Why do Japanese listen to the ninth at the end of the year?
クラシック音楽の世界は「年末の第九」から始まりました。(English) The world of classical music started with the "Year-end Ninth".
Feature: Why do Japanese listen to the ninth at the end of the year?
First performed in Vienna in 1824, the Ninth Symphony was first heard in Japan on June 1, 1918, at the Bando Prisoner of War Camp in Naruto City, Tokushima Prefecture. The performers were German soldiers the Japanese took prisoner during World War I. Behind this was the humane treatment of the POWs by Toyohisa Matsue, the camp director, and the heartwarming exchanges between the POWs and the local people. In addition, a historical fact was suitable for the poem "Ode to Joy", which sang about human love and world peace by the poet Schiller, who impressed Beethoven.
There are various theories about the origin of the year-end '9th' in Japan, but the following two ideas are influential.
(1) The theory that it originated from the fact that the 9th was played at the student send-off concert held at Ueno Sogakudo in December 1943.
At the send-off party for the students who moved up their graduation to December due to the students going to the front, the "Ode to Delight" from the "9th Symphony" was played. It is said that after the war, the students who survived performed the 9th again in December to mourn their comrades who did not return.
(2) The theory originated from poor post-war orchestras playing the 9th Symphony to earn bonuses at the end of the year.
If you perform the famous song "Ninth", you'll get customers; if you're an amateur chorus, you can keep costs down, and the members will handle the tickets, so it's all good.
Perhaps because of both reasons (1) and (2), and the sublime and splendid atmosphere created by the '9th' matched the sentiments of the Japanese people in December, the scheme of 'year-end = the 9th' became established.
Feature: Why do Japanese listen to the ninth at the end of the year?
https://tower.jp/article/campaign/2014/12/04/01
The world of classical music started with the "Year-end Ninth".
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