Japanese Festival Music
Encyclopedia
Japanese Festival Music, Op. 84 (1940), is a composition by Richard Strauss
. The full title is Festmusik zur Feier des 2600jährigen Bestehens des Kaiserreichs Japan für großes Orchester (Japanische Festmusik).
The Japanese government commissioned music from composers of six nations to mark the 2,600th anniversary of the Japanese Empire (although the date of February 11, 660 B.C. given as the founding of the Mikado dynasty was a pure invention). Other composers writing for the festivities included:
Japan’s request for a composition from an American composer was turned down due to the deterioration of relations between the countries.
Joseph Goebbels
assigned the Japanese commission to Germany's most prominent composer, Richard Strauss. Strauss, age 75, put aside composition on his opera Die Liebe der Danae
to work on Japanese Festival Music while staying in the Italian Tyrol. He completed the work on April 22, 1940 and received 10,000 Reichsmarks for his effort.
Japanese Festival Music is written for a large orchestra including an organ, two harps, and eight horns plus a Cor anglais. Fourteen temple gongs are required to add some local coloration.
There are five sections:
The première was at the Kabukiza Theatre, Tokyo on December 14, 1940. Helmut Fellmer, a music professor in Tokyo at the time, conducted the NHK Symphony Orchestra
(augmented to 165 musicians for this occasion and called The Symphony Orchestra in Celebration of the 2600th Anniversary of the Japanese Imperial Dynasty). The audience for this occasion also heard the other three commemorative works. Fellmer conducted this orchestra again on December 19, 1940 for a recording on Nippon Columbia. The first European performance was in Stuttgart on October 27, 1941 with Hermann Albert conducting.
Japanese Festival Music is probably Richard Strauss’s least programmed work and is often described as one of his weakest compositions. Norman Del Mar
compared it to the Festliches Präludium (Festive Prelude for Orchestra and Organ) in which “a vast orchestra piles one towering climax upon another”. Strauss conducted the work for recording in late 1940 with the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra (possibly he recorded it before the Tokyo premiere); this recording was issued on CD in 1990 by Deutsche Grammophon in a 3-CD set of Strauss conducting his own works (catalogue number 429 925-2 GDO3), and four years later on Preiser 90205. The duration of the work is approximately fourteen minutes. The score was published by Oertel in Berlin in 1941 (on the cover is a crest of the chrysanthemum against a red background) and is obtainable from Boosey & Hawkes
.
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
. The full title is Festmusik zur Feier des 2600jährigen Bestehens des Kaiserreichs Japan für großes Orchester (Japanische Festmusik).
The Japanese government commissioned music from composers of six nations to mark the 2,600th anniversary of the Japanese Empire (although the date of February 11, 660 B.C. given as the founding of the Mikado dynasty was a pure invention). Other composers writing for the festivities included:
- Jacques IbertJacques IbertJacques François Antoine Ibert was a French composer. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I.Ibert pursued a successful composing career,...
who wrote an Ouverture de fête "pour célébrer le 26e centenaire de la fondation de l'empire Nippon" - Ildebrando PizzettiIldebrando PizzettiIldebrando Pizzetti was an Italian composer of classical music.- Biography :Pizzetti was born in Parma in 1880. He was part of the "Generation of 1880" along with Ottorino Respighi and Gian Francesco Malipiero. They were among the first Italian composers in some time whose primary contributions...
who wrote a Symphony "In Celebrazione dell XXVIo Centenario della Fondazione dell'Impero Giapponese" - Sándor VeressSándor VeressSándor Veress was a Swiss composer of Hungarian origin. The first half of his life was spent in Hungary; the second, from 1949 until his death, in Switzerland, of which he became a citizen in the last months of his life.Veress taught at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest...
who wrote his first symphony, "Hungarian Greetings on the 2600th Anniversary of the Japanese Dynasty" - Benjamin BrittenBenjamin BrittenEdward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
’s Sinfonia da RequiemSinfonia da RequiemSinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20, for orchestra is a symphony written by Benjamin Britten in 1940 at the age of 26. It was one of several works commissioned from different composers by the Japanese Government to mark the 2,600th anniversary of the founding of the Japanese Empire...
was also commissioned in this process, but was ultimately rejected by the Japanese foreign ministry as an insult.
Japan’s request for a composition from an American composer was turned down due to the deterioration of relations between the countries.
Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
assigned the Japanese commission to Germany's most prominent composer, Richard Strauss. Strauss, age 75, put aside composition on his opera Die Liebe der Danae
Die Liebe der Danae
Die Liebe der Danae is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to a February 1937 German libretto by Joseph Gregor, based on an outline written in 1920, "Danae, or The Marriage of Convenience", by Hugo Hofmannsthal...
to work on Japanese Festival Music while staying in the Italian Tyrol. He completed the work on April 22, 1940 and received 10,000 Reichsmarks for his effort.
Japanese Festival Music is written for a large orchestra including an organ, two harps, and eight horns plus a Cor anglais. Fourteen temple gongs are required to add some local coloration.
There are five sections:
- Meerszene (Seascape)
- Kirschblütenfest (Cherry Blossom Festival)
- Vulkanausbruch (Volcanic Eruption)
- Angriff der Samurai (Attack of the Samurai)
- Loblied auf den Kaiser (Hymn of the Emperor)
The première was at the Kabukiza Theatre, Tokyo on December 14, 1940. Helmut Fellmer, a music professor in Tokyo at the time, conducted the NHK Symphony Orchestra
NHK Symphony Orchestra
The in Tokyo, Japan began as the New Symphony Orchestra on October 5, 1926 and was the country's first professional symphony orchestra. Later, it changed its name to Japan Symphony Orchestra and in 1951, after receiving financial support from NHK, it took its current name...
(augmented to 165 musicians for this occasion and called The Symphony Orchestra in Celebration of the 2600th Anniversary of the Japanese Imperial Dynasty). The audience for this occasion also heard the other three commemorative works. Fellmer conducted this orchestra again on December 19, 1940 for a recording on Nippon Columbia. The first European performance was in Stuttgart on October 27, 1941 with Hermann Albert conducting.
Japanese Festival Music is probably Richard Strauss’s least programmed work and is often described as one of his weakest compositions. Norman Del Mar
Norman Del Mar
Norman Del Mar CBE was a British conductor, horn player, and biographer. As a conductor, he specialized in the music of late romantic composers; including Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. He left a great legacy of recordings of British music, in particular Elgar, Vaughan Williams,...
compared it to the Festliches Präludium (Festive Prelude for Orchestra and Organ) in which “a vast orchestra piles one towering climax upon another”. Strauss conducted the work for recording in late 1940 with the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra (possibly he recorded it before the Tokyo premiere); this recording was issued on CD in 1990 by Deutsche Grammophon in a 3-CD set of Strauss conducting his own works (catalogue number 429 925-2 GDO3), and four years later on Preiser 90205. The duration of the work is approximately fourteen minutes. The score was published by Oertel in Berlin in 1941 (on the cover is a crest of the chrysanthemum against a red background) and is obtainable from Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and wind musical instruments....
.