From Religion To Former Theatres
Toru KATOU , Jan. 1998
English Summary
The theaters of the world owe their origins mainly to religious rites and ceremonies. In old ages when the religions were too strong and restrict, it was very hard and difficult for the theaters to get independent from religions. This is the reason why the Greek had their own theaters so early while Islam has few theaters until today.
The author noticed that religion, the origin of theater, brought a long and strong influences on theater musics in the world.
In the first place, theaters were still not separated distinctly from music. They were still under the religious powers, hence theater musics of the world had a remarkable characteristic in common.
- 1: First stage. In the former theaters, only wind instruments, percussion instruments and voices were allowed, while string instruments were generally avoided.
In Greek, they only used a single wind instrument named "auros". In medieval Europe, they only used vocal sounds (pipe-organ, a typical wind instrument, was also allowed afterward) in church theaters. In China, "sheng" (a free-reed-instrument ) and the "dizi" (a kind of flute) were used in "NUO-XI" and "YUAN-QU" ( also in KUN-QU). In Japan, string instruments such as "koto" and "biwa" were never used in "Noh" theaters. Islam, who did not have their own theaters, still only use voice without any instruments when they pray in their mosque.
- 2: Second stage. Theaters got free from strong influences of religions. They became a kind of public entertainments, therefore string instruments began to be used largely.
In modern Europe, violins and pianos had never been used largely until the theater moved from churches into cities. In China, after Qing dynasty, string instruments such as "hu-qin" (fiddle) became very popular among local theater musics. In Japan, KABUKI theater which began in 17th century perfectly owes its music to a string instrument named "shamisen".
Generalizing the history of the theater music, it changed from vocal/wind instruments to strings.
Then, you might have a question: Why string instruments were avoided in former theaters in the world? As far as the author has seen, there is still no article nor theory that succeeded in explaining the answer to this question.
The author has set forth a bold hypothesis in order to answer this question through studying Chinese old theaters.
I think that wind and vocal instruments were symbols of breath. Percussion instruments were symbols of heart beat. Thus they could symbolize life. In religious theaters, its main purpose was reviving ghosts(gods) and historical persons onto stage. Theater musics were played with these life-symbolizing-instruments. But after centuries, when the main purpose of theater changed into entertainment and art, string instruments which need fine technics became used in theater music. At the same time, theaters began to depend upon actors' lines and words.
In conclusion, in former theaters, only life-symblizing-instruments (including human voices) were allowed to be played. (rule of Katou)
[Katou's Homepage (English version)]
|