Zur Rezeption deutscher Musik in der japanischen Musikpublizistik während des Pazifischen Krieges - eine Zwischenbilanz

This article analyses the reception of German music in the music press of Japan during the Pacific War, against the bakdrop of the German-Japanese policy of alliance and a twofold centralization of the Japanese music press. In the first half of the 1940s the number of journals dealing with European music was reduced and an official cultural association, subordinated to the ministries for culture and propaganda, was founded. A close reading of Japanese music journals from between 1941 and 1944 establishes that German music was re-interpreted several times within a relatively short period of time, depending on its use for propaganda or social conformity. At first music journals demonstrated great interest in the restructuring of cultural life in Germany and compared German art music favourably with Russian, French and American music, particularly jazz. From 1943 onwards official control of the music press tightened and, in the wake of calls for a genuinely Japanese music independent of European traditions, anti-European rhetoric became more prominent, although German art music continued to be invoked against jazz and the vulgarization of art through popular music.

The Nohkan and Oral Transmission

This chapter discusses the three primary functions of the nohkan in a Noh play and focuses on comprehending the role of shōga and the importance and history of oral transmission. It offers an analysis of Issō Yukihiro singing the shōga of the ryo-chū-kan keishiki of the [Chū no Mai] using Western staff notation, followed by his performance of the ryo-chū-kan keishiki. It also talks about Issō Yukihiro as a professional nohgaku-shi and a nohkan performer, who has been actively promoting the nohkan by collaborating with musicians that play Western music and Japanese music. The chapter analyses how the nohkan failed to reach a level of popularity within or outside Japan due to the lack of comprehensive study on the nohkan and the challenges of oral transmission using shōga. It includes transcriptions of nohkan melodies in Western staff notation, which has become a universal method of notating music.

Integration of aspiring artists: Japanese music students in Germany

The article examines how students from Japan who attend German music colleges become integrated into Germany’s art worlds while also maintaining connections to transnational art worlds. Although Japan is one of the major countries that sends young music talents to Germany, only a few studies have examined this migration. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with Japanese music students in Germany that were conducted as part of the Asian Educational Mobilities Project, the article shows that the reasons for such migration, as well as its effects on music practices, and that future perspectives need a theoretical reorientation toward a transnational perspective. The results indicate that the art practices of aspiring Japanese students depend not only on institutional conditions in Germany but also on students´ transnational networks.