Shoka: Japanese Children Songs

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Release Date: 20th Oct 2014
Catalogue No: AN29130
Label: Analekta
Length: 55 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous, Jean-Pascal Beintus: ななつのこ

Work length1:57

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$1.40

Diana Damrau
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: あめふりおつきさん

Work length2:42

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$1.40

Diana Damrau, Choeur des Enfants de Montréal
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: そうしゅんふ

Work length2:58

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Choeur des Enfants de Montréal
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: あおいめのにんぎょう

Work length1:27

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Diana Damrau, Choeur des Enfants de Montréal
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: つきみそうのはな

Work length2:21

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Diana Damrau
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: じゅうごやおつきさん

Work length1:44

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Diana Damrau
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Koga Masao , Yoshiko Kurauchi , Jean-Pascal Beintus: はなかげ

Work length4:01

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Diana Damrau
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: ゆうやけこやけ

Work length1:41

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Choeur des Enfants de Montréal
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: はるよこい

Work length1:16

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Diana Damrau
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: On the Sumida River

Work length2:46

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Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Yamada Kosaku , Miki Rufu , Jean-Pascal Beintus: あかとんぼ

Work length2:43

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Choeur des Enfants de Montréal
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Motoori Nagayo , Nogushi Ujo , Jean-Pascal Beintus: あかいくつ

Work length2:28

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Diana Damrau
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: おぼろづきよ

Work length2:01

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Diana Damrau, Choeur des Enfants de Montréal
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: なつはきぬ

Work length2:50

$1.00

$1.40

Choeur des Enfants de Montréal
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: はなよめにんぎょう

Work length3:02

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$1.40

Choeur des Enfants de Montréal
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Konoe Hidemaro , Kitahara Ryukichi : Orchestral Fantasy on “Chin, Chin, Chidori”

Work length3:24

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Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: はまちどり

Work length2:32

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Diana Damrau
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: どこかではるが

Work length1:55

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Diana Damrau, Choeur des Enfants de Montréal
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Konoe Hidemaro , Kitahara Ryukichi : ちんちんちどり

Work length4:07

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Diana Damrau
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: すなやま

Work length2:51

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Choeur des Enfants de Montréal
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: さくら

Work length2:28

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Choeur des Enfants de Montréal
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

Jean-Pascal Beintus, Anonymous , Jean-Pascal Beintus: あのまちこのまち

Work length1:50

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Diana Damrau
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano

About
Explore

About

One day, Kent Nagano listened carefully when his wife was singing a children’s song to his daughter. The song told a chapter of Japanese history previously unknown to him: It told of emotion, tenderness, love – and bitterness. The song originates from a period when Japan had to open up to the West. At this time, Japan was suffering from over population, starvation and poverty.

“These songs came to me very late. Though of Japanese heritage, my family came to America at the end of the 19th century leaving me three generations away from Japan. I came down one morning to breakfast and found my daughter listening to these songs on a little recording, and my wife was singing along with the songs to try to teach them to my daughter.”

His daughter Karin Kei was three years old on the day she inspired one of her father’s most ambitious projects. Kent Nagano was so touched by the lyrics and sounds of the songs that he immediately started researching their source.

“After quite a while, I’d say six weeks or two months, after listening every morning to these intriguing and beautiful melodies, it occurred to me that due to my limited Japanese, I had no complete comprehension of what they were about, and so I asked my daughter to explain the texts. Her translation, confirmed by my wife, revealed a complex and profoundly poetic collection of texts. They were at once both intensely moving emotionally and disturbing. Their haunting, mysterious beauty has continued to entice all generations since their creation making them actual and vividly relevant to our modern world.”

In Japan, the songs that enchanted Nagano are commonly known as 'Shoka', or school hymns. They are based on famous Japanese poetry, but are composed in the Western musical style. The songs emerged during the era of the Meiji-Restorations in the outgoing 19th and early 20th centuries. It was the time when Japan finally opened itself to the West after close to 250 years of reclusiveness. The backward feudal state transformed into a modern imperial world power.

It was in this period of economic and cultural upheaval that the children’s 'Shoka' came into being. Sometimes the lyrics deal with day to day life, while other songs tell of the strangers coming ashore in Japan. Some tell the stories of Japanese who went overseas to flee the poverty at home.

The songs from ancient times have left a deep impression on the American conductor and rekindled his interest in his Japanese roots. Kent Nagano wanted to bring them to public attention by a performance with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. His friend, Peter Schmidt, a famous designer from Hamburg, created animated short films to support the musical event.

Shoka: Japanese Children Songs

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