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Shō

Musical Instrument
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A Japanese free-reed mouth organ used in gagaku court music, producing cluster chords

Detailed Definition
The shō’s ethereal, dissonant clusters appear in Japanese and haiku-inspired poetry to evoke ritual time, imperial ceremony, and sonic abstraction; its role in gagaku makes it a symbol of disciplined artistry and the suspension of linear narrative in lyrical expression.
Example
Example in poetry:
Japanese poets link the shō to gagaku court music: “Shō chords— / mist rises from palace lake / in perfect fifths”; Its bamboo pipes mimic phoenix cry; “Sixteen reeds, sixteen directions—shō maps heaven”; In minimalist verse, the shō’s cluster defies melody: “Not song, but space—shō holds the silence between.”
Additional Notes
The shō is a Japanese free-reed mouth organ used in gagaku, with 17 bamboo pipes; its cluster chords (aitake) create static, ethereal textures—ideal for poems about timelessness, imperial ritual, or the shō as representation of celestial harmony in Heian court aesthetics.
Also Known As
Japanese shō
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