Japanese Ensemble (2018)

About the CU Japanese Ensemble

The CU Japanese Ensemble is a class in the College of Music dedicated to hands-on learning of Japanese music and dance, open to all CU students. The group learns a wide variety of music and dance from many regions of Japan. Japanese music is typically based on songs that reflect styles
of Japanese poetry sung in lines of five or seven syllables. Song lyrics evoke images of landscapes, seasons, weather, animals and legendary figures of Japan, in order to illustrate Shinto religious ideals of harmony between the gods and human beings in nature as well as Buddhist themes of the transient nature of existence in this world. Traditional instruments studied by the group include shamisen (skin- covered, 3-string plucked lute), shinobue (transverse bamboo folk flute), nokan (transverse bamboo flute from nohdrama), shakuhachi (end-blown bamboo flute), taiko (double-headed, barrel-shaped, stick-struck drums of various sizes), kotsuzumi (shoulder-held, hourglass-shaped, pressure drum) and otsuzumi (hip-held, hourglass-shaped drum).