The Fate of Music - Toshiro Mayuzumi's View of Art, July 1967

The Fate of Music - Toshiro Mayuzumi's View of Art, July 1967

In the year 1967, the Japanese music world was truly seeking independence from the West. Twenty years had passed since the end of the war, and while the economy had achieved affluence, in terms of culture, there was still a mixture of admiration for the West and a sense of inferiority. Classical music education was based on Western theory, and composers honed their skills with Beethoven and Stravinsky as their targets, but the question of whether Japanese music was an extension of that imitation was finally beginning to arise. Toshiro Mayuzumi's statement that "music is a projection of the spirit of the times" was uttered in the midst of this cultural transition.

Mayuzumi was unique among the postwar generation of composers, having gained attention in the early 1950s for his avant-garde works such as "X, Y, Z" and "Bunraku," and for his aggressive use of electronic music and chance techniques. But he did not merely imitate the Western avant-garde; he attempted to fuse Eastern thought with traditional music. This approach was also an attempt to re-claim the roots of culture that had been severed by the defeat in the war. Mayuzumi said, "Tradition is not a copy of the past, but a spirit that lives through the sensibility of the present," and tried to transplant the structures of Noh and Gagaku into modern music.

The year was 1967, a time of openness after the Tokyo Olympics, and at the same time, rapid modernization was homogenizing culture. While rock and pop music became mainstream among young people and popularized music, music as an art form was beginning to question its raison d'etre. Mayuzumi's view of art went against the tide and was supported by his strong belief that "music records the times, but it must not be subordinated to the times. His music was a record of a spirit that transcended the times, and at the same time, it was the sound of resistance to Japan's attempt to regain its cultural subjectivity.

At this time, Mayuzumi was also known as the host of "Untitled Concert" and was a bridge between contemporary music and the general public. His approach to explaining difficult art in a simple, easy-to-understand manner was an attempt to build a bridge between elitism and the culture of the common people. Behind his words was a quiet conviction that "for Japanese music to express the soul of the Japanese people, the Japanese people must first hear their own voice.

Toshiro Mayuzumi's words, "Music is a projection of the spirit of the times," are not mere rhetoric, but the very fate of art. No matter what form the times may take, what dwells in the sound is human memory and prayer. In the midst of the chaos of 1967, he asked through sound, "What is Japan? That question continues to resonate today, breaking through the silence of the times.