Robert Fleisher

Music of Japan Today III: Tradition and Innovation


Abstract:
"Reconciling Past and Present: Contemporary Art Music of Israel and Japan"
The time and place in which artists create constitute the cultural subtext of their personal expression. In the art-music cultures of Israel and Japan, one finds contemporary expressions of traditional perspectives, an aesthetic awareness and expression of time and place in which the composers live and work. To be sure, there are obvious differences: Japanese culture is essentially homogeneous, its population largely sharing the same ethnic identification, religious faith, and social bonds; by comparison, the state of Israel, famous as an "ingathering of exiles" from the world over, is a heterogeneous culture of cultures, including native "sabras" and immigrant populations from one hundred other countries -- most, though by no means all, of Israel's citizens, share the historical, cultural, or spiritual bond of Judaism.

Upon closer examination, one finds more common links than might at first be imagined: both Israel and Japan are technologically developed societies, indeed, each of these countries has created state of the art products and innovations which are in use around the globe; at the same time, the contemporary consciousness of Israel and Japan share a mindful rootedness in an ancient history, and an observant, if also ambivalent, recognition of its hallowed traditions. Another important phenomenon is shared by these countries: while each is situated in the Orient, both Israel and Japan have been profoundly Westernized, in different ways, and at different times. This complex template, characterized by the admixture of past and present, East and West, has indelibly imprinted upon these modern nations and their art-music composers a potent paradox which has required, provoked, and inspired, individual attempts to reconcile tradition and innovation, East and West, and local dialect with artistic statements of universal meaning.

This paper explores these and other related issues as they pertain to the composition of art music in modern Israel and Japan; recorded examples, of both traditional and contemporary music, are employed as illustrations.

Robert Fleisher

Robert Fleisher, professor of music theory and composition at Northern Illinois University (DeKalb), received his doctorate in composition from the University of Illinois, with a secondary emphasis in ethnomusicology. His works have been widely performed, broadcast, and exhibited, including the Neue Musik Zirkus (Cologne) and two New Music America festivals. He has been awarded several artist-residency fellowships in the USA and abroad, and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Ruttenberg Arts Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council. His articles and reviews have appeared in the Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, Notes, Sonus, Musica Domani, Music and Audiophile (Taiwan), and the Middle East Journal. His forthcoming book, Twenty Israeli Composers: Voices of a Culture, will be released in May by the Wayne State University Press (Detroit); excerpts from this volume will also appear in a forthcoming special music issue of Shofar (Journal of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association).

Lecture: