Music of Japan Today: Tradition & Innovation

Japanese

Kazuko Tanosaki and E. Michael Richards - Co-Directors

Department of Music

Hamilton College

Clinton, NY USA

see article "Music of Japan Today: Hidden Orders of Tradition" by Tanosaki and Richards in "Asia-Pacific Exchange Journal" Volume 2 No. 2 (December 1995)

Western art music has been a part of widespread cultural life for a relatively short time in Japan. Much music in Western-style written by Japanese composers has been created through stylistic imitation and adaptation of nineteenth and twentieth-century styles from Europe. It is only in the last forty years that some Japanese composers have become more individualistic; concerned with reflecting philosophical and musical elements from their own culture, they have begun to discover and develop their own music. The most successful of this music represents a powerful cross-fertilization of aesthetics and musical characteristics from both East and West. This new Japanese music is reflective of a variety of aspects of contemporary Japanese society, all of which are deeply rooted in a national aesthetic, psychology, and culture that has evolved over many years.

Hamilton College has hosted three two-day symposia of performances, lecture demonstrations, panel discussions, and paper presentations on topics that concern new Japanese music.

Kazuko Tanosaki & E. Michael Richards, Directors

Music of Japan Today III: Tradition and Innovation (April 4-6, 1997)

Music of Japan Today II: Tradition and Innovation (April 9-11, 1994)

Music of Japan Today: Tradition and Innovation (March 28-9, 1992)

Music of Japan Today III: Tradition and Innovation

April 4-6, 1997 at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY

in cooperation with the Syracuse Society for New Music in celebration of their 25th anniversary

Sponsored in part by the Japan-United States Friendship Commission.

Guest Composers:

Masao Endo - Harue Kunieda - P. Q. Phan

Schedule:

Friday April 4 - concert - Society for New Music - Asian Voices

8 PM - May Memorial Unitarian, 3800 E. Genesee, Syracuse, NY




Phan - Enlightenment - Concerto for Percussion and Mixed Ensemble (1994)
Mayuzumi - Pieces for Prepared Piano and Strings
Liu Zhuang - Living Waters (1997) - PREMIERE
Jin Hi Kim - Liquid Migration (1990)
Jin Hi Kim - Mana for Komungo solo

Saturday, April 5 - lectures, lecture-recitals, mini-concert [Schambach 201]

9 AM - 12:10 PM --- 1:10 PM - 5:40 PM --- 8 PM - concert [Wellin Hall]

Sunday, April 6 -lectures, lecture-recitals, panel discussion, mini-concert[Schambach 201]

9:30 AM - 1 PM --- 2:30 PM - 3:10 PM

Lectures:

Nobuko Amemiya - University of Kansas - Analysis of Takemitsu's Compositions for Piano and Violin or Cello

Hing-yan Chan - Hong Kong - Symmetry and Large-Scale Continuity in Toru Takemitsu's November Steps

Robert Fleisher - Professor of Music, Northern Illinois University - Reconciling Past and Present: Contemporary Art Music of Israel and Japan

Hiroko Ito - Harvard University - Innovation Derived from Instrumental Constraints

JoAnn Hwee Been Koh - Boston University - Temporal Proportions in Toru Takemitsu's Requiem for Strings (1957) and Some Techniques of Film Music Scoring

Hugh Livingston - University of California, San Diego - US Editor, The Paris New Music Review - Cello Technique for Representation of Traditional Japanese Instruments

Steven Nuss - Assistant Professor of Music, Colby College - Music from the Right: The Politics of Toshiro Mayuzumi's Essay for String Orchestra

Nancy Yunhwa Rao - Assistant Professor of Music, Rutgers University - Crystallization of East and West (*Poeme Lyrique II* of Chen Qigang)

Michael Schelle - Professor of Music, Butler University - Film Music of Japan: Godzilla and His Spawn

Preston Stedman - Professor of Music, California State University, Fullerton - The Contemporary Symphony in Japan

Shuko Watanabe - Lecturer in Music, Washington and Lee University - Influence of Western Music from the Meiji Era Through World War II: An Historical Survey through Western-Style Piano Music

Lecture-Recitals

Asako Arai - Naucalpan, Mexico - Transcending Traditional Cultural Concepts in Toru Takemitsu's Voice for Solo Flutist

Junko Ueno Garrett - Rice University - Streams of Sound: The Piano Music of Toru Takemitsu

G.W. Schaefer - Assistant Professor of Music, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh - The Marimba Compositions of Keiko Abe

Mini Concert Performances

Takemitsu - *Uninterrupted Rests* - piano - Nobuko Amemiya, University of Kansas

Takemitsu - Rain Tree Sketch II - solo piano - Junko Ueno Garrett, Rice University

Takemitsu - Rain Tree Sketch II - solo piano - Mari Kushida, University of Illinois

Ryo Noda - Mai - alto saxophone solo - Claudia Schaetzle, Bowling Green State University

Mayuzumi - Bunraku - solo cello - Christopher Stenstrom, Bowling Green State University

Takemitsu - Itinerant in Memory of Isamu Noguchi - solo flute - Elda Tate, Northern Michigan University

Takemitsu - *Uninterrupted Rests* - piano - Shuko Watanabe, Roanoke, VA

8:00 PM Saturday April 5 - Concert (Wellin Hall)

Society for New Music -Phan - Enlightenment - Concerto for Percussion and Mixed Ensemble (1994)
Mayuzumi - Pieces for Prepared Piano and Strings
Hamilton College Orchestra -Yuasa - Calling Together (students of Music 204 and 107)
Kunieda - Reflection III for Orchestra (1997) - *PREMIERE*
Guest Soloists (Winners of the First Music of Japan Today Performer Competition)
Mayuzumi - Bunraku   (Hugh Livingston)
Takemitsu - Voice for solo flute (Asako Arai)

for concert notes about the music and performers, click here.

SYMPOSIUM I - March 28-9, 1992

Sponsored by the Hamilton College Department of Music, Class of 1940 Cultural Endowment, Committee on Cultural Affairs, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Office of the President

Guest Composers: Joji Yuasa, Tokuhide Niimi, Masataka Matsuo

Niimi Bio and Lecture
Matsuo Bio and Lecture
Yuasa Bio and Lecture

Guest Lecturers:

Edward Smaldone - Queens College, CUNY - Japanese and Western Confluences of Large-Scale Pitch Organization in Takemitsu's "November Steps" and "Autumn"

Shuko Watanabe - Washington & Lee University - Synthesis of Traditional Elements in Western-style Solo Piano Works by Japanese Contemporary Composers

Steven Nuss - City University of New York - Looking Forward, looking back: Influences of the Togaku Tradition in the Music of Toru Takemitsu

Elda Tate - Northern Michigan University - Tradition-Innovation in Japanese Flute Music: Lecture-Recital

Gregory Shepherd - Kauai College, Lihue, Hawaii - Nihonjinron

Kazuko Tanosaki - Hamilton College, Clinton, NY - Joji Yuasa and the Jikken Kobo: Conceptions of Cosmos Reflected in Cosmos Haptic

E. Michael Richards - Hamilton College, Clinton, NY - Akira Nishimura's "Concerto for 20-String Koto and Strings"

Takako Matsuura - Ithaca College School of Music - Japanese and Western Confluence in the Development of Japanese Children's Music in the Meiji Period (1868-1912)

Bruce Reiprich - Wilkes University - Toru Takemitsu's "Garden Rain" for Brass Ensemble

Yuasa - "Observations on Weather Forecasts"

Concert: Hamilton College New Music Ensemble & Orchestra

Yuasa - "My Blue Sky No. 3" (1977- Nori Kuwamura, vln)

Niimi - "Kazane" (1989 - vln, cl, vcl)

Yuasa - "Cosmos Haptic" (1957 - Kazuko Tanosaki, pn)

Yuasa - "Calling Together" (1973 - Students of Music 204)

Matsuo - "Hirai V for Clarinet, Piano and Orchestra" 1992 **PREMIERE**

SYMPOSIUM II - April 9-10, 1994

Sponsored by The Japan Foundation and Hamilton College Departments of Music and East Asian Languages, Office of Multicultural Affairs, and Office of the Dean of the College