Buddhist music
Buddhist music is religious music that is performed during Buddhist rituals and expresses Buddhist content. Buddhist music is a collective term for different musical styles that are shaped by the regional Buddhist teaching traditions and the music of the respective countries. These include hymn chants ( chanting ) by Buddhist monks and lay people (such as pilgrims) to modern devotional songs performed by professional music groups.
The attitude of the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama to music has been passed down contradictingly. According to some legends, Buddha, who was born in the 6th – 5th Century BC Chr. Lived, music basically, according to others he set up certain rules for the musical recitation of sacred texts. Of essential importance for the latter tradition is the story of the brahmin and lute player Srona Kotikarna, who recited the Dharma to Buddha in one night and accompanied himself with a rhythmic sequence of tones.
Emergence
Time of the historical Buddha
Buddhism itself emerged in the 5th century BC. In northeast India near today's border with Nepal . While chants were of great importance in the then prevailing religion, Brahmanism , the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama , is said to have rejected the practice of music as one of ten fetters. According to the explanations of the Vinaya - those guidelines that go back to the instructions of Gautama Buddha and are still decisive in the countries of Southern Buddhism ( Theravada ) today - the monks are not allowed to attend dance, music or singing performances. Buddhist recitations must be level-headed and stay within a limited range. Large leaps in intervals are rejected as worldly and passionate. The tuning must be in the range of clear recitation and must not indulge in lush melodies. Musical competition is seen as a source of satisfaction for selfishness and vanity.
But there are also other points of view. According to an Indian legend, the mysterious Hansha, a winged deity originating from Indian mythology, is said to have been sent to earth by Indra and Brahma . There he approached the Buddha and, with singing and playing the lute, caused him to come out of his constant contemplation in order to proclaim the Buddhist teachings. Music is therefore an important means of spreading the teachings of the Buddha.
According to another legend, in a previous life Buddha was guttila who played vina at the court of Benares . After a challenge from a younger vina player named Musila, a competition takes place at the king's court, which Guttila wins. This legend became very popular in Buddhist art and contributed to a positive understanding of music in Buddhism.
Time after the historical Buddha
The in the 2./1. Century BC The stupa of Sanchi , built in the 4th century BC, testifies that religious music was important again not long after the awakened's death. The reliefs show musicians praising the three jewels with singing, flutes, drums and shell horns. This early return seems understandable, considering how difficult the path to enlightenment ( arahatship ) is for those who have not been able to join the monastic life - the bhikkhu and bhikkhuni sangha . The possibility of entanglement in the world seemed to the musical among the Indian lay Buddhists apparently less threatening than the drying up of their religiosity. Music thus became an aid for adoration and devotion, for the integration of heart and mind, of sensory perception and meditation.
As the new Mahayana traditions unfolded, the attitude and appreciation of the monastic sangha also changed - those living in homelessness. Since Nagarjuna and the beginning of Pure Land Buddhism , music has become something that can not only sound in honor of the Buddha, but also serves as a voice for the Buddha to teach the Dharma and thus to plant generosity in people's hearts. The practice of music became a skillful means (upaya). This gave the possibility of further development towards a way of singing .
The contradiction to the monastic rules in the Vinaya was also lifted. The reports of the pilgrim Yì Jìng (635–713) about the Indian monasteries of Dhamralipti and Nalanda can be found in Chinese writings , where musical recitations and sung hymns are told. This practice was introduced by Asvaghosa in accordance with the Vinaya of the Mulasarvastivadin - those rules that still serve as the basis of their discipline for a large number of those ordained in Mahayana.
China
In China there was the first contact with Buddhism at the turn of the century. In the course of time on the Chinese peninsula in the Shantung province on the Yu Shan , the "fish mountain", the center of Buddhist ritual chants developed. This legendary mountain was the birthplace of a spiritual, artistic discipline that goes back to our time and is still practiced today - called Shōmyō today.
During the Tang Dynasty , Buddhism largely prevailed in China . The reason was that the members of the imperial family had decided to convert to Buddhism. Buddhism had become fashionable. As a result, music in China changed as well, as Buddhism brought new styles to the country from Central Asia and beyond. Music was played in the centers of the Silk Road , especially in Kushan and Khatan . The people enjoyed religious music, and drums , horns and golden cymbals were used even on state occasions . China was known for its music, song, and dance, and the country's courts had ensembles that played at Buddhist festivals. The ensembles changed in their composition after the introduction of Buddhism in that more and more stringed instruments were used instead of stone and bronze instruments . A typical ensemble around 630 AD consisted of a number of string instruments, woodwind instruments, and small percussion instruments . New string instruments (harp and lute types) were imported. During the time of the Sui and Tang dynasties, ensembles with harp , lute , flute and drum players emerged. The harp in particular was most associated with Buddhism.
The Chinese monk Hsüan-Tsang , who traveled to India between 629 and 645, reported in his travel diary about a Central Asian custom: once a year the council of elders met in front of a spring. During this period of time, precisely determined by the astrologers, one listened to the noises of the water drops with great attention. The melody they heard became the melody of the region for a year.
The description of a ceremony with the title Sange - the scattering of lotus blossoms - dates from the year 730 . The accompanying hymn is still one of the most sung pieces from today's Japanese Shōmyō repertoire. The text was taken from the Prajnaparamita Sutra and the first mention of this rite in China is around 497.
Due to the increasing power of the Buddhist monasteries in China, a time of persecution of Buddhist monks and destruction of Buddhist monasteries began in the late Tang period around 845. With the decline of Buddhism, the harp also disappeared as an ensemble instrument. The singing tradition was handed down to Korea and Japan in the 6th and 7th centuries , but it was lost in its countries of origin, India and China .
Japan
In Chinese sources from the 3rd century AD there are indications that Japanese ambassadors only came to the Chinese Tang court sporadically , but that they had lively contacts with Korea . In the course of these contacts, Korean musicians, who were already influenced by Chinese music, were sent to Japan to perform their art at ceremonies and to teach Japanese students. Towards the end of the 7th century, the imperial court established constant diplomatic contacts with the Chinese court of the Tang Dynasty. With this, the music and dance of the Chinese Tang court penetrated Japan for a maximum of 200 years and met with a wide response from the aristocracy . This style, known in China as banquet music, the yayue , finally established itself in a slightly adapted form as Japanese court music and was called Gagaku there. In Japan, however, this music only had some cultic functions.
The chants in the tradition of the Fischberg - the Fannbai chants - also came from China to Japan and were first called Bombai there. Only later did they get the name Shōmyō . Efforts were made to continue the imported chants as traditionally as possible without reforms. As early as 752, for the opening ceremony of the great Buddha of Tōdai-ji in Nara, in which over a thousand monks and priests are said to have participated, Shomyo was performed together with music and dances. Of the three great Shomyo traditions, Nara , Shingon and Tendai , it was above all the Tendai tradition from which the other younger schools adopted their style of singing.
In the early 8th century, the shakuhachi flute , derived from the Chinese xiao , came to Japan. There it was initially used in Gagaku ensembles, but where it quickly faded into the background due to its relatively low volume and finally disappeared from the ensembles by around 1100. From the end of the 16th century to the 19th century, the shakuhachi became an instrument of the Fuke-shū and was no longer seen as a musical instrument, but rather formed the focus of meditation exercises. In 1871 the Fuke-shū was banned, and with it the playing of the Shakuhachi for religious purposes. But since the teachers of the instrument did not want to and could not do without their livelihood, its secularization began .
The Japanese Zen traditions are more or less limited to the syllabic recitation in their ceremonies and in the pure land schools the Nembutsu is at the center of the practice. In the Tendai, due to its extensive teaching, as well as in Shingon, however, the way of singing was particularly cultivated in the course of its more than thousand-year history . In religious practice, various instruments such as drums, bells, mokugyo and conch horns play an essential role , depending on the tradition .
Tibet
Most Tibetan ceremonies use singing and instruments both in monastic life and in public events.
Sacred singing in Tibetan music , mostly sung in Tibetan or Sanskrit , is an integral part of religious practice. These chants are complex, often recitations of sacred texts, and are performed on the occasion of certain festivities. The Yang-Yig singing, sung without a metric time signature , is accompanied by double -headed drums and low, supporting syllables. The ritual chants of the Tibetan lamas are musically characterized above all by the undertone singing, a singing technique in which the special use of the larynx produces tones that are below the singing tone .
The instruments of Tibetan Buddhism are exclusively wind and percussion instruments . String instruments are only used in secular music. The musical instruments are mostly not used to accompany the human voice, but only in the pauses between recitations and chants. Some musical instruments are used as signaling instruments and call for prayer, for example.
The most important instrument in the ceremonies is the dril-bu hand bell . Cymbals are also often used - a distinction is made between the Rölmo , which are held horizontally and beaten together vertically, and the somewhat lighter-sounding cymbals Sil sngan (Silnyen). Different forms of cymbals ( tingsha ) are used in sacrificial rituals or indicate the beginning and end of the liturgy . The drum nga (rnga) is double-skinned and can be over two meters in diameter.
Wind instruments such as the snail horn , the up to 4.5 meter long trumpet Dungchen or the double reed instrument gyaling are usually played in pairs so that the sound of the instrument is not interrupted when a player takes a breath. The bone trumpets Rkang dung (also Kang Ling), which are formed from human bones, are also striking . They remind of the transience of human life. In Tibet, for example, trumpets made from human thigh bones are used to drive out evil spirits. The Tibetan rattling drum Damaru is made from two human brain shells. She is supposed to cast out demons and summon Dakinis (skywalkers).
A full orchestra usually consists of two trumpets, two snail horns, two types of oboes, two different cymbals, three drums and a bell. The exact composition can vary depending on the monastery tradition. Outside of the monastery, some of the musical instruments are also used for social events such as weddings, births and ritual mask dances. There are no compositions in the western sense. The pieces of music are only slightly modified.
See also
literature
- Pi-yen Chen: Buddhist Chant, Devotional Song, and Commercial Popular Music: From Ritual to Rock Mantra. In: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 49, No. 2, Spring – Summer 2005, pp. 266–286
- Walter Giesen: On the history of Buddhist ritual singing in Japan . Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2005, ISBN 3-7959-0842-6 .
- Peeter Vähi : Buddhist Music of Mongolia. In: Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1992, pp. 49-53
- Li Wei: The Duality of the Sacred and the Secular in Chinese Buddhist Music: An Introduction. In: Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 24, 1992, pp. 81-90
Web links
- www.dharmanet: Dharmasound ( Memento from August 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Audio samples from various Buddhist traditions (MP3)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cristina Scherrer-Schaub: The Poetic and Prosodic Aspect of the Page. Forms and Graphic Artifices of Early Indic Buddhist Manuscripts in a Historical Perspective. In: Vincenzo Vergiani, Daniele Cuneo, Camillo Alessio Formigatti (eds.): Indic Manuscript Cultures through the Ages. Material, Textual, and Historical Investigations. De Gruyter, Berlin 2017, pp. 239–285, here p. 277
- ↑ Werner Kodytek: Buddha's Music . In: Cause & Effect , Issue 12, 2007, p. 25