Nationalism in Choral Music

  If you studied Western music history, you would find a section of “Nationalism” in the Romantic era. It was basically the answer or musical rebellion to the German dominance in music by non-German composers. Composers tried to use materials from own cultures and to create something they feel their own. The results are compositions that are hugely popular among composer’s “own people” but virtually unknown outside of the circle. Most of such music were already lost, or would be gone eventually. 

  There is a book called “A Composer’s World” by Paul Hindemith (1895-1963), a German composer who immigrated to the US, and in this book he alarms composers who consciously or unconsciously became nationalist to gain “national popularities.”

  In the instrumental concert music world, such nationalistic composers are now rare. However in choral music world, there are many composers who falls into this category. This is of course because choral music has texts. We often see a composer who is very popular among own language world, but their compositions fail to go over the wall of language or culture. Of course, in music history there have been composers who are nationalists but go beyond the wall. So, I know that it is very possible to break the nationalistic or local expression to have some universal quality.

  Partly because I read Hindemith’s book, and partly because I am a Japanese whose main working area has been the US, I have been thinking very hard in order to write choral composition that speaks to people regardless of texts. Technically speaking, the execution of texts has to be perfect, but the music (the notes and structure of the piece) has to be very independent from the text, and has to stand by itself.

  “Multicultural” seems to be very popular in choral world nowadays, but I consider that this is just a trend and will gone eventually. This is because ultimately compositions live not because they are “different,” but because people believes they are worth to be performed and listened to.

  We cannot deny the fact that it is easy for anyone to listen to, perform, and understand a choral music which text is in his own. With that stated, I will continue to try to create choral compositions that are worth listening to, and are wanted to be performed regardless of understating of the texts.