Patriotic Music

 Memorial Day in the United States commemorates its military personnel who died in defending their country. Music is often played in remembrance: the national anthem, “Taps,” “God Bless the USA,” “America the Beautiful,” “This Land Is Your Land.”

Music can also reflect political flows and tensions. Mid-nineteenth Meiji curiosity about Western culture included absorption of foreign classical and religious music. 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. 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 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.

Just as often, Japan co-opted Western music to advance their own patriotism. One propaganda strategy during World War II was singing. As part of Japan’s growing nationalism, the government commissioned lyricists to write patriot words to Westernized music or traditional folk tunes, which became a required part of each grade’s curriculum. Tomoko was in elementary school at that time, and sang those songs. Besides promoting Japanese superiority, these songs also encouraged adventurousness. One of the songs ended with a verse that suggested, “I want to put a boat in the sea and go to another country.” Who knows if those lyrics waited in Tomoko’s subconsciousness to be awakened years later when she set her heart to come to America? 

Music in Memory of Past Military

 

As a child, Tomoko experienced World War II in Japan. Her father and brother were conscripted to help the war effort as civilians, and the entire nation suffered hardship because of the war. After the war, Japan was occupied by U.S. military personnel, and Japan had to agree to never re-establish an offensive  military force.

Tomoko’s husband Desy also suffered from military action as his country, Hungary, was under the policies imposed by the Soviets. He was able to escape during the Hungarian Revolution, safely arriving in the United States -- poor but hopeful.

Composers have often expressed their feelings about war in their music, as the following examples of Ravel’s work demonstrate.

In World War I Maurice Ravel wanted to join the war effort, and so he drove a supply truck to support French troops. His piano suite Le tombeau de Couperin memorialized his friends who were killed in the war, a couple of whom were shot dead their first day at the front.  

In 1914 pianist Paul Wittgenstein a war bullet pierced his right elbow, resulting in amputating his arm. In his honor, several composers wrote pieces that could be performed solely by the left hand, including Ravel.  His left-hand piano concerto became Wittgenstein’s favorite composition to play.

Ravel’s compositions Frontispice (1919) and La Valse (2020) captured his own war-based psychological trauma and grief. Similarly, his Sonata for Violin and Violoncello (1922) and Sonata for Violin and Piano (1927) enabled his musician colleagues to share their mutual grief through duet performances.  

Music can be a powerful cathartic experience, both for a performance and for a listener, to address and remember times of war and suffering: to bear the grief and hope for peace.

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. 

Remembrance of War

November 11 is Remembrance Day in the United States, honoring war veterans. Tomoko has her own vivid remembrances of war time.

Tomoko was born and raised in Japan. World War II was very hard for the people of Japan, but it unified them. No one was rich. They were all in the same situation. No one cared what people wore; it wasn’t important; education was. The war increasingly encroached on the lives of the Japanese. By 1943 they would see the B29s flying overhead. By 1945 many of the shops were closed instead, there were hawkers calling about specials. Farmers would go door to door with the food they had just harvested. People had ration tickets for food. There was little to eat, mainly rice, and sometimes they would eat the grasshoppers that the children used to play with.

Tomoko’s father was conscripted when he was 43-44 years old. All the men in Japan had to go to the coast to protect the region from the invaders. Each house had a bomb shelter with supplies, under the house. When the bombs started, the children were sent to the country; Tomoko visited relatives in the countryside. There were still schools in the country, but the children got behind in their education. Schools were closed in Tokyo, and the high schoolers worked in factories to help the war effort. They were given their diplomas automatically at age 16. This happened to Tomoko’s sister, who never married because so many men were killed in World War II.

Tomoko started playing the piano during World War II, using a piano that the neighbors had to sell because they needed money. Fortunately, Tomoko has continued to play throughout her life, and has shared her love of music internationally. Music transcends war.