So Close to Heaven, Connected to Earth – Gagaku & bugaku: Traditional Japanese Ceremonial Music with Dance (Part 1)
Short Online Lecture Zoom Japan A | Language of the lecture: German

Unfamiliar sounds: some strange instruments like the mouth organ shō with its polyphonic, partly asynchronous buzzing of 17 bamboo pipes of different lengths; dull beats, occasionally changing time signature, on brightly painted drums; magnificently clad dancers wearing fearsome masks, moving slowly across the stage in spellbound body tension: traditional Japanese ceremonial music gagaku and bugakuceremonial dance are not immediately understandable to Europeans. But those who get involved will feel what is special about this art: it transports the viewer and listener to other spheres. It is no coincidence that it took on cultic functions from the very beginning and was already an expression of cosmic harmony in China.

On the occasion of the anniversary concert of the EKŌ Center with gagaku and bugaku on September 2 in the Robert-Schumann-Saal, this short online lecture series invites you to discover the instruments, costumes and stage, the music in its timbres and accents, the forms of movement of the dances and the associated ideas and associations, using image and sound examples, in order to try to understand them, perhaps, even better, to experience them during the performance on September 2. The second short online lecture will take place on August 8, 2023 at 8 pm.

Illustration: Bugaku dancers in a performance by the Tsukiji Hongwanji Gagaku Kai © Tsukiji Hongwanji Gagaku Kai