Presented at the Grieg Conference in Bergen June 1, 2007
Takao Nakamura, Japan
The Grieg Society of Japan
Professor, Hokkaido University of Education, Sapporo
A Short History of the Grieg Reception in Japan
Introduction
When did the work of Grieg first come to be played in Japan? Probably small works such as vocal music, piano music or chamber music were played from an early time. However, in the case of large scale pieces such as orchestral music, it was first necessary that groups existed that were capable of performing them. And therefore Grieg’s orchestral works demanded a certain degree of artistic and technical maturity on the part of both performers and Japanese audiences.
I would like to discuss how Grieg himself and his works have been absorbed by Japanese people through the media of his biographies, published critiques of his music, published musical scores, through concert and studio recordings and through music appreciation curricula in Japanese schools
Download the whole paper here
Takao Nakamura paper 2007