Japanese Ensemble

The CU Japanese Ensemble is a class in the College of Music that is dedicated to hands-on learning of Japanese music and dance and is 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 landscape, 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 noh drama), 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).