Books › The music and musical instruments of Japan, 1909 › scan 215
Scan 215
The music and musical instruments of Japan, 1909
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 185. See the scan on archive.org.
116 [Page 109].—It is to be regretted that nothing for certain is known of the ancient Hitsu-no-koto. It is reputed to have had as many as fifty strings, and it would supply a valuable piece of information if we only knew to what notes these strings were tuned. Speculation as to whether this large number of strings represented a diatonic or a chromatic scale-system is useless. But even if some of the notes were doubled—i.e., two unisons—it is clear that the compass of this Harp, four thousand years old, must have been large, and its number of intervals very considerable.
317 [Page 109].—The striking of a stringed instrument with beaters or hammers is of great antiquity. Such instruments were the forerunners of our modern Dulcimer; the last lingering example is the Cembalo of the Hungarians, who play marvellously on this simply-constructed piano-forte, i.e., an instrument yielding soft and loud tones according to the force with which the strings are struck. In many of the Assyrian sculptures will be found players with an instrument of this type suspended in front of them, while marching in procession with other musicians.
518 [Page 116].—The method of playing the one, two, and three-stringed Kin or Koto is curious, so far as the production of notes other than those of the open strings is concerned. It is difficult to say why, instead of stopping the string with the finger, as is common in all countries and with all instruments, a heavy ivory cylinder worn on the second finger of the left hand should have been employed: the sliding of this along the string, instead of striking it clear, has some little analogy to the action of our Violin and Violoncello players, who produce charming effects by this gliding up to a note. The indication of the tones and semitones by spots painted on the body of the Koto is allied to the plan of using frets for a similar purpose placed across the necks of instruments of the Guitar type.
719 [Page 124].—This mode of raising the pitch of the string, by depressing that portion of it not intended to sound on the wrong side of the bridge, is an ingenious device peculiar to the Japanese musicians; so far as we know, the practice exists nowhere else, though it may be mentioned that the old Welsh harpists pinched their strings at the top in order to raise them a semitone. No one would guess that such a device was employed who merely saw the instrument. We should judge that the Koto possessed an imperfect scale: but this mode of artificially raising the pitch of a string by a single or a double pressure, either a semitone or a tone, elevates the instrument into the rank of one possessing a complete chromatic scale, and on it any music can be played.
920 [Page 124].—The device of sharpening a note from its initial pitch while the string is still vibrating, by tightening the tension of the string, and then, by gradually removing the pressure, letting the note fall to its original sound, is indeed remarkable: it suggests effects quite new to us. It may be pointed out, that some such result may be obtained by depressing still further the keys of the old Clavichord, after they have been struck and the tangents have hit the wire; the additional pressure on the key slightly raises, and thus tightens, the strings, making the note rise in pitch. There is a tradition that Bach, who preferred the Clavichord, used to produce this effect occasionally; but as the alteration of the pitch of a note would have affected the harmonic chord of which it was a component part, the tradition as to this after-sharpening seems hardly credible.
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