FREE ESSAY ON MUSICIANS

MUSICIANS

Noh is a classical Japanese performance form which combines elements of dance, drama,
music and poetry into one highly aesthetic stage art. Largely based in the cities of
Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, it is performed throughout the country by professional artists,
mainly men, who have passed down the art among family members for numerous generations.
There is also a wide following of both male and female amateurs who practice and perform
its chant, dance, and instruments
Kyogen is the classical comic theater which balances the more serious Noh. While Noh is
musical in nature, Kyogen emphasizes dialogue. The two are traditionally performed
alternately on the same program and they share a common heritage. In addition to their
own Kyogen repertoire of comic plays, Kyogen actors usually appear in interlude roles in
Noh plays. Similarly, Noh instrumentalists also sometimes appear in Ky gen plays. The
training methods of the two forms are also similar. 
Noh developed into its present form during the 14th and 15th centuries under the
leadership of the distinguished performer -playwrights Kannami and his son Zeami. Zeami,
in particular, wrote numerous plays which are still performed in today's classical
reper-tory of some 250 plays. He also wrote a number of secret works which explain the
aesthetic principles governing Noh and give details on how the art should be composed,
acted, directed, taught, and produced. 
Noh flourished during Zeami's time under the patronage of the mili-tary shogun Ashikaga
Yoshimitsu. Later during the Edo period (1603-1868), Noh became the official performance
art of the military government. Feudal military lords throughout the country supported
their own troupes and many studied and performed the art themselves.
With the societal reforms of the Meiji period (1868-1912), Noh lost its govern mental
patronage and was left to fend for itself. Although it nearly died out, enough performers
regrouped, found private spon-sors, and began teaching the art to amateurs so that it
slowly began to flourish again. 
Today, like many classical performance forms throughout the world, Noh cannot be
described as a popular art among the Japanese people as a whole. Yet its supporters are
enthusiastic and its professional per-formers are highly trained and extremely busy
performing and teaching throughout the country. There are today approximately 1,500
professional performers who make their living largely through performing and teaching
Noh.
TYPES OF PLAYS 
There are five categories of Noh plays. In order, these feature gods, warriors, beautiful
women, miscellaneous (notably mad-women or present-time) figures, and supernatural
beings. During the Edo period, a full day's program consisted of the ritual piece
Okina-Sanbaso followed by one play from each category in the above order. One Kyogen play
would be presented between each Noh. Of the five categories, the women plays are the
slowest in tempo but the most poetic, and of the highest level in expressing yugen, an
aesthetic term suggesting quiet elegance and grace, and subtle and fleeting beauty. 
The main character of a Noh play is called the *censored*e (pronounced sh'tay) who
sometimes appears with one or more companion char-acters called tsure. In many plays, the
*censored*e appears in the first half as an ordinary person, departs, then appears in the
second half in his true form as the ghost of famous person of long ago. The former is
called the maejite and the latter the nochijite. They are traditionally performed by the
same actor.
The secondary actor, the waki, is often a travelling priest whose questioning of the main
character is important in developing the story line. He also often appears with companion
waki-tsure. An interlude actor called ai or ai-kyogen also often appears as a local
person who gives further background to the waki, and thus to the audience, in order to
understand the situation of the *censored*e
A chorus called jiutai, usually consisting of eight persons, sits at the side of the
stage and functions to narrate the background and the story itself. It also sometimes
describes the character's thoughts and emotions or even sings lines for the ch