Japanese ‘tunes’ WU

Alison Angel
angela@mytjnow.com

Soprano Kristen Wonderlich and pianist Tomoko Deguchi take a bow as they finish their set. The duo performed a three set series of songs that took the audience from a nationalistic isolated Japan to a country that brought Western influences into their music. Photo by Aimee Harman harmana@mytjnow.comWith a three series set of songs, a pianist and vocalist managed to give Winthrop a history of how a country changed and embraced Western culture.

Tomoko Deguchi, assistant professor and coordinator of music theory, and soprano Kristen Wonderlich, assistant professor of music, took the stage Monday night to perform 11 songs from three Japanese composers significant to their nation’s history.  The event, called “An Evening of Japanese Art Songs,” was part of the faculty series.  Using a black backdrop, a piano and a voice, they told a story that covered Japan’s cultural shift from 1900 to 1950.

“The program [included] songs that were written at different times after Japan ended its national isolation,” Deguchi said.  “The first set of songs [played] are the so-called ‘first songs in Western classical style.”

Written by Rentaro Taki, the piece reflected change in Japanese culture as they began to embrace European characteristics while fusing them with their own culture.   

The first piece Deguchi and Wonderlich performed, “Moon Over the Ruined Castle,” is a piece that has garnered fame both in Japan and the world over time.  

Upon its introduction, Deguchi explained that the song has been adapted many times in English and done in every style from traditional to jazz.

The second set of performed pieces were based on a set of poems by Japanese poet Sumako Fukao, based on a journey to Paris.  

Written between 1959 and 1963 the songs represented “the most liberal time” in Japanese history before European culture trickled in after 300 years of national isolation, Deguchi said.

The finale of the evening presented a fusion of traditional Japanese culture with influences of French impressionism.  Deguchi and Wonderlich performed a four-song set that defined the way that, even with other influences, “the composer incorporated Japanese elements into the music,” Deguchi said.  

Each song set presented the audience with a different piece of Japan’s past, distinctly defined in the music.  From haunting melodies that began in the early twentieth century of Japan to the upbeat and delictate tones of a set based on a trip to Paris, each song, though fitting together seamlessly with some type of  a common theme, was so markedly different that it was difficult to walk away with no emotion.

Barnes Recital Hall was packed as the soprano and pianist brought before them Japan as it transitioned from a country of isolation to one that became influenced by European and Western culture after World War I.  

Despite that influence, the music created decades ago managed to hold on to traditional Japanese elements that translated to give a modern day audience a sneak peek into a specific time period in Japanese history where change was pouring into the country.  

Even with a brief history lesson by Deguchi explaining the history of the songs performed and how they represented a shift in Japan, the distinct melodies were enough to set the tone of an era.  

Deguchi said that overall, there seemed to be a great response from the crowd.  

“We feel like we got a good student response and attendnce,” Deguchi said.

Whether it is performed in a foreign langauge or not, music is the one medium through which emotions can be expressed, and the “Evening of Japanese Art Songs” managed to convey a period of time in another culture that crossed any potential barriers that the audience may have come into the performance with.