1st Edition

The Art Song in East Asia and Australia, 1900 to 1950

Edited By Alison McQueen Tokita, Joys H. Y. Cheung Copyright 2023
    326 Pages 32 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book explores art song as an emblem of musical modernity in early twentieth-century East Asia and Australia. It appraises the lyrical power of art song – a solo song set to a poem in the local language in Western art music style accompanied by piano – as a vehicle for creating a localized musical identity, while embracing cosmopolitan visions. The study of art song reveals both the tension and the intimacy between cosmopolitanism and local politics and culture. In 20 essays, the book includes overviews of art song development written by scholars from each of the five locales of Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, and Australia, reflecting perspectives of both established narratives and uncharted historiography. The Art Song in East Asia and Australia, 1900 to 1950 proposes listening to the songs of our neighbours across cultural and linguistic boundaries. Recognizing the colonial constraints experienced by art song composers, it hears trans-colonial expressions addressing musical modernity, both in earlier times and now. Readers of this volume will include musicologists, ethnomusicologists, singers, musicians, and researchers concerned with modernity in the fields of poetry and history, working within local, regional, and transnational contexts.

    Chapter 1. Art song as lyrical modernity in colonial and postcolonial contexts: listening to each other’s songs

    JOYS H.Y. CHEUNG & ALISON TOKITA

    Chapter 2. The rise of Japanese art song

    MOTOMI TSUGAMI

    Chapter 3. Art song and musical/cultural identities in interwar Japan

    LUCIANA GALLIANO

    Chapter 4. Implications of poetic form for Japanese art songs

    YUKO KUSAKABE

    Chapter 5. Conflict and synthesis of modern and traditional Japan in Hashimoto Kunihiko’s art songs

    LASSE LEHTONEN

    Chapter 6. Nagai Ikuko and the "Movement for Singing in Japanese"

    MOTOMI TSUGAMI

    Chapter 7. The birth and transformation of Korean art song

    KYUNGCHAN MIN

    Chapter 8. National identity and colonial modernity in gagok: Korean art songs of the Japanese Colonial Period

    MEEBAE LEE

    Chapter 9. Metre and rhythm in Lee Sangkeun’s songs

    HERMANN GOTTSCHEWSKI

    Chapter 10. Korean art song composers caught between Japan, South Korea and North Korea

    KYUNGBOON LEE

    Chapter 11. A brief history of modern Chinese art song

    CHEN YONG

    Chapter 12. Composition, commentary and collegiality in the translated modernity of early Chinese art song

    JOYS H.Y. CHEUNG

    Chapter 13. Proved foundations with pentatonic inflections: "Longing for Home", the first art song of Huang Zi and Wei Hanzhang

    STEPHEN M. JONES

    Chapter 14. "I should have my own personality": Identity negotiation in Tan Xiaolin’s art songs

    ARTURO IRISARRI IZQUIERDO & HON-LUN HELAN YANG

    Chapter 15. "Taiwanese Art Songs" and "National Languages": Lu Chuan-sheng’s Art Songs of the 1940s

    DIAU-LONG SHEN

    Chapter 16. Competing voices in Colonial Taiwan: Art song as historical problem

    CHIEN-CHANG YANG

    Chapter 17. Singing Chinese art song in Taiwan: the life journeys of two China-born vocalists

    YU-JEN HUANG & TZU-CHIA TSENG

    Chapter 18. From singer to composer: the art songs of Koh Bunya / Jiang Wenye

    LIN-YU LIOU

    Chapter 19. National identity and Australian art song 1901–1950

    ANNE-MARIE FORBES

    Chapter 20. A transnational perspective on musical modernity: the songs of Linda Phillips and Chen Tianhe

    ALISON TOKITA

    Biography

    Alison McQueen Tokita is Guest Professor, Kyoto City University of Arts, and Adjunct Researcher, Monash University, Australia.

    Joys H. Y. Cheung is Assistant Professor at the Graduate Institute of Ethnomusicology, National Taiwan Normal University, Republic of China.