Description

What European can judge whether or not music is typically Japanese? Original Japanese music has been suppressed since the mid-19th century and almost completely disappeared. European, especially German music, was considered the ideal. Since the, Japanese music has almost always sounded like a variant of European music, not infrequently a bit kitschy. Now a Japanese singer, Teru Yoshihara, has come to Germany, surely also because he loves the German or European lied tradition. He has lived here for a while and began at some point to dig up Japanese art songs and make them known. He occupied himself with Japanese articulation and playing techniques, became acquainted with Japanese composers and disseminated their works. And miraculously, he has removed a bit of the European veil that had previously hung over Japanese music.