Sho

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This article is about the musical instrument. For other uses of Shō and Sho, see Sho (disambiguation).

The shō (笙) is a Japanese free reed musical instrument that was introduced from China during the Nara period. It is modeled on the Chinese sheng, although the shō tends to be smaller in size. It consists of 17 slender bamboo pipes, each of which is fitted in its base with a metal free reed. Two of the pipes are silent, although research suggests that they were used in some music during the Heian period.

The instrument's sound is said to imitate the call of a phoenix, and it is for this reason that the two silent pipes of the shō are kept - as an aesthetic element, making two symmetrical "wings." Like the Chinese sheng, the pipes are tuned carefully with a drop of wax. As moisture collected in the shō's pipes prevents it from sounding, performers can be seen warming the instrument over a small charcoal brazier when they are not playing. The instrument is one of the three primary woodwind instruments used in gagaku, Japan's imperial court music. Its traditional playing technique in gagaku involves the use of tone clusters called aitake, which move gradually from one to the other, providing accompaniment to the melody.

A larger size of shō, called ū (derived from the Chinese yu), is little used although some performers, such as Hiromi Yoshida, began to revive it in the late 20th century.

[edit] The shō in contemporary music

The shō was first used as a solo instrument for contemporary music by the Japanese performer Mayumi Miyata. Mayumi and other shō players who specialize in contemporary music use specially constructed instruments whose silent pipes are replaced by pipes that sound notes unavailable on the more traditional instrument, giving a wider range of pitches.

The American composer John Cage (1912-1992) created a number of works for Mayumi just before his death, after having met her during the 1990 Darmstadt summer course.[1] Other notable contemporary performers include Hideaki Bunno (Japan), Tamami Tono (Japan), Hiromi Yoshida (Japan), Kō Ishikawa (Japan), Randy Raine-Reusch (Canada), and Sarah Peebles (Canada). Notable 20th century composers who studied the instrument in Japan include Benjamin Britten and Alan Hovhaness. German avant-garde composer Helmut Lachenmann used the shō at the climax of his opera, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern.

The instrument was introduced to a wider audience in 2005 by Icelandic artist Björk, who used it as the primary instrument in three songs for the soundtrack album to Drawing Restraint 9, a film by her contemporary media artist boyfriend Matthew Barney, about Japanese culture and whaling. The three songs were performed by Mayumi Miyata, one of Japan's foremost performers of the instrument.