The Music of Tibetan Buddhism
Tibet stands at the influence of three civilization,
the Turko-Mongolian, the Chinese and
the
Indian. Enriched from time to time by influences from these, its own
ancient tradition
has
developed in high isolation from the rest of the civilized world. This
tradition embraces
a
very distinctive way of life and a music all its own.
Music plays an important part in Tibetan life and has three aspects:
· the folk-music - found in the daily lives of the people
· an art music - cultivated especially by professional minstrels
· the sacred chant and instrumental music of the Buddhist Liturgy
and other rites -
centering around the monasteries.
The Lamas say "Religion is sound". The recitation of mantras,
chanting and the playing of instrumental music are fundamental in their
worship. For many ling hours, day after day, year after year, the red-robed
monks intone their
prayers, sitting cross-legged under the soft light of butter-lamps. Their
cerebrations include the services of the regular
Liturgy and various extra-liturgical rituals.
The liturgical language is Tibetan, though Sanskrit is also occasionally
found. The chants are sometimes free but more usually metrical, in both
symmetrical and asymmetrical measures. The voice-style, close-throated
or constricted and usually very deep in pitch, is, as the natural voices
of the monks show,
unnatural; it is deliberately cultivated style.
Tonally speaking, the chanting varies from an inflected monotone to a
melodic pattern (oft-repeated with variations) based on a definite mode
(varying from three to seven notes, but very
often four or five), and is decorated in a variety of ways, especially
by glottal slides up to or down to an note, or down from a note. A traditional
notation exits for the chants. The chants may be performed by a single
monk in private devotion or by a choir of monks or, where relevant,
by laity in services conducted for them by monks. Chanting is sometimes
unaccompanied, but is more usually accompanied by na ensemble which
amounts
to an orchestra (passim). This orchestra consists exclusively of wind
instruments - always played in pairs - and percussion instruments of
indefinite
pitch. There are no stringed instruments, which are found only in the
secular music.
Wind Instruments
1. Galing , a reed instrument of the shawm class, which plays melodies,
both as part of the monastery orchestra, and separately in a repertoire
of tunes for special occasions.
2. Dung , a long metal trumpet, which plays pedal-notes or calls (often
centring on one note), either alone, or as part of monastery orchestra.
3. Dung-dkar , a shell-trumpet made from a conch. Its orchestral role
is similar to the one before.
4. Kangling , a short horn made from metal, but formerly from human thigh-bone.
Its orchestral role is similar to the ones before. Percussion Instruments
of Indefinite Pitch
5. Drilbu, a hand-bell, held in the left hand, and played with the hand-drum
by the same player. Its pitch may be definite, but is not functional as
such.
6. Damaru (the Indian name by which its usually called among Tibetans)
, a hand-drum shaped like an hour-glass, and played by rotation of the
right hand, so as to make its clappers strike the membranes. Played with
the hand-bell by the same player. Made from wood, formerly from human
half-crania.
7. Rolmo , cymbals with broad central bosses, held one above the other
and struck by vertical movement.
8. Silnyen , cymbals with small or no central bosses, struck by horizontal
movement.
9. rGna , drum supported on a pole or suspended in a frame, and struck
with a crooked stick or, occasionally, by drum-sticks. Percussion Instruments
of Definite Pitch
Apart from instances where the rGyaling (shawms) and dung (long trumpets)
play alone, the only purely instrumental music met with was an orchestral
piece which adds two further percussion instruments - this time of definite
pitch - not found an any other instance:
10. mkar-rnga, gong
11. Ting-ting, metal disc.
In services where voices and instruments occur together, sections of full
orchestra usually alternate with sections of chant lightly accompanied
by cymbals and frame-drum only, while the hand-bell and hand-drum are
signals marking off the sections of the service. The orchestral section
sometimes employ the full percussion only. To this ensemble the shawms
are more usually added, progressive additions being long trumpets, and
also occasionally the other wind, i.e. conch-trumpets and short horns.
A tonal melody may thus be found with an "accompaniment" which
is atonal in relation to it. On the hand, we have something comparable
with the music of other high oriental civilizations; on the other, something
more primitive which cannot be compared within the same reference-frame.
This amy reflect, in musical terms, the juxtaposition of Buddhism of Indian
origin with the native Tibetan shamanism which, with other influences
from surrounding civilizations, have combined to produce Lamaism as we
know it. The disposition of instruments also suggests as much, for some
may be traced to the Chinese sphere (cymbals); some to the Indian (hand-bell);
and some to the Iranian (shawm); but the more distinctive monastery instruments
had already progenitors in the Late Stone Age, and of these at least the
bone-horn and skull-drum are indigenous to Tibet. The style of the Liturgical
music of Tibet must be accounted a major Oriental style which, having
emerged and developed i relative isolation under the creative force of
Lamaist spiritual life, has retained some very ancient features.
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The Music of 
