篳篥
Liner notes
The instrument is small, but it is louder than the other two gagaku winds, and its reedy line is the thread the rest of the ensemble follows.
The instrument
The tube has seven finger holes on the front and two on the back. Its length has been fixed since early times, and makers take old instruments as their models. The bore is cylindrical, which gives the tone something of the colour of a clarinet, though the double reed makes it harder to play. The reed is a section of dried reed cane, flattened at one end by heat and held by a split rattan band, while the other end is packed with layers of paper that seal it into the pipe and help adjust the pitch.
The range is narrow, a little more than an octave, which is less than the shō or the ryūteki.
How to listen
The hichiriki is known above all for embai (塩梅), a word that literally refers to salt-plum seasoning. It is a way of gliding between pitches by changing the breath and how far the reed sits in the mouth, so that a player can sink below a note and then rise to the next without changing fingers. The result is a melody that slides rather than steps.
In the ensemble, Japanese sources describe the hichiriki as playing the principal melody, or more exactly something close to it. The ryūteki winds around that line in a higher range, and the shō holds chords underneath. Listening for the hichiriki first is the easiest way into a gagaku piece.
A short history
The hichiriki is traditionally traced to Kucha (亀茲) in the Western Regions of Central Asia, and from there to China, where the pipe was known as guan or bili. It reached Japan with the continental court music. Its Korean relative is the piri, written with the same characters.
A larger version, the ōhichiriki, sounding a fourth lower, was used in the Heian period and then fell out of use. It was revived in 1878, and reconstructions are now heard in new Japanese music. The ordinary hichiriki has also found a place outside the court, played by musicians such as Hideki Togi and by composers and performers abroad.
Start with
The 1941 Taishikichō chōshi is a prelude in the taishiki mode for shō, hichiriki and ryūteki. With no strings or percussion, the hichiriki's line stands out clearly against the other two winds.
Questions
- What is a hichiriki?
- The hichiriki is a small Japanese double-reed pipe of lacquered bamboo, about 18 centimetres long, with seven finger holes on the front and two on the back. It carries the main melody in gagaku court music.
- What is embai?
- Embai is the hichiriki player's technique of sliding between pitches by changing breath pressure and the position of the reed in the mouth. It lets the melody move smoothly, without fixed steps, while the fingering stays the same.
- Where does the hichiriki come from?
- It is traditionally traced to Kucha in Central Asia and reached Japan from China, where it was called guan or bili. The Korean piri is a close relative.