Appreciation of Music - Traditional Japanese Music & Healing Music
Lesson 03: Japanese Ancient Music, Gagaku & Healing; Iyashi-kei Music
Submitted by Michiko Kato Dressen
Objectives:
Content:
Students will:
- Develop understanding of Japanese ancient music, 雅楽:Gagaku and research on cultural and historical facts in this type of music.
- Identify the name of musical instruments of Gagaku and be able to explain briefly about them.
Cultural:
Students will:
- Develop understanding of cultural and historical facts in Japanese ancient music, 雅楽:Gagaku .
- Develop understanding of Japanese ancient music, Gagaku which was integrated as a foundation of new style of Japanese Healing music.
- Identify the name of musical instruments of Gagaku and be able to explain in Japanese briefly about them.
Language: Content Obligatory
Students will use the following phrases and verbs:
- Question formation with these expressions of : about when/ what type of situation; いつ頃／どんな時に, which place; どんな場所／所 で, what type of musical instrument; どんな楽器
- Asking about Experience - Have you ever listened ---? Yes, I have. / No, I have not." Verb-plain (aff. past) + ことが あります。
- Passive voice of Verbs: 演奏される; to be played Vs. 演奏する; to play
- Asking Questions - How do you feel about this music? / Why do you think so?
- Answering for Why questions with the reason: Plain-form statement + からです。
- Offering Explanation: Plain-form statement + のでしょう／のです／のだ & んでしょう／んです／んだ。
- Expressing Obligation: Pre-ない form + なければ なりません。
Language: Content Compatible
Students will:
- Describe opinions with Adjectives, interesting, boring, beautiful, slow, fast, quiet, etc.
- Describing opinion – “I think that ---.”
- Use modifying Clauses
- Use new vocabulary words and sentences to discuss about “雅楽:Gagaku ” and share the information in the class.
- Use some dictionaries/ Internet dictionaries to look up new vocabulary words to read an essay, articles in Internet.
Note: Vocabularies used in this Lesson are in an attachment-3.Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
Students will:
- Use technology to gain more information, communicate and connect with its resources and community using the target language.
- Develop their own reading strategies for challenging Japanese materials in publication using their own vocabulary list.
- Use prior knowledge and listening skills to infer meaning of unknown words.
- Use prior knowledge and listening and speaking skills to complete each conversation.
- Work cooperatively in pairs/groups to complete assigned tasks.
Time Frame:
Four to five 50 minute sessions
Materials Needed:
- Any video tape of “雅楽:Gagaku ”(Japanese Ancient Court Music), “舞楽：Bugaku”(JPN Ancient Court Music & Dancing) and the new composition, “New Asia” with ancient instruments.
- Pictures of musical instruments of Japanese ancient music, “Gagaku”
- A handout sheet with questions for students to fill in or write in. A few blank question columns can be added for students to write extra questions.
- CDs of “feel”: Iyashi-kei music, “New Asia” & “HIKARI NO JO; 越天楽幻想曲; Etenraku Gensoukyoku ( Fantasia)” by Hideki Togi.
- A Japanese essay, "日本の音楽 2002：Music in Japan 2002/ "Healing; 癒し系: Iyashi-kei" Music & Japanese Traditional Music" in an attachment
- Internet web sites students can visit to explore, research (in Japanese) and actually listen to some sample music.
Description of Assessment (Performance Project):
In this lesson, students will listen to one of the Japanese "Healing; Iyashi-kei" music, "New Asia" composed by a musician of Japanese ancient court music, "Gagaku", a few original "Gagaku" music and modern arrangement, then develop understanding of how Japanese young musicians carry on ancient traditions and create some new style of music. Students will read first half of a Japanese essay, "日本の音楽 2002：Music in Japan 2002/ "Healing; Iyashi-kei" Music & Japanese Ancient Music" and summarize it. Further research on cultural and historical facts in Japanese ancient music, " Gagaku" visiting web sites and write a short descriptive passage in Japanese about the old "Gagaku" music, the new version and the integrated music piece, "New Asia" and how they feel about them by using a handout sheet used in activity 4,5,6. Then, they will present in their class also to JPN II and JPN I classes. Each student will write a short E-mail letter in Japanese to Mr. Togi who is the composer of "Etenraku Fantasia" and “New Asia”.
Activities
Pre-Task: Introduction to Japanese " Iyashi-kei ( Healing) music":
1. Students will work in pairs to listen to music samples of "Iyashi-kei (Healing)" music pieces and discuss and write down which musical instruments are in the music and what characteristics of sound or melody they found in the music. Then the teacher will ask in Japanese what types of traditional or regional music, not all necessarily originated in Japan, are integrated in each music piece.
Note: A handout, vocabulary list and sample sentences are in an attachment.
Sample sentences are in an attachment: Lesson 03 Activity -1Note: The teacher may have to explain what traditional/regional music such as typical Japanese festival music or Irish/Russian music, etc. is integrated if students can not guess.
2. Students will read a Japanese essay, "日本の音楽 2002：Japanese music 2002" in which music samples were grouped into three characteristics. At first, they will work in pairs to read the first half of the essay, summarize and answer the questions by writing on a handout. The vocabulary list that they can look up and fill in using a dictionary/ an Internet dictionary will be given. Attachment: L3 Japanese music 2002- New Words
During-Task:
3. The teacher will focus on one of the music pieces called "New Asia" newly arranged by Hideki Togi. This piece was used for TV program "The Discovery of New Asia". Since Togi has been actively creating new style of music based on Japanese ancient court music, "Gagaku". The teacher will lead students' attention into the Japanese ancient music, "Gagaku".4. The class will listen to Togi's " Etenraku Gensoukyoku (Fantasia)" on CD, then listen to original Japanese Gagaku piece, " Etenraku" by going to the Trackstar website that I set a track as an assignment for the students. They will explore to research on Japanese ancient court music, "Gagaku". Later they will compare to Togi's new creation, "Etenraku Fantasia". Students are given their own vocabulary list prepared ahead of time to read some portion of the web article written in challenging Japanese. The teacher will instruct students a few reading strategies such as reading thoroughly especially the first and the last two, three sentences of each paragraph, then they will try to develop their own learning strategies to read the content written in Japanese.
Attachment: L3 Gagaku - New Words / L3 Gagaku Q& A
Sample Sentences: Lesson 03 Activity - 4
Post-Task:
5. Students will pair up to do further research on cultural and historical facts in Japanese ancient music, in which era, where "Gagaku" was played, when it was listened, and what was the life style like when this type of music was played by visiting the trackstar web assignment and other web sites. They will answer the questions of activity 4,5,6 on a handout sheet, L3 Gagaku Q & A in Japanese, then later use them to write a short descriptive passage about the ancient "Gagaku" music, the new version and the integrated piece, "New Asia".6. Students will compare and discuss in Japanese how they think about the new composition, "; Etenraku Fantasia" and the old original, "; Etenraku" using sample sentences. Sample Sentences: Lesson 03 Activity - 5, 6
The teacher will debrief by quickly going over the activity 4,5, and 6 questions, then explain about the final activity in this Lesson.
7. Students will write a short descriptive passage in Japanese about the original "Etenraku (Gagaku)" music, the new version and the old & new integrated music piece, "New Asia" by using questions & answers of activity 4,5,6, besides their own researched content, then send E-mails to Mr. Hideki Togi to ask more about "Gagaku", his new compositions, how he think about creating the new music while carrying on ancient tradition on his Internet bulletin board.
Assessment:
Formative assessment of this lesson will be done by students themselves and the teacher with a checklist when students present the post-task activity.
The Checklist for Lesson 3 is in the Handouts section below.
References and Resources:
Assignments on trackstar Track # 125598
http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/ts/viewTrack.do?number=125598Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc. (2002). Japanese traditional music: Gagaku in Japanese & English
http://jtrad.columbia.jp/jpn/g_gagaku.html & http://jtrad.columbia.jp/eng/g_gagaku.htmlToshiba-Emi. Ltd., CD: "feel"(2000).
http://www.toshiba-emi.co.jpSakata, S. (2002) Gagaku: Young Performers Carry On Ancient Traditions
http://web-jpn.org/nipponia/nipponia22/en/feature/feature06.htmlColumbia Music Entertainment, Inc. (2002). Japanese traditional musical instruments in Japanese & English
http://jtrad.columbia.jp/jpn/inst.html & http://jtrad.columbia.jp/eng/inst.htmlJapan Information Network: Museum, Japanese Music
http://web-jpn.org/museum/music/music.htmlToshiba-Emi. Ltd., Hideki Togi website: To send E-mail to Mr. Togi
http://www.toshiba-emi.co.jp/togi/Musical instruments in Gagaku
http://web-jpn.org/museum/music/music01/music01.html
http://www.gagaku.net/index.htmlNote: The website http://jtrad.columbia.jp/jpn and http://web-jpn.org/nipponia/nipponia22/en/ contain many other sources of Japanese traditional music such as Noh music, Kabuki music, Koto: Japanese thirteen-stringed, half-tube plucked zither music and musical instruments, Tsuzumi & Taiko: drums, Hue/Fue: Asian flute, Shakuhachi: bamboo clarinet, etc. This site will be very useful for the possible next year activities to spiral up.
Attachments:
NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)L3 Vocabulary (pdf)
L3 Sample Sentences (pdf)L3 Gagaku - New Words (pdf)
L3 Gagaku Q&A (pdf)L3 JPN Music 2002 - New Words (pdf)
L3-4 Essay: Music in JPN, 2002 (pdf)
L3 JPN Music 2002 questions (pdf)
Checklist for Lesson 3