Gagaku

Gagaku (雅楽 gagaku^?, ancient imperial court music and dances^[1], lit. "elegant music") is a type of Japanese classical music that has been performed at the Imperial Court in Kyoto for several centuries.

Gagaku, the oldest classical music in Japan, was introduced into Japan with Buddhism from China. In 589, Japanese official diplomatic delegations were sent to China (during the Sui dynasty) to learn Chinese culture, including Chinese court music, Gagaku.

It consists of three primary repertoires:

1. Native Shinto religious music and folk songs and dance, called kuniburi no utamai
2. A Goguryeo and Manchurian form, called komagaku (named for Koma, one of the Three Kingdoms)
3. A Chinese and South Asia form (specifically Tang Dynasty), called togaku.[1]

Gagaku, like shōmyō, employs the yo scale, a pentatonic scale with ascending intervals of two, three, two, two, and three semitones between the five scale tones.^{[2][dead link]}

Gagaku also accompanies classical dance performances (called bugaku 舞楽), and both are used in religious ceremonies by the Tenrikyo movement and a few Buddhist temples.^[3]
Gagaku is related to theater, which developed in parallel. Noh was developed in the 14th century.
Today, gagaku is performed in two ways:

• as kangen, concert music for winds, strings and percussion,
• as bugaku, or dance music for which the stringed instruments are omitted.

Komagaku survives only as bugaku.^[4]