Japanese Folk music- 'Sakura'

This piece begins with two solo stringed instruments being plucked simultaneously to create both monophony and homophony in the piece. They are accompanied by other plucked stringed instruments from 0:13. The piece seems to be minor throughout. We know that traditional Japanese music is often microtonal, however this piece seems to use the semitonality of Western music, which could demonstrate the Western influence on Japanese culture.

Melody

• Mostly conjunct- coherent
• A lot of use of quavers and semiquavers, creating excitement and tension along with the minor tonality
• Some sustained notes underneath main melody as a drone or pedal note, to create harmony with the instruments individually
• Some chords at beginnings of cells to give strong sense of beat- shows influence of Western culture
• Seems to be in 4/4 or 2/2 or both- "
• Some glissandi and broken chords
• Piece finishes with the tonic note played by all as one minim to give a sense of finality

Rhythm

• Mostly short rhythmic values, and very little syncopation
• Little use of 'space'/rests. 'Space'/rests are normally used a lot in Japanese music.
• Some off-beat notes at 2:05 for example

Texture

• Polyphonic in the second half of the piece
• Monophonic until 1:40, and then texture builds to polyphony by 2:45

Structure

• Quite simple, binary form - AB (homophonic and quite slow, then polyphonic and faster (2:45-))
• Doesn't seem to have motifs, as no part of the melody repeats