David Herbert has contributed a most unique and engaging monograph to an ambitious series of books devoted to the study of the arts in education, entitled ‘Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education’, edited by Liora Bresler of the University of Illinois. The reason his book is unique is that it engages the frame of ethnomusicology, normally devoted to Other, to musical content that is Familiar, the genre of North American (and to some extent, European) school band culture transplanted to Japan. Further, school bands in Japan are justifiably famous for being superlative variations of their North American counterparts. Bonnie Wade, a pre-eminent ethnomusicologist who also specialises in Japan, offers a very thoughtful hors d’oeuvre to Professor Hebert's feast of ethnography with a few important insights of her own. Essentially, David Hebert delved deep under the surface of the seemingly everyday where he discovered anomalies and cultural specifics that are unlike anything found in the West.
His research was conducted in the most ordinary of circumstances, middle high schools in large Japanese middle-class suburbs, where the goal of the local school bands, like similar bands across Japan, is to win the world's largest concert band competition, the All-Japan Band Association national competition. Each year the finalists are featured in a grand concert that is made available in a glossy DVD, available in North America (through Bravo Music) as well as throughout Japan. The performances, which can be glimpsed on YouTube and elsewhere, are very impressive, if not breathtaking. The competitions almost completely absorb the rehearsal time and psychological preparations of the bands for the entire school year. And in true Japanese fashion, the preparations are heightened with the Japanese penchant for group solidarity and commitment.
My perspective of this book was supplemented by my own experiences as an ethnomusicologist specialising in the music of Japan, and more specifically, my involvement in a weekend workshop offered by a visiting Japanese high school band working in collaboration with a local band, thanks to an excellent exchange programme established in my home city of Vancouver by a high school band teacher. The Japanese students and their band director gave the local band students (and hangers-on like me) a two-day sample of their daily musical lives by conducting their usual rehearsal routines. In the evening that straddled the two days, they provided us with a typical concert that was as eye-popping as it was musically gifted. The bands are famous for supplementing their music with full-on choreography that involved shifting performance formations across the entire stage, and subtle choreographic gestures that highlight musical phrases. When I first saw this action in performance, long before the weekend workshop, I was mystified. My research experiences in Japan taught me that the traditional performance demeanour was very reserved. So, to see the young students being so demonstrative was perplexing. Were these gestures of emotion spontaneous expressions of mutual emotion that could not be contained by traditional reserve, or were they constructed (but no less heartfelt)? I learned it was the latter.
The book begins with an excellent overview of the culture of the Japanese high school band, beginning with a concise description of the history of concert bands in Japan when they were first introduced in the early days of Japan's push to westernise itself, followed by an examination of the introduction of the bands to the high school curriculum. Then a detailed ethnography of a Tokyo high school wind band is presented in its daily and weekly routines. This thorough view of the life of a typical high school band, complete with interviews and observations, is then amplified with descriptions of the national band competitions and the collusion of various music organisations that foster band music compositions, national mobilisation, and superior manufacturing of music instruments. Hardly a page goes by without an ‘aha’ moment.
The most striking impressions garnered from reading the book are the differences, rather than the overriding similarities, between the North American and Japanese models. The children in Japan pursue their band music interests outside of the regular school curriculum in an extraordinary amount of rehearsal time. The reader may recall Japan's (and East Asia’s) penchant for after-school tutoring that goes towards preparation for their college entry exam hell, but apparently the time is freely given without any dire consequences to a normal childhood life. As one commentator mentioned to me, the workload (i.e. time in practice and rehearsal) is no different than a member of an athletic team in an elite sports league. Secondly, the band members learn their music and their music instruments through a system of peer tutelage, the older students passing on their instrument's techniques, knowledge and experience to the younger beginners. This process takes up a major portion of the weekly rehearsal and allows the band conductor, who does not micro-manage the peer-tutelage process, to rehearse the band to an ultra-fine pitch without being hampered by individual ‘weak links’. Other aspects described by Hebert, that I also experienced firsthand, were remarkable training techniques like group singing and tuning regimens. The attention given to the pure tempered tuning of Major and Minor 3rds at the beginner level by each section's tutor was particularly impressive. What struck me was the complete, time-consuming and unequivocal cooperation of all the students at an extremely high level. I suspect that their vast time spent together in this manner is equivalent to individual practice and private lessons common to Western high school band populations, although the sheer amount of effort and selfless dedication may be unique to Japan's high school bands.
So, are there omissions and failings in the book? Beginning with the trivial, the index only contains names. This is a handicap for readers like me who like to browse all the references to particular topics found in various contexts of the narrative. I suppose this function can be handled by the Kindle eBook version but I particularly enjoy the physical book in my hands. To balance the loss is an excellent glossary, although minus a few missing terms (e.g. kando/awesome) that grabbed my attention as I was reading. I was also hoping for some illumination in regard to the subtle theatrical gestures I mention above, but none was forthcoming. Moving to the substantial, I would like to have read how the young musicians of grade school bands move into the adult world, carrying forward their passion into an avocational (adult amateur band) setting. David Hebert did touch on this question lightly, and no doubt he didn't pursue it because of the limitations set by the publisher, so I eagerly await this kind of ‘volume 2’. More importantly, I am aware of peer-to-peer physical and emotional coercion that occurs in some grade school bands, a dark side of the peer tutelage. Bullying (ijime) is a phenomenon known well in Japan and North America, so it is no surprise to hear about it in Japanese high school bands, but it would be fascinating to learn how it is being countermanded. In discussions with David Hebert, I understand that he is planning to investigate these issues in further research.
In the conclusion the author brings the reader back to the premise found in the title, ‘wind bands and cultural identity’, by summarising the principal traits of the cultural markers of the Japanese school band genre, contrasting them with equivalent markers in the West. Earlier he provided the perfect syllogism for this part of the conclusion: Wakan yosei, ‘Japanese spirit; Western learning’. He then goes on to suggest possible applications of the Japanese band model to western band programmes, culminating in some sort of transcultural music education hybrid. After seeing some of those characteristics in the workshop I attended, I heartily second his motion..
His book performs the remarkable – a call to explore new ways of doing high school band programmes differently than the tried and true method found across North America and Europe since the end of the 1950s. What about choirs, and string orchestras? The future is a brave new world for globalising music pedagogies originating in music institutions around the globe.
