Hi everyone,
> >The shakuhachi plays the pentatonic scale--right? But that's
> the Minor
> >Pentatonic scale--there's another one. Actually, many other scales.
>
Philip Gelg wrote:
> the shakuhachi can play any scale that the player is able to
> technically develop. It is certainly not simply a pentatonic
> instrument though many people treat it as such.
I feel there is a slight misunderstanding about how the instrument is
tuned and what it can play. The pentatonic scale of the shakuhachi
tuning is not the minor pentatonic scale. If it would be so, we would
get: D, E, F, A, B. What we get is the F major pentatonic scale but
starting on the D below it: F, G, A, C, D. But the overall character of
most honkyoku pieces are based on a minor scale (pentatonic or not). In
fact, most of these pieces dot not have a "scale" as we define it in
Western music. We must consider a historical fact: the notion of scale
as is discussed here is a Western notion. Some of us are somewhat
putting on shakuhachi music something it did not have basically.
Japanese music works more in terms of motives and modes than scales.
Scale, tonality and harmony are closely linked. Without tonality and
harmony, there is no real need to talk of scales.
Bruno Deschenes
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