Nationalism and Musical Style in Interwar Yōgaku: A Reappraisal

This study examines connections between cultural and political nationalism in interwar yōgaku, the Western-style music composed in Japan between 1910 and 1945. Close analysis of numerous examples reveals that a set of “Japanese-sounding” musical tropes arose as early as 1900, were ingrained in public consciousness by 1910, and continued to operate in Japanese music through the early 1940s. Within this stable context, debates undertaken in the 1930s regarding the search for a new Japanese music possessed a strong ideological component, a component that subsequently allowed for an easy mapping of yōgaku onto the aims and aesthetics of Japanese imperialism.