Saibara

Saibara (催馬楽) is a genre of accompanied vocal Japanese court [cite web | url=http://tokyocinema.net/saibara.htm|title=saibara and roei vocal music in gagaku] music that existed during the Heian period in the region of Nara and Kyoto. [cite web | url=http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/msj4/bulletin/v49/v49-1e.html| title=Journal of the Musicological Society of Japan vol. XLIX (1), 2003] It draws from traditional folk music (=fuzoku) from the Nara period [cite web |url=http://jtrad.columbia.jp/eng/history.html|title=Japanese Traditional music] [cite web | url=http://haiku.ru/frog/glossary-engl/enggl.html | title=(Japanese music) Glossary] set to togaku and komagaku melodies.

It may have developed out of music to drive horses along, as this is what sai ba ra means. But according to Harich-Schneider there are several theories. Sai (to drive) (ba (horse) ra (music, songs)saibara = music to drive horses along as they toil.The song texts are short and simple in character and describe a scene of life. The repertoire was once estimated at some 400 songs. In the late Nara period Bota declined and the aristocracy became more interested in complex foreign musical imports. Emperor Horikawa (1086-1107) also - despite the taste for chinese culture since the Nara period - cultivated an interest in Japanese folk song. (=fuzoku). The Japanese folk songs were liked for their prosaic character, their vulgar and at times sexually explicit lyrics and biting satire. Some texts like the one where a Korean opens the belt of a girl and she talks of the various names of her pussy, were even to vulgar for the decadent, Heian court. Courtiers would spend a lot of time waiting in corridors for the audience so they spent their time with arm- wrestling and demonstrations of strength, as well as playing the flute and singing saibara songs. A fashionable aristocrat was not regarded à jour if he did not know of the latest chinese imports, such as toka music. In the 14th century,because of the many wars, the repertoire of saibara declined, as many were lost due to the ensuing turmoil, and it was only at the occasion of the crowning ceremony (Daijoe) of emperor Gomizunoo (1611-1629)in Nijo Palace that a reconstruction of the old saibara pieces was attempted and the famous saibara piece "Ise no umi" no was performed for an invited set of shogun at the imperial palace in kyoto.The emperor`s wife Fujiwara no Fusahi describes in court chronicle that they found little old material. The repertoire today includes newly created folk songs (imayo=modern)

Repertoire61 Saibara Texts (32 in ryo and 17 in ritsu)

Melody characterized by:1.Choshi Netori =initial beginning2.shaku byoshi. clapping of hands and with wooden sticks3.hayashi kotoba =hissing sounds to make players play more beautiful "ahare" (=word without meaning)

Selected Saibara Texts:

Ise no Umi no, Kiyoki nagise ni, shihogai ni, Nanori zo yatsuma, Kai ya hirowamu ya, Tama ya Hiro wa ya"Near the sea at Ise, we want to harvest sea-wheat, While we are collecting muscles and sea shells we are collecting perls, i want to find (win) one perl"

Koro mogae, anatoo, yamashiro, minoyama, mushiroda"Let us change our clothes, I have coloured my robes with the violet-red flower petals of the Hagis shrub which grows in the field."

Ide koga koma hayaku ikikogo matsuchiyamamatsu ramu imo o ikite haya mimu"run my horse, run to mount matsuchi,to my lover, run, soon i will see you"

Chikeranaki kaeru, chikeranaki kaeru,Honemaki mimizu, Honenaki mimizu."Weak, (powerless) frog, weak frog,worm without bones, worm without bones"

References

Harich-Schneider, E: Saibara, Deutsches Jahrbuch für Music, 1963,Harich-Schneider, E: A history of Japanese Music, Oxford UP, 1980