexible, and it can not only Asian but also Western moods can be set. This makes the Koto invites many modern musicians to experiment with Japanese music and it continues to develop.
Notation
Due to the many different Kotoschulen that exist in Japan, various types of notation have formed. The commonality of all scores is that first given a general mood, and then the numbers of the strings to be struck; eg mood Hirajōshi and then the first page一, the seventh七, the fifth五, strike etc..
The 13 strings of kotos have their own names, which are shown with Japanese Kanji. Counting the first string, which is on the far side of the instrument by the player, when the first string ( ichi一). The first ten strings are named after the Japanese numbers. The last three strings hot tō (斗, 11 string ), i (为12 ) and kin (巾, 13 ).
In order to memorize the sound of Hirajōshi, there is a mnemonic in which each corresponds to a syllable of a string: " matsumushi - Suzumushi - kutsuwamushi " (松虫 鈴虫 くつわ 虫). You count on three beetles. The names of the beetle have no direct connection with the koto, because they are used only for their rhythmic sound.
Otherwise, there are sometimes small differences in the writing down of ornaments, pauses, rhythm, or half and full tones., The notes are read in Eastern tradition from top to bottom and from right to left.
The history of the Koto
Koto has been introduced during the Nara period ( 710-793 ) as a tool of the court music ( gagaku ) from China to Japan. One of the most famous pieces for koto is Rokudan no Shirabe. Rokudan was composed by Yatsuhashi Kengyô.
There are two main forms:
- As an accompaniment instrument, the 13 - and multi-stringed So with a length of about 1.80 m to 2 m.
- As a solo instrument, the Chinese native, 1 m long, seven- kin.