Outline

While Chōgeishi (or Chōgeshi, ‘Long Felicitation’) is also attributed to Chinese figures, it appears that it may have been composed by Minamoto no Hiromasa (Hakuga no Sanmi, 918–80), a renowned performer of the transverse flutes, lute biwa, zither wagon, zither sō, and ōhichiriki, a large, lower-pitched version of the reedpipe hichiriki.

It has long been used as the makade-onjō (‘exit music’) at various types of ceremonies, and even now is often played as the last piece in a bugaku dance program. There is no dance, so it functions as an instrumental postlude.

Form of the piece

The metrical structure of the piece is haya-yohyōshi, hyōshi-jūroku (16 repetitions of a cycle of 4 measures of 4/4).

It has a lively, memorable melody. When performed as exit music, it is played much more quickly than it is when performed in kangen (‘pipes and strings’) style, reaching a very quick tempo as it approaches its conclusion.

Points for appreciation

Even though it is in a regular meter, in cycles of four measures of 4/4, this piece has a bright liveliness that it shares with pieces in the hayatada-byōshi and yatara-byōshi meters, which have alternating measures of different lengths.

There are many opportunities to hear this piece, since it is still performed regularly at the end of bugaku dance programs.