Catalog of Shōdan: Entrance and Exit Music
Notto-music
The Notto is divided up into two parts: music and chant. The Notto-music is an introduction that is not only unsettling but also evocative. It is characterized by a percussion accompaniment in strict setting played by the kotsuzumi and the ōtsuzumi, and a non-congruent nohkan part. It always leads to the Notto-chant.
The kosuzumi’s steady eight-beat notto uchi tsume pattern is a signature feature of this shōdan. This pattern serves as a foundation superposed with various ōtsuzumi patterns and the non-congruent nohkan part composed of five segments:
1- Hi-hya u-ta u-ta u-ta u-ta u-ta u-ta u
2- Hyū i-ya
3- Hiu ri-u
4- Hi-hya uru ro-i ya
5- O-hya i-cho uho-u
The Notto-music is spread over seven honji, the beginning of the Notto-chant overlapping with the end of the nohkan solo.
The performance of an entrance music varies according to the action on the stage. In the play version, the nohkan player anticipated that he needed to extend the duration of the Notto-music, so he interjected a new pattern between the second and third one:
O-hya ro-ru-ra