University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses Dissertations and Theses July 2017 A Transformational Approach to Japanese Traditional Music of the Edo Period Kenneth J. Pasciak University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2 Part of the Music Theory Commons Recommended Citation Pasciak, Kenneth J., "A Transformational Approach to Japanese Traditional Music of the Edo Period" (2017). Masters Theses. 527. https://doi.org/10.7275/9993098 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/527 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A TRANSFORMATIONAL APPROACH TO JAPANESE TRADITIONAL MUSIC OF THE EDO PERIOD A Thesis Presented By Kenneth J. Pasciak Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF MUSIC May 2017 Music Theory © Copyright by Kenneth J. Pasciak 2017 All Rights Reserved ii A TRANSFORMATIONAL APPROACH TO JAPANESE TRADITIONAL MUSIC OF THE EDO PERIOD A Thesis Presented By Kenneth J. Pasciak Approved as to style and content by: ______________________________________________ Brent Auerbach, Chair ______________________________________________ Christopher White, Member ______________________________________________ Anne Prescott, Member ______________________________________________ Roberta M. Marvin, Department Head Department of Music iii DEDICATION To my wife, Sayaka, and my sons, Kai and Konan. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Brent Auerbach, for his guidance and advice, his thorough and detailed comments and his patience throughout this entire process. I would like to thank my committee members, Christopher White and Anne Prescott for sharing their knowledge and expertise and offering their observations, suggestions and helpful comments. I would like to thank Stefan Caris Love and Jason Hooper for their comments and encouragement during the early stages of this project. Finally, I wish to thank all of my friends and family for their support and encouragement. This would not have been possible without all of you. v ABSTRACT A TRANSFORMATIONAL APPROACH TO JAPANESE TRADITIONAL MUSIC OF THE EDO PERIOD MAY 2017 KENNETH J. PASCIAK, B.S. UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO B.A., UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO M.M., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Brent Auerbach Analysis of sōkyoku jiuta, Japanese traditional music of the Edo period for koto and shamisen, has in the past relied primarily on static tetrachordal or hexachordal models. The present study takes a transformational approach to traditional Japanese music. Specifically, it develops a framework for six-pitch hexachordal space inspired by Steven Rings’s transformational approach to tonal music. This novel voice-leading space yields insights into intervallic structure, trichordal transposition and hexachordal voice leading and transformations of this music at both its surface and large-scale levels. A side-by-side comparison with Rings’s approach highlights differences between the hexachordal and diatonic systems. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ v ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 II HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW ........................... 8 III THEORY AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 25 Part 1: A GIS for Hexachordal Space ................................................................... 26 Hexachordal Scale Degrees and Hexachordal Properties ......................... 29 Transformations in Hexachordal Space .................................................... 30 Part 2: A Hexachordal GIS ................................................................................... 37 Tonal and Hexachordal Qualia ................................................................. 37 Sets and Transformations .......................................................................... 42 Modulatory Intervals ................................................................................. 44 Pivot Intervals ........................................................................................... 45 Skew Pivots ............................................................................................... 47 Voice Crossings ........................................................................................ 50 Parsimonious Transformations and Intervallic Structure ......................... 52 Intervallic Consistency .............................................................................. 56 Part 3: Trichordal Transpositions and Hexachordal Transformations ................. 58 Part 4: Event Networks and Oriented Networks .................................................. 72 IV ANALYTICAL APPLICATIONS .......................................................................... 77 Kumiuta ..................................................................................................... 77 A Modification to Hexachordal Voice Leading ........................................ 79 Implications of Hexachordal Transformations ......................................... 84 Koto Prelude, Hien no Kyoku and Trichordal Transpositions .................. 90 Akikaze no Kyoku: A New Hexachordal Collection ................................. 94 vii V CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 103 APPENDIX: ASPECTS OF THE KOTO AND SHAMISEN ......................................... 107 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 109 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. A hexachordal collection ........................................................................................ 1 2. Maebiki of Zangetsu, mm. 1–7 ............................................................................... 2 3. Subject (mm. 1–2) and answer (mm. 2–4) of fugue ............................................... 4 4. Network representing two possible hearings of the fugue’s opening ..................... 4 5. Answer (mm. 2–4) with countersubject reduction .................................................. 5 6. Network representing path between two tonal contexts ......................................... 5 7. Model of the path traversed by the answer from Figures 5 and 6 within the tonal GIS ................................................................................................................. 6 8. Event network and grid for fugue subject, mm. 1–2 ............................................... 7 9. Koto tuning systems: tsukushigoto (upper) and hira-jōshi (lower) ....................... 9 10. Ascending and descending forms of the in scale .................................................. 11 11. Four kinds of tetrachords ...................................................................................... 12 12. Melody based on a D-F-G tetrachord ................................................................... 12 13. Conjunct (left) and disjunct (right) tetrachords .................................................... 13 14. Tetrachordal modulation with nuclear pivot tone, G ............................................ 13 15. Tetrachord analysis of Rokudan no Shirabe ......................................................... 14 16. Octave scale constructed from two disjunct tetrachords ....................................... 15 17. Pivotal tetrachords between related scales.............................................................16 18. The hexachordal model with lower and upper trichords separated by a fifth ....... 17 19. Trichordal transposition ........................................................................................ 18 20. Contrapuntal trichordal motion between E and B hexachords ............................. 19 21. Background structure of Midare ........................................................................... 21 ix 22. Background structure of Godan ginuta ................................................................. 21 23. Midare, opening dan, mm. 1–14 ........................................................................... 26 24. Pitch content of Midare ........................................................................................ 27 25. Various hexachordal intervals in Midare, opening dan, mm. 1–14 ...................... 28 26. Hexachordal model with hexachordal scale degrees ............................................ 29 27. Octave model of tetrachord theory with hexachordal scale degrees ..................... 30 28. Mapping tables for various transpositions in hexachordal space .......................... 31 29. Rotation about 0-3 axis, Ih 0-3; rotation about axis between 1 and 2, Ih 1/2 ............. 32 30.