THE MUSIC OF KABUKI

The music in kabuki is performed live, by shamisen players and an ensemble

known as the hayashi. There are typically an equal number of shamisen players
and singers. The onstage portion of the hayashi, known as the debayashi, has the
same composition as the Noh hayashi; it consists of four or more performers of
flute, kotsuzumi, ôtsuzumi, and shimedaiko. The flutist, however, plays not only the
nôkan (Noh flute), but also the shinobue and possibly other wind instruments as
necessary.

The shamisen players, along with the debayashi performers, are typically located
in a compartment at stage right, behind a screen, called a geza or kuromisu, while
the remainder of the hayashi, including those performing sound effects such as bird
and insect sounds, perform off-stage.

At the core of kabuki music are song and shamisen, performed in a variety of
styles or genres, each of which incorporates both. Within a single play, act, or even
scene, a series of different genres of song+shamisen are employed as needed to
musically accompany dance pieces, narrative sections, sections borrowing from the
puppet theater, etc.

The songs sung & played on the shamisen are often "theme music" of a sort,
relating to a certain character or place. Certain characters might have their own
theme songs that are played when they make their entrance or exit, or otherwise
dominate the scene, such as during a dramatic monologue.

Like the actors, kabuki musicians make changes and shifts in the musical scheme
for each production. Though traditional associations (e.g. the use of a given song
for a given scene) are of great importance, there is a degree of flexibility, as there
is in the acting, and so precisely which pieces must be played for precisely each
part of the play is not set in stone. A notebook known as a tsukechô is employed by
the musicians to record a rough sketch of which pieces will be played on which
cues, for that day's, or that month's, version of the production.