Mode and Atonality in Japanese

Music: Pitch Structure in Minoru

Miki’s Jo No Kyoku

by Serena Yang

Since the Meiji period (1868–1912), Japanese musicians and

composers have faced the conundrum of assimilating Western mu-
sical systems while retaining traditional art forms. Newly composed
music before the 1950s demonstrated an overwhelming adoption
of Western classical harmonies and scales;1 for example, composers
often harmonized traditional melodies with a Westernized accom-
paniment. Modern genres such as enka, school songs, and new folk
songs, which used the newly invented pentatonic major and minor
scales (yona-nuki scales), were popular among the public.2 Though
prewar composers such as Kosaku Yamada (1886–1965) and Michio
Miyagi (1894–1956) attempted to transform Western techniques and
preserve traditional musical systems, many of their works were
perceived as merely imitative of Western music.3 It was not un-
til 1950 that Japanese composers successfully developed their own
styles that were internationally recognized as “Japanese.” Perhaps
this success owes something to a more advanced understanding of
Japanese modal theory. In 1958 ethnomusicologist Fumio Koizumi
found that four types of tetrachordal models constitute the basic
modal structure for most of Japanese traditional and folk melodies;
each tetrachord includes two nuclear tones that function as com-
peting tonal centers, allowing for different types of modulation.4 In
tandem with Koizumi’s work, modern Japanese composers discov-
ered ways of realizing and manipulating traditional nuclear-tone
structures by using Western atonal theory. 
Minoru Miki (1930–2011), the godfather of gendai hogaku (con-
temporary Japanese music), was one of the postwar composers who
realized the concept of nuclear tones in his atonal works. Miki was
raised in an environment of Japanese instrumental sounds and re-
ceived a Western musical education at the Tokyo National Univer-
sity of Fine Arts and Music from 1951 to 1955.5 After composing for
Western instruments for ten years, he composed his first piece for
24 Music Research Forum
traditional Japanese instruments in 1962, aiming to create a musical
forum where instruments of East and West could work together.
Being mindful of the long, tragic conflict between nations during
the two world wars, Miki believed that harmony between the East
and West was necessary for the world, and that composers should
take up the responsibility for intercultural communication and
world peace.6 Later in the 1980s, he encapsulated these ideas into
the concept of “konketsu”:
In the first half of the 1980s, while dealing with various pub-
lic and personal difficulties, I began to devote considerable
thought to “konketsu” (ethnic mixture, or ethnic diversity).
The Japanese are close to being a single ethnic group. This
parallel to the Nazis was one of the causes which led to the
tragedy of the last war. Even after World War II, through-
out the world we continue to witness the endless tragedy
of conflict between nation and nation, people and people.
All this has led me to the conviction that only through “kon-
ketsu” can we guarantee peace. Art cannot exist in isolation
from society. Even in the field of serious music, ethnic mix-
ture should be an important theme.7
As early as 1969, Miki’s ideals of ethnic diversity and social
communion appeared in his orchestral suite Ho-o sanren (Eurasian
Trilogy). Composed between 1969 and 1981, the work comprises
three orchestral pieces, Jo no kyoku (1969), Ha no kyoku (1974), and
Kyu no kyoku (1981).8 Miki bridged Western and Japanese art forms
by relating the three pieces to Western genres (prelude, concerto,
and symphony respectively), as well as to the three parts of Japa-
nese traditional performing arts, jo-ha-kyu. Jo is a slow beginning,
appearing out of silence; ha is a break, presenting and developing
thematic materials; kyu is a rushing conclusion, reaching the climax
and soon returning to its initial composure and silence.9 These sec-
tions present an arc of disproportional shape by gradually rising to
a climax and falling sharply at the end. This arc is not only signified
in the titles but also the structure for each individual piece in Ho-o
sanren.
The first piece in this trilogy, Jo no kyoku, Prelude for Shakuha-
chi, Koto, Shamisen and Strings (1969), is Miki’s first work combin-
ing Japanese and Western instruments. Miki blended these Japa-
nese and Western instruments in this work to express his belief in
the importance of intercultural communication through music.10 In
Minoru Miki’s Jo No Kyoku 25
addition, I argue that Miki also expressed an aesthetic preference
for blending elements of both Japanese and Western atonal prac-
tices by emphasizing the conceptual compatibility of the motivic
cells, nuclear tones, and tone clusters in both the Western atonal
tradition and Japanese traditional music. On this common ground,
he derived his motivic cells and a progression of nuclear tones
from traditional Japanese modes, applied them to both Eastern and
Western instruments, and used the contour of Japanese traditional
performing arts, jo-ha-kyu, to structure the large-scale pitch organi-
zation. Furthermore, his motivic cells constitute atonal tone clusters
in the string orchestral part, evoking the timbral spectrum of shō in
gagaku music.
Few scholars have studied Miki’s Ho-o sanren. Steven Nuss’s
article “Western Instruments, Japanese Music: Issues of Texture
and Harmony in Minoru Miki’s Jo no kyoku,” an analysis of the first
piece, Jo no kyoku, dissects the first 42 (out of 183) measures of the
work. He draws a parallel between Jo no kyoku and gagaku music,
analyzing its texture and harmony through his theory of “All but
One” (subtle chromatic variation), based on the concept of embai
(micro-tonal bending of pitches) in gagaku music.11 Nuss identifies
the basic pitch-class sets played by the Western string orchestra and
discusses how it imitates the textures of gagaku by increasing the
implication levels, a cumulative tally of the number of a set class’s
family members that appear in a given passage. Nuss believed that
this first section is representative of Miki’s image of gagaku harmo-
nies and texture throughout the piece. However, Nuss’s analysis
leaves out the irregular structure of jo-ha-kyu as a whole, as well
as the important unifying motives and nuclear-tone modulations
played by the traditional Japanese instruments.12
This study will extend Nuss’s work by analyzing Jo no kyoku in
its entirety, demonstrating a particular aspect of the pitch structure
that shares features with Western atonal music and Japanese tradi-
tional music. I focus on the large-scale pitch organization shaped
by the motivic cells and the progression of nuclear tones in both
Japanese and Western instrumental parts. I use two methods to de-
termine the nuclear tones in each passage: first, the basic pitch-class
relationships (pc sets), which operate in the manner of motivic cells
and unify the pitch organization both locally and at deeper levels;
second, the types of tetrachords (in Koizumi’s theory) suggested by
the Japanese modes in each passage. I argue that, in Miki’s Jo no kyo-
ku, the transposition of nuclear tones articulates the musical space
and the structure of jo-ha-kyu, and the combination of this technique
26 Music Research Forum
with Western atonal practices reflects his ideal of ethnic diversity
(“konketsu”).13 The following section provides a brief summary of
the history of Japanese modal theory, showing Miki’s awareness
of the Japanese modal system and contextualizes his ingenuity in
synthesizing diverse cultural musics.
The History of Modal Theory in Japan
The introduction of gagaku (the music of the imperial court)
and shomy (ritual Buddhist chant) from China in the eighth century
of the Heian period (A.D. 794–1185) brought the Chinese modal
system to Japan.14 The Chinese scale derived twelve pitches in an
octave from the cycle of fifths by the sanfen sunyi method (三分損
益法).15 Japanese musicians developed two types of court music
modes based on the same idea: the ryo mode, from the upward se-
ries of fifths, and the ritsu mode, from the downward series of fifths
(Fig. 1).16 Around the tenth century, gagaku musicians frequently
lowered the second and sixth degrees of the ritsu mode, which later
evolved into the in mode in the Edo period (A. D. 1600–1868) (Fig.
2). Because the third degree lost its voice-leading function when
transformed from the ritsu to the in mode, musicians often skipped
the note and therefore created an interval of a major third between
the second and fourth degrees, which became a distinctive feature
of Japanese music.17
ryo
ritsu
Figure 1: The sequence of fifths; ryo and ritsu modes
Figure 2: in mode
Minoru Miki’s Jo No Kyoku 27
The in mode was popular throughout the Edo period but was
replaced by the yo mode, a mode without a half-step interval, in
the late Edo and Meiji periods, when the Chinese music Minshin-
gaku was imported to Japan. Musicians of Meiji shinkyoku led this
movement in the Meiji period, attempting to free the modes from
the bonds of tradition. They replaced the minor seconds of the in
mode with major seconds for a brighter, clearer tonality, aiming to
popularize their works (Fig. 3).18
Figure 3: in and yo modes in the late Edo and Meiji periods
The music theorist Uehara Rokushiro first labeled these modes
as in and yo in 1895.19 He published the first significant analysis
of Japanese modes in various genres (though mostly from the Edo
period), distinguishing two basic modes that were popular in dif-
ferent geographic regions: miyako-bushi (urban melody) as the in
mode and inaka-bushi (rural melody) as the yo mode. Furthermore,
he pointed out the different forms of mode in ascending and de-
scending passages.20 The in mode is G Ab C D F G in the ascending
passage and G Ab C D Eb G in the descending. The yo mode is G A C
D F G ascending and G A C D E G descending.
A half century later, Koizumi Fumio proposed his tetrachordal
theory of mode in his book Nihon Dento Ongaku no Kenkyu (1958),
which is now generally followed by Japanese scholars.21 Deriving
the concept from the ancient Greek modal theory, Koizumi found
that Japanese scales could be analyzed with a tetrachordal mod-
el, which organizes the nuclear tones and accompanying musical
pitches into a tetrachordal structure. This model is applicable to
most Japanese folk and traditional music because the framework
of their melodies is composed of tones separated by a fourth.22 Al-
though the Greek tetrachord includes four successive pitches, in
Koizumi’s model, each tetrachord comprises three pitches: two
“nuclear tones” (kakuon) a fourth apart and one intermediate tone
in between. Koizumi called his model “tetorakorudo kata (tetrachord
type)” instead of “trichord” to retain its Greek theoretical origin.23
Following Koizumi, I use the term “tetrachord” to refer to Koizu-
mi’s three-note tetrachordal model.24 The position of the intermedi-
ate tone determines the type of tetrachord. There are four types of
tetrachords: 1. miyakobushi or in [E F A], 2. ritsu [E F# A], 3. minyo
28 Music Research Forum Minoru Miki’s Jo No Kyoku 29

(folksong) or yo [E G A], and 4. ryuku [E G# A]. One scale comprises

two of the same type of tetrachord (one lower and one upper) with
a whole step in between (e.g. Miyakobushi scale: E F A B C E; Ritsu
scale: E F# A B C# E) (Fig. 4). Koizumi’s theory was revolutionary
Figure 5: Disjunct miyako-bushi tetrachords
because he abandoned the concepts of the octave and the single
tonic, recognizing that each piece can include multiple nuclear
tones that compete as tonal centers and lead to different types of
modulation. Unlike Uehara, Koizumi considered the forms of the
tetrachord to be identical in ascending and descending passages.

Figure 6: Transposition in fifths from the nuclear tone B

The second type of modulation proposed by Koizumi changes

the quality of the tetrachord or, in his words, is “dictated by the
nuclear tone (kakuon shihai).”28 While altering the intermediate tone
and keeping the nuclear tones the same, an alternate tetrachord co-
Figure 4: miyako-bushi and ritsu scales (with the pitch-class sets) exists within a one-octave scale. Various theorists have observed
this phenomenon and analyzed it differently. Uehara noticed that
According to Koizumi, the nuclear tones of these tetrachords
this alteration of an intermediate tone always happened in the up-
also form a framework for two types of modulation: onretsu shihai
per tetrachord, or the fifth degree, of the scale.29 Haiko Otsuka, who
and kakuon shihai.25 When two tetrachords are connected disjunc-
refined Koizumi’s theory in 1979, saw this type of modulation as a
tively as an octave scale, the relative importance of the nuclear tones
mixture of two types of tetrachords.30 Specifically, in the art music
changes. In a sequence that contains two adjacent nuclear tones, the
of the Edo period, an octave often comprises a miyako-bushi as the
lower one will lose its nuclear function. For example, in a B-based
base or lower tetrachord and miyako-bushi or minyo as the upper
miyako-bushi scale, E becomes less prominent than the nuclear tones
tetrachord (Fig. 7).31
B and F# (Fig. 5). Koizumi also observed that B, the primary nuclear
tone, is more important than F#, the secondary nuclear tone, be-
cause B is common to both tetrachords and serves as the base tone
of the scale.26 The primary and secondary nuclear tones of the scale
would also compete with each other and lead to a modulation a
fifth up or down. This creates Koizumi’s first type of modulation,
which he calls “dictated by the tone row (onretsu shihai).” In this
modulation, the type of tetrachord remains the same but the nucle-
ar tones change.27 Through a localized process of transposition by Figure 7: Two disjunct tetrachords with alternative upper tetra-
fifth, the secondary nuclear tone may be temporarily established chords32
as a base tone by unfolding its upper fifth, therefore introducing a
foreign tone to the original nuclear collection. Likewise, the scale Later theorists followed Koizumi’s theory, forsaking the con-
may be modulated a fifth down by localizing the base tone as the cept of the octave and emphasizing the connection between various
secondary nuclear tone of its lower fifth (Fig. 6). Traditionally, a tetrachords. Tokumaru Yoshihiko, for example, expanded the con-
piece does not transpose more than one tetrachord below the home cept of free mutation, arguing that there is no hierarchy between
tetrachord or more than three tetrachords above it. tetrachords (and thus no base or home tetrachord).33
30 Music Research Forum Minoru Miki’s Jo No Kyoku 31

In addition to the Japanese theorists, Western influences, be-
ginning in the Meiji period, also reformed Japanese modal theory.
Along with the introduction of Western notation, many musicians
and educators in the late-nineteenth century attempted to harmo-
nize Japanese folk music.34 Tonal reharmonization, or replacing the
Japanese harmonic structure of fifths with triadic harmonies, was
one of their main efforts.35 Because Japanese folk tunes were based
on modal rather than harmonic schemes, their harmonized themes
often ended on the dominant and lacked the leading tone to the ton-
ic, showing the discrepancy between Western and Japanese modal
structures. Some musicians therefore adopted the pentatonic major
(yona-nuki choonkai) and minor (yona-nuki tan’onkai) scales, which
were easier to harmonize in the Western style.36 In contrast to the
traditional structure of multiple nuclear tones, these scales have
only one tonic, which was re-located to correspond with Western
harmony and is still widely used in min-yo and enka genres of the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
also supports these motifs with the same pc sets. For example, 015
and 016 in mm. 9–10 support Motif 2 (Fig. 10).
In addition to pc sets derived from miyakobushi and ritsu, Miki
also used the pc sets 012 and 013 as ornamentation throughout the
piece. The middle notes of these pc sets are often the nuclear tones
or the essential notes in that passage and are elaborated by half- or
whole-step leading tones from above and below (e.g. Bb–B; Bb–C).
For example, pc set 012 in m. 4 ornaments the nuclear tone B, which
is the base tone of this piece. Pc set 013 in m. 8 embellishes C, which
is the intermediate tone between nuclear tones B and E and rep-
resents a part of the gradual formation of a B-based miyako-bushi
tetrachord, the first tetrachord of this piece, in the opening passage,
mm. 1–19 (Fig. 11). As Nuss has observed, these ornamented mo-
tivic cells are similar to the embai (micro-tonal bending of pitches)
of woodwind instruments in gagaku music.38

Minoru Miki’s Jo no kyoku, Prelude for Shakuhachi, Koto,

Shamisen and Strings (1969)

To realize the concept of “konketsu,” Miki composed Jo no kyoku

using motivic cells, nuclear tones, modulations, and tone clusters, Figure 8a: Motif 1 (mm. 5–6)
all elements shared in both the Western and Japanese musical sys-
tems. The following sections focus on these elements, which Miki
used to communicate the Japanese spirit and appeal to global audi-
ences for world peace.

Motivic Cells

Motivic variation is common in Japanese indigenous music. Be-

cause of the Japanese musical tradition of suppressing originality, a
piece was often judged by how well a composer manipulated basic Figure 8b: Motif 2 (m.9) Figure 8c: Motif 3 (m. 20)
patterns in new and interesting ways.37 In Jo no kyoku the pitch con-
tent is organized into a group of motivic cells. They are introduced
in the beginning motifs, showing the pitch-class sets (pc sets) that
permeate the work. These motivic pc sets suggest the nuclear tones
of each passage. Miki derived four main pc sets, 015, 016, 025, and
027, from two types of tetrachords in Koizumi’s theory: miyakobushi
and ritsu (Fig. 4). Motifs 1, 2, and 3 unfold these tetrachords’ pc sets
Figure 9: The entrance of the koto (mm. 19–20)
(Fig. 8). The entrance of the koto in m. 19 reaffirms 015 and 016 as
the dominant motivic cells of this piece (Fig. 9). The string orchestra
32 Music Research Forum Minoru Miki’s Jo No Kyoku 33

Figure 10a: Strings in mm. 9–10

Figure 11a: Jo no kyoku, mm. 1–5

Figure 10b: Jo no kyoku, mm. 9–10. Copyright © by Zen-On Mu-

sic Company Ltd. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Re-
served. Reprinted with Permission of Zen-On Music Company Ltd.
34 Music Research Forum
Figure 11b: Jo no kyoku, mm. 6–8
Nuclear Tones and Modulation
In addition to utilizing pc sets based on Koizumi’s tetrachords,
Miki also constructed the entire piece on the nuclear tones B, F#,
A, and E, and their transpositions, and used these nuclear tones to
Minoru Miki’s Jo No Kyoku 35
delineate the jo-ha-kyu formal structure. B, as the base tone, starts
and ends the piece. F# is the secondary nuclear tone in the B-based
miyako-bushi scale. Both B and F# serve as the nuclear tones in the
beginning section, jo (mm. 1–29), and the concluding section, kyu
(mm. 146–83). A and E, two fifths below B and F#, are the nuclear
tones of the middle section, ha (mm. 30–145).
Miki also created five types of modulation in Jo no kyoku that
derive from Koizumi’s two modulation types, “onretsu shihai”
(modulation by fifth), and “kakuon shihai” (modulation through
an alternate upper tetrachord). The first of Miki’s modulations is
a small-scale modulation. In mm. 19–26, Miki horizontally juxta-
posed three elements: the koto theme in the B-based miyako-bushi
scale, Motif 3 of the A-based ritsu scale, and a short shamisen motif
in the F#-based miyako-bushi scale. The alternation between these
elements shows a modulation from one scale to the other and back
again (Fig. 12). The koto plays a temporary modulation from the B-
based scale down to the A-based ritsu scale in m. 20. The shamisen
disrupts the koto with a short passage in the F#-based miyako-bushi
scale in mm. 24–25, which temporarily localizes F# as the base tone.
The string orchestra doubles notes from B, A, and F# scales, rein-
forcing the process of modulation (or the competition for the base
tone). All the notes outside these scales are parts of the transposi-
tion of the main pc sets. For example, A and F in m. 19 are parts of
the 015; Bb in m. 21 is part of the 015 and 016.
The second type of modulation, a common-tone modulation,
occurs in mm. 27–28. The string orchestra uses the motivic pc set
012 to decorate G, both the fifth note of the B-based miyako-bushi
and the A-based ascending in scale (A Bb D E G A in Uehara’s modal
theory). The phrase moves a whole step up to A, with G functioning
as a lower neighbor tone, presaging the modulation to and domina-
tion by the A-based scale in the upcoming ha section (Fig. 13).39
The third of Miki’s five types of modulation, occurring in the
ha section of the piece, is a medium-sized modulation based on the
series of fifths. This passage of modulation resembles the upward
cycles of fifths in Chinese modal theory that generated the tradi-
tional ryo mode of gagaku in Japan (Fig. 1). In the first part of the ha
(mm. 30–52), Miki launches a series of upward transpositions of the
nuclear tones in fifths from A, E, B, F#, C#, to G#. He continuously
re-localizes the fifth note of the miyako-bushi scale, emphasizing the
new nuclear tones by half-step ornamentation, long-held notes, and
orchestral doubling (Fig. 14). In the third part of the ha (mm. 97–
120), Miki again transposes the A-based scale up a fifth, launching
36 Music Research Forum Minoru Miki’s Jo No Kyoku 37

another medium-sized modulation from the nuclear tones A and E

to E and B. In this section, the string orchestra repeats the melody
played previously by the Japanese instruments in mm. 71–83 (Fig.
15) a fifth higher (in the E-based scale), thickening the timbre and
complicating the rhythm of the original materials (Fig. 16).
Figure 14: Nuclear-tone modulation from A and E to B and F#, mm.
35–42

Figure 15: Shakuhachi, koto, and shamisen, mm. 71–77

Figure 16: String orchestra, mm. 97–101

Figure 12: Jo no kyoku, mm. 19–26
The fourth type of modulation is the same as Koizumi’s first
type of modulation, onrestu shihai, or “dictated by the tone row”: a
modulation that results from the competition between two nuclear
tones of the same scale.40 Miki employs this modulation in the ha
Figure 13: The second part of violin 1, mm. 27–29
section: from m. 71 to m. 87, nuclear tones A and E present a three-
38 Music Research Forum Minoru Miki’s Jo No Kyoku 39

stage competition. In the first stage (mm. 71–77), A appears more

often and longer than E (A starts the phrase and is played by the A), and Uehara’s ascending in (A Bb D E G A) scales coexist in the
shamisen as the bass note, see Fig. 15). In the second stage (mm. passage of mm. 71–76 (Fig. 15). For Miki, the nuclear tones function
78–83) A and E carry equal weight. In the latter part of this stage, E as a stable framework of the melodic construction.
starts to appear as a long note in m. 80 and leads to the third stage In a broader view, Miki presented several large-scale modu-
(mm. 84–87), where E outweighs A. E becomes the primary note in lations throughout Jo no kyoku. These modulations not only mark
the shakuhachi melody, supported by the string orchestra’s pitch the division of sections and present the structural arc of jo-ha-kyu,
E, which they embellish with a trill for four measures (Fig. 17). The but also explore a part of the upward series of fifths, on which the
victory of E over A localizes E as the base note, preparing the next ryo mode is based (Fig. 1). The modulatory process starts with the
passage (mm. 97–120), which is built on the nuclear tones E and B. pitches B and F#, moves two fifths down to A and E at the end of
the first section, transposes up through B and F# to C# and G# in
the first part of the middle section, stays on A and E in the second
part of the middle section, transposes shortly a fifth up again to E
and B, and returns to B and F# in the final section (Table 1). Over-
all, Miki delineated the disproportional structure of jo-ha-kyu with
these modulations: 1) both growing out of and fading back into si-
Figure 17: Shakuhachi and string orchestra, mm. 84–87 lence on the nuclear tone B, 2) developing thematic materials with
modulations in the middle section, ha, and 3) reaching the climax
Another case of nuclear-tone competition happens earlier in and concluding quickly in the final section kyu (compared to the
the piece, in mm. 14–16, where the nuclear tones B and F# compete long development section, ha).
for the base tone position. Miki vertically juxtaposed two scales: the
B-based miyako-bushi scale (B C E F# G B) in the koto’s melody and Sections Measures Nuclear Tones Notes
the F#-based miyako-bushi scale (F# G B C# D F#) in the shamisen’s
accompaniment (Fig. 18). The dissonant augmented fourth in the Jo 1–29 B, F# Nuclear tones transpose
shamisen clashes strongly against the koto’s melody in m. 14. Yet down to A and E at the
this antithesis gradually diminishes when the shamisen starts to end of this section.
play notes from both scales (C and C#) in m. 15. Ha I 30–52 A, E→B, A series of upward
F#→C#, G# transpositions of the
nuclear tones in fifths
II 53–96 A, E A three-stage
competition between A
and E
III 97–120 E, B The second series of
Figure 18: Koto and shamisen, mm. 14–16 upward transpositions of
the nuclear tones in fifths
The fifth type of modulation is similar to Koizumi’s second IV 121–45 A, E A mostly outweighs E.
type of modulation, kakuon shihai (“dictated by the nuclear tone”) Kyu 146–83 B, F# Competition between B
and Uehara’s and Otsuka’s descriptions of alternative pitches at the and F#; B outweighs F#
fifth degree of the scale. Many passages of Jo no kyoku build upon at the end of the piece.
this idea by presenting two or three types of scales within the same
nuclear-tone frameworks. For example, based on the nuclear tones Table 1: Transposition of nuclear tones in Jo no kyoku
A and E, Koizumi’s miyako-bushi (A Bb D E F A) or ritsu (A B D E F#
40 Music Research Forum
Tone Clusters in Jo no kyoku
In Jo no kyoku, many tone clusters played by the string orchestra
resemble the harmony of shō in gagaku music. The traditional har-
mony of shō includes eleven types of chords, which can be divided
into consonant, relatively consonant, and dissonant (Fig. 19). There
are three elements in each chord: one fundamental tone, three to
four elemental tones, and one to two added tones (ornamental
tones). In the process of changing from one chord to another, the
shō player must sound the fundamental tone of the chord first and
release it last.41 Consonant and relatively consonant chords contain
the elemental tones E, A, and B, and include perfect intervals such
as unisons, perfect fourths, perfect fifths, and octaves. Ornamental
tones in consonant and relatively consonant chords create a whole
step or minor third with the elemental tones. In dissonant chords,
perfect intervals between the elemental tones are partially absent,
and the ornamental tones add dissonant intervals such as major
and minor seconds to the elemental tones. In gagaku music, the shō
supports the principal melodies from above with sustained chords
in the upper register, while the woodwind instruments (usually
ryutenki and hichiriki) play the principal heterophonic melodies in
the middle register.42
Figure 19: Eleven Chords of the Shō43
In Jo no kyoku, Miki employed sustained clusters in the string
orchestra; these clusters incorporate the semitone interval that ap-
pears frequently in the piece (as in pc sets 015 and 016) to comple-
ment the evanescent sounds of the koto and shamisen. Though
he did not draw any chord directly from traditional shō music, he
recalled its texture and timbre by placing the string orchestra in
Minoru Miki’s Jo No Kyoku 41
a high register (above the melodies) and imitating the dissonant
chords available on the shō. Miki’s tone clusters share common
tones with neighboring clusters, which function similarly to the el-
emental tones in the chords of the shō. For example, in m. 19 and m.
21, the tone clusters of the string orchestra feature pc sets 015, 016,
and 026, which share the elemental tones B, E, and F (Fig. 20). They
support the lower melody of the koto by doubling the nuclear tones
and the same pc sets 015 and 016 (Fig. 12). In addition, the string
orchestra’s tone cluster in m. 103 is very similar to one of the shō’s
dissonant chords. It differs only in one pitch class: the pc set of the
chord ku is 013568 and the tone cluster in m. 103 is 013589 (Fig. 21).
This cluster doubles not only the nuclear tones E and B of the E-
based scale in this passage but also the alternative pitches, C and D,
at the fifth degree of the scale (E F A B C E or E F A B D E), recalling
Miki’s fifth type of modulation (Koizumi’s kakuon shihai). Perhaps
Miki was highly aware of the sonic function and vertical juxtaposi-
tion of intervallic relationships of shō in gagaku music.
Pc sets in m. 19: Pc sets in m. 21:
015 BCE 015 EFA
016 BCF 026 BAF
C B F# FGB
F F#B
F F#C
Figure 20: Tone clusters and pc sets of the string orchestra in m. 19
and m. 21
Figure 21: Tone cluster (013589) of the string orchestra in m. 103
and the dissonant chord of shō ku
42 Music Research Forum
Conclusion
Aware of the common ground between Western and Japanese
music systems, Miki adopted the pitch-class sets from Japanese
modes as dominant motivic cells in Jo no kyoku and modulated their
nuclear tones, which are emphasized and localized by the motivic
cells and their transpositions, to articulate the musical space and his
large-scale pitch organization. In addition, Miki used tone clusters
derived from the transposition of melodic cells to evoke the texture
of shō in gagaku music. The modulation of the motivic cells’ nuclear
tones affirms two features of Japanese music: the cycle of fifths and
the jo-ha-kyu structure. Beginning in the Meiji period, Western influ-
ences such as equal temperament and the use of thirds replaced the
Japanese harmonic structure of fifths. However, Miki’s five types
of modulations reemphasize that Japanese modes, such as ryo and
ritsu, were rooted in the cycle of fifths from the Chinese sanfen sunyi
method. At the same time he delineates the sections jo, ha, and kyu
by progressing through the nuclear tones in fifths from the first four
pitches of ryo mode.
Interweaving these elements, Miki produced a musical forum
where Western and Japanese instruments communicate with a
shared nuclear-tone idiom without losing their cultural identities.
On one hand, this cross-cultural attempt reflects Miki’s perspec-
tive on Westernized Japanese culture in the twentieth century: “If
I did not work to define my own identity . . . then modern music
would come to have a sense of uniformity, of poverty, for me.”44
On the other hand, Miki believed that peace could only be guaran-
teed through the concept of “konketsu.” Being mindful of the two
world wars, Miki addressed both a postwar concern for retaining
Japanese musical heritage and an appeal for world peace, which he
facilitated through intercultural communication in Jo no kyoku.
Notes
1
Luciana Galliano, Yōgaku: Japanese Music in the Twentieth Century (Lanham,
MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002), 66.
2
For more on the development of yonanuki scales in enka, see Christine Reiko
Yano, Tears of Longing: Nostalgia and the Nation in Japanese Popular Song (Cambridge:
Harvard University Asia Center, 2002), 103. For the yona-nuki scales used in Shogaku
Shoka songs, the Western-influenced school children’s songs, see William P. Malm,
The Modern Music of Meiji Japan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), 265–77.
3
Steven Nuss, “Western Instruments, Japanese Music: Issues of Texture and
Harmony in Minoru Miki’s Jo-no-Kyoku,” Theory and Practice 21 (1996): 167.
Minoru Miki’s Jo No Kyoku 43
4
Fumio Koizumi, Nihon Dento Ongaku no Kenkyu (Studies in Japanese Tradi-
tional Music) (Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomo Sha, 1958).
5
Masakata Kanazawa, “Miki, Minoru,” Grove Music Online, ed. Laura Macy
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/18649 (accessed
May 28, 2014).
6
Minoru Miki et al., Eurasian Trilogy, 2 sound discs: digital (Tokyo, Japan:W
Camerata, 1992).
7
Minoru Miki, “The Role of Traditional Japanese Instruments in Three Recent
Operas” Perspectives of New Music 27 (1989): 167.
8
Miki et al., Eurasian Trilogy.
9
Jo-ha-kyu can be found in gagaku, the music of noh theatre, and other types
of traditional Japanese music which can be applied to a series of pieces, a single
composition and a single musical phrase. Its three-part movement structure is dif-
ferent from Western ternary or sonata form; even the fastest tempos are slower than
most Western orchestral music and have gradual and unfolding, rather than abrupt,
changes in tempo. See Judith Ann Herd, “Change and Continuity in Contemporary
Japanese Music: A Search for a National Identity” (PhD diss., Brown University,
1987), 391.
10
Miki, “The Role of Traditional Japanese Instruments in Three Recent Op-
eras,” 166–67.
11
Nuss, “Western Instruments, Japanese Music,” 167–87.
12
In his dissertation, Nuss demonstrates Miki’s use of harmonies that are built
and behave like traditional gagaku shō chords in Jo no kyoku. He focuses on mm. 31–
34, which exemplifies one of Miki’s reinterpretations of the shō chord progression.
See Steven Nuss, “Tradition and Innovation in the Art Music of Post-War Japan”
(PhD diss., City University of New York, 1996), 80–103.
13
Miki, “The Role of Traditional Japanese Instruments in Three Recent Op-
eras,” 167.
14
For more on the early history of traditional Japanese music, see William P.
Malm, Japanese Music and Musical Instruments (Tokyo: C. E. Tuttle Co, 1959).
15
Both the ancient Chinese theory and the Western equal temperament system
produced twelve pitches in an octave through the cycle of fifths. Yet, Chinese music
emphasizes the first five tones of the series (degrees I, II, III, V, and VI) with two
additional tones (degrees IV and VII) used in weaker roles. The major second (204
cents) in Chinese scale is larger than an equal tone (200 cents); its minor second (90
cents) is smaller than an equal semitone (100 cents). See Robert Garfias, Music of a
Thousand Autumns: The Tōgaku Style of Japanese Court Music (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1975), 57–58.
16
Although Japanese court music, gagaku, was set in the twelve-tone system,
its melodic emphasis, similar to Chinese music, rests on the first seven tones of the
series. See Ibid., 59–61.
17
For further reading on Japanese modal theory, see Burnett, “Minezaki Kōtō’s
Zangetsu”; Alison McQueen Tokita, “Mode and Scale, Modulation and Tuning in
Japanese Shamisen Music: The Case of Kiyomoto,” Ethnomusicology 40 (1996): 1–33.
18
For more, see Philip Flavin, “Meiji shinkyoku: The Beginnings of Modern Mu-
sic for the Koto,” Japan Review 22 (2010): 103–23.
19
Rokushiro Uehara, Zokugaku senritsu kō [The Melodies of Popular Music]
(Tōkyō: Kinkōdō, 1895).
20
Shigeo Kishibe et al., “Japan,” Grove Music Online, ed. Laura Macy http://
www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/43335 (accessed May
28, 2014).
21
Koizumi, Nihon Dento Ongaku no Kenkyu, 135–88.
44 Music Research Forum

22
For example, the interval of a fourth is the dominant melodic movement in 44
Miki, “The Role of Traditional Japanese Instruments in Three Recent Op-
the melodies of shomyo, heikyoku, and noh songs. See Susan Miyo Asai, Nōmai Dance eras,” 166.
Drama: A Surviving Spirit of Medieval Japan (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999),
124. Koizumi also distinguished Japanese and Chinese traditional songs: Chinese
melodies have a range of a seventh and are based on the pentatonic scale; Japanese
melodies spanning the range of a seventh will comprise two conjunct tetrachords,
and two disjunct tetrachords will constitute an octave. See James Siddons, “Fumio
Koizumi of Japan: An Asian’s Use of the Concepts of Melody Found in the Works of
Curt Sachs, Abraham Z. Idelsohn, and Robert Lachmann,” Musica Judaica 9 (1986–
87): 38.
23
Koizumi, Nihon Dento Ongaku no Kenkyu, 135.
24
Many scholars use Koizumi’s terminology in their discussions of Japanese
modal theory. See Tokita, “Mode and Scale, Modulation and Tuning in Japanese
Shamisen Music”; Kishibe et al., “Japan.”
25
Fumio Koizumi, Nihon no Oto: Sekai no Naka no Nihon Ongaku [The Sound of
Japan: Japanese Music in the Context of World Music] (Tokyo: Seidosha, 1977), 256.
26
Ibid., 273.
27
Ibid., 267–68.
28
Ibid.
29
Kishibe et al., “Japan.”
30
Haiko Otsuka, “Kinsei Hogaku ni okeru Tencho [Modulation in Edo Period
Music]” (MA Thesis, Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku, 1979), 38.
31
Ibid.
32
Ibid.
33
Yoshihiko Tokumaru, “L’Aspect Melodique de la Musique du Syamisen”
(PhD diss, Universite Laval, 1981), 55ff.
34
One of the most famous music reformers of Meiji period is the educator Shuji
Izawa (1851‒1917). Izawa proposed a blend of Japanese popular music and West-
ern music to the Ministry of Education, suggesting adding Western harmony to the
genres such as sokyoku and nagauta. For more on the Westernization of Japanese tra-
ditional music, see Eta Harich-Schneider, A History of Japanese Music (London: Ox-
ford University Press, 1973), 533–49.
35
Composer Mitsukuri Shukichi (1895–1971) published his theory of Japanese
harmony in 1934, stating that Japanese harmony was based on the interval of the
fifth. Yet the influx of Western influences caused the Japanese structure of fifths to
be forgotten. See ibid., 67.
36
See Alison McQueen Tokita and David W. Hughes, “Context and Change
in Japanese Music,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, ed. Alison
McQueen TokitWa and David W. Hughes (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2008), 20.
37
Burnett, “Minezaki Kōtō’s Zangetsu,” 93.
38
Nuss, “Western Instruments, Japanese Music,” 174–75.
39
The types of A-based scale appear in the ha section are not consistent and
clear all the time. Some passages can be explained with two or more types of the
scale. See Miki’s fifth type of modulation on pp. 38–39.
40
Koizumi, Nihon no Oto, 267–68.
41
Garfias, Music of a Thousand Autumns, 47.
42
The rest of the instruments in the gagaku orchestra play the same fundamen-
tal, elemental, and ornamental tones with shō. Some extra tones are produced, for
example, by ryutenki and hichiriki, through the technique of embai.
43
Japanese National Committee of the International Music Council, The Japa-
nese Music (Tokyo: Japanese National Committee of the International Music Council,
1967), 13.