The national anthem of Japan played at the opening ceremony of Olympic Games held in Rio City was the best music I have ever experienced.<\/p>\n
The amazing version of our national anthem was arranged by Jun Miyake, a Japanese composer based in Paris, using incredible technique of mysterious harmony of Bulgarian Voice.<\/p>\n
For many Japanese like me, Kimigayo is naturally \u2018a poem\u2019, rather than \u2018a music\u2019 to be played in a western harmonic texture. Because the lyrics for Kimigayo was first appeared in the “Kokin Wakashu\u201d, the anthology of poetry edited in the 10th century, as a poem.<\/p>\n
Given that Kimigayo is a poem, its performance must be more comfortable to be like a poetry reading, instead of a song.<\/p>\n
I suppose what is behind the certain strangeness I have been always had when I sing Kimigayo is its complex history and structure. The lyrics was from 10th century\u2019s poem; the melody was made in 19th century in Gagaku (the ancient Japanese court music) style, and was harmonized by a German military bandmaster soon after the creation of melody. I have never got successful in reconciling these painfully different elements while singing the 60 seconds song.<\/p>\n
The Miyake version of Kimigayo, so clean, calm but with strong spirit of words, resolved the strangeness that all the other conventional versions of Kimigayo had.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"