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| | Japanese music on Encyclopedia.com (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08) |
 | | The Japanese use two basic types of scale, both pentatonic. |
 | | The first, used in sacred music and common to all of East Asia, has two modes— ryo, the male mode, and ritsu, the female mode. |
 | | The more frequently used scale, found also in Indonesia and S India, emphasizes semitones and exists in three modes, all used freely within the same composition— hirajoshi, the most important, roughly represented on the piano by the series ABCEFA; kumoijoshi, second in importance, approximated by EFABCE; and iwato, approximated by BCEFAB. |
| www.encyclopedia.com /html/j/japan-mus.asp (996 words) |
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