Political Musical Pieces

 

Music has often been associated with patriotism and politics. Certainly national anthems have inspired a sense of unity. Politicians have also used music to excite citizens: think of “The Marseillaise.” Here are some more examples.

Even in the 18^th century, music could affirm a country’s leader. Handle’s piece Zadok the Priest was written to confirm England’s George II’s confirmation as kind.

Sadly, but effectively, Beethoven’s and Wagner’s music were used to sway the German people to affirm their superiority and that of Hitler.

On the other hand, Chopin’s Polonaise was broadcast on the radio during World War II to rally the Polish people against Hitler’s invasion. That piece earlier stirred the Poles in 1848 to revolution.

While Messiaen was a World War II prisoner of war in Germany, he composed Quartet for the End of Time, which moved even the camp’s soldiers and resulted in his escape.

Likewise, Shostakovich’s Leningrad symphony referred to World War II invasion and war. The piece was first broadcast throughout the city while the Soviets and Germans fought – although the battle paused to hear the music.

Most recently, Catherine Likhuta’s 2017 composition Bad Neighbors was commissioned when Russia started invading Ukraine. The piece evokes fighting and dialogue, and calls for freedom and peace.

In short, composers and their music can stir people to action.

Toshiko Akiyoshi: Another Fine Japanese Pianist

 Among the many people who have contributed to the musical scene in the United States are the Japanese. Tomoko is a wonderful example: she was the first Asian and only the second woman to be hired as a faculty member at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has taught there for over fifty years, which is another great achievement.

Here is another notable Japanese pianist who has achieved greatness.

Toshiko Akiyoshi, born in 1926, is a Japanese jazz pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. Similarly to Tomoko, she began piano lessons early in life, focusing on Western classical music. After World War II, she played the piano for U.S. service members stationed in Japan, and then performed with visiting American jazz artists. With the Peterson jazz trio she recorded her first album Amazing Toshiko Akiyoshi, which had U.S. success. By 1955, Toshiko was considered Japan’s leading jazz pianist.

Also like Tomoko, Toshiko came to the United States to study music, and has remained in the States ever since, although she toured in Japan. Her jazz compositions incorporated Japanese instruments, themes and harmonies. A Buddhist priest asked her to compose a piece in remembrance of the Hiroshima bombing; her three-part suite Hiroshima: Rising from the Abyss premiered just weeks before the September 11, 2001 attack on the U.S.

Over the years Toshiko has been nominated for 14 Grammy awards, and was the first woman to win DownBeat magazine’s reader poll award as best composer and arranger. The U.S. National Endowment of the Arts also named her as an NEA jazz master. The 1984 documentary Jazz Is My Native Language featured this fine musician.

Both Japanese women demonstrate commitment to music, courage to pursue their dreams, high quality professional performance, and sustained long-term careers. And both have been honored by their peers. The United States is fortunate to benefit from their contributions.

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I/We Protest

Tomoko has experienced protests throughout her life: against wars, against bombs, against oppression, against racial injustice. She also knows the power of music to unite people. 

One of Tomoko’s favorite composers to perform is Bela Bartók. In Bartók’s case, his anti-Nazi sentiments endangered him. Nevertheless,Bartók always maintained a Hungarian spirit and sense of nationalism. As a composer, Bartók researched traditional Magyar folk melodies just as nationalism was blooming. Tomoko points out, “The folk inspiration fostered music that came from the heart, and yet how the composers built upon that folk music helped them express their own individuality.”

Another favorite composer of Tomoko is Chopin. As with Bartók, Tomoko appreciates how Chopin incorporated folk music motifs. "The communal spirit of dance responds to the spirit of the music," she explains. "Music and dance are natural parts of human community." Many other people feel the same way. For instance, Chopin's Polonaise was broadcast on national radio as a rallying cry for the Polish people as World War II began, and the Germans sought to conquer that nation. 

Tomoko also appreciates and performs composer Olivier Messiaen. During World War II he was captured by German soldiers and interred in a prison camp. His Quartet for the End of Time premiered outside in that camp in 1941 for the prisoners and soldiers. 

A fourth composer that Tomoko favors is Dmitri Shostakovish. His seventh, Leningrad symphony addresses the war and invasion, and he wrote part of that composition between bombings. While Hitler celebrated the fall of Leningrad, this symphony was broadcast through loudspeakers in protest.

More recently, the Hong Kong protesters sang "Do you hear the people sing?: from the musical Les Miserables. The musical Hamilton also features songs of protest against English oppression. 

Certainly music captures the spirit of humanity, and can give voice to people to protest against injustice. 

European Influence on Japanese Music

Tomoko’s favorite piano music continues to be European classical compositions. That taste was started early in her life as she heard European classical music on the radio and the organ pieces that her brother played. These habits reflected the earlier Japanese interests in Western   (generally European) music.

Traditional Japanese musical tonality differed from its Western counterparts; it uses a Phyrgian scale of E-F-A-B-C-E instead of C-D-F-G-A. The Phyrgian scale is also used in modern blues minor keys. The oldest forms of Japanese music include Buddhist chant and orchestral court music. Traditional folk music included religious songs and songs for gatherings, work songs, and children’s songs. Typical instruments were stringed instruments, drums, flutes, bells. The first piano wasn’t heard until the opening of Japan, but by 1875 the Japanese were manufacturing their own pianos and other Western musical instruments.

Emperor Mutsuhito, who adopted the title Meiji – or Enlightened Rule – in 1867, pushed for modernization with an eye to the West to avoid becoming dominated by other countries. In 1868, the government issued the Charter Oath: a five-article document outlining the principles of the Meiji administration. It declared that “knowledge shall be sought throughout the world.” Meiji curiosity about Western culture included absorbing foreign classical and religious music. On the bureaucratic side, the Meiji government created the Music Study Committee, which encouraged Western music. They wanted Japanese composers to write in the Western style, and the committee required the German model of music instruction for all students. The committee also led to the founding of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, which Tomoko attended. 

Combining Western and Japanese music could be challenging though. For instance, Christian religious tended to be Western based, which was sometimes hard for Japanese to intonate. And when missionaries tried to translate their hymns into Japanese, they found it hard to match the rhythm to Japanese text. 

The tension between Western and Japanese music and their currents continued to flow through Tomoko’s families. During World War II at school Tomoko’s class sang nationalistic music with Japanese lyrics set to European music. Tomoko’s mother played and sang Christian songs, and Tomoko’s brother became a composer in the more Japanese mode. 

Nevertheless, Tomoko brings her Japanese sensibility as she performs music from around the world.

Food for Thought

Tomoko knows the value of food, both in her professional and personal life.

In Japan, where Tomoko was born, food has ceremonial importance, starting almost from birth. About a hundred days after a child is born, families celebrate with the ceremony of okuizome. Parents buy black dishes, and serve they baby with the wish of abundance of food throughout her life. At baby’s first birthday, there is a usually a red-and-white birthday rice cake. P:arents also have the baby walk and carry four pounds of mochi (a sticky rice cake, which is a sacred food in Shintoism) in a little bag on her back to wish food, health and harmony – even when one is burdened in life.

Speaking of burden, food had a heavy meaning for Tomoko as she was growing up in Japan in war time. Food was rationed, and people had to be creative to find ways to cook with the food that was available, even grasshoppers. They would also grow their own food to deal with food shortages. After the war, when the U.S. shipped food to Japan, people still experienced shortages. People at that time were more anxious about food than politics.

So it is no surprise that Tomoko values food. She provides yummy food at home and knows how to choose a good restaurant based on its food. And she has great taste.

As part of preparing for her recitals, Tomoko likes to have food as part of the event. Her students’ families and Tomoko’s friends bring wonderful dishes and beverages. The smorgasbord of food reflects the many cultures of the families: it is a global potluck. 

And music is food for the soul. It fills humanity’s emotional and psychological needs. Tomoko provides for both kinds of food. And we all benefit from her expertise and care.

Baller, Menuhin and Tomoko

Tomoko personally knew Adolph Baller and Yehudi Menuhin, who exemplify different approaches to early talent. As a piano teacher, Tomoko does not like the idea of child proteges; “They may have technical skill, but not the experience.” She also feels for the child; “They are controlled by adults who are focusing on money, and they throw out the child when he is burned out.”

Adolph Baller was born July 30, 1909, in Brody (now in western Ukraine). At age eight he was sent to Vienna to study the piano, and he debuted with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at age thirteen. In 1938 the Nazis beat him up because he was a Jew, and crushed his hands when they realized that he was a pianist. He and his fiancee escaped to Budapest, and immigrated to the States. His hands healed, and he restarted his performance career, included forming the Alma Trio with Gabor Rejto and Roman Totenberg. He also taught at Stanford, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Dominican College.

               Yehudi Menuhin was born April 22, 1916, in New York City. He started violin instruction at age four, and was a solo violinist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra at age seven. He played in Carnegie Hall at age 11, and had his first concerto recording at age 15, in London. As a young adult he seemed to stall in his musical growth, being protected from everyday life. That changed.

               In the early years of World War II Baller played for a New York radio station, where he met Menuhin. Together they performed for U.S. troops around the world, including in the Aleutian Islands. Experiencing the life of men his age and younger in army bases opened Menuhin's world, and gave him more self-assurance.

The two Jewish musicians continued to tour together after the war, and Tomoko met them when she studied with Adolph Baller at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Baller was impressed with her playing, and asked if she would serve as a page-turner for his own performance; there she also met Menuhin. Not only did Tomoko have the opportunity to see the back stage of world-reknown performers, but she was able to earn money as a page-turner to help pay for her own studies at the Conservatory. And her experiences with these two grand names in music informed her own piano teaching.