Word: toyama
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...almost never cite the qualities that have kept it flourishing in the West: beauty, emotional appeal, elegance. Instead, they speak of concert music almost as a commodity, whose import and manufacture they have undertaken with characteristic zeal. "We have adopted the Western style in our social life," explains Kazuyuki Toyama, a leading Tokyo music critic. "We wear Western clothes, not kimonos; we watch baseball. So do we respect Western culture, and reflect it in our daily life...
...Says Toyama, who also runs one of Tokyo's most active concert halls: "Our musicians excel technically, but I don't know if Japan has yet produced any master artists. When you play Western music, what is most important is interpretation. We have mastered the technique. Now we have to go on." So far, few Japanese musicians have achieved international prominence; the best known is Conductor Seiji Ozawa, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At home he leads the New Japan Philharmonic, but his career has been largely Western...
...music, marked by delicate use of microtones, refined textures and free rhythm, was downgraded during the drive toward Westernization. But it remains popular, especially with older people and in the provinces, and is preserved in the Noh, Bunraku and Kabuki theaters. "We never had a national traditional music," says Toyama. "It was strictly apportioned by classes: the courts, the samurai, the merchants each had their own. But everyone can participate in the Western system." Although some composers like Toru Takemitsu have lately attempted to synthesize traditional music with Western styles, the two forms remain worlds apart, with little overlap...