Catalog of Shōdan: Introduction Chants
Shidai Chant
The introductory Shidai Chant is usually sung by the waki. It is often followed by a Nanori or a Sashi. Entrance music, also called Shidai usually precedes it, so we refer to it as Shidai Music to avoid confusion. In contrast with the congruent Shidai Chant, the Shidai music is non-congruent.
Its regular poetic text is composed of three lines, the second one being a repetition of the first. The syllable pattern is 7-5, 7-5, 7-4, or occasionally, 7-5, 7-5, 7-5. The first two lines are sung on high pitch, the third start on the medium and concludes on the low pitch.
The chant consists of the text being sung two or three times: first by the soloists, then very softly, omitting the repetition of the first line, by the jiutai (this repetition is called a jitori), and optinally, when in First Category plays, once again by the soloists. There are two versions of Shidai featured on this website. The first is a concert version of Atsumori’s Shidai sung by the shite (below) and the second, in the play Takasago.