science

The Singing Voice of Japan

The Singing Voice of Japan is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Singing Voice of Japan rather than just read about it. In short: The Singing Voice of Japan (Japanese: 日本のうたごえ, Nihon no Utagoe / うたごえ運動, Utagoe-undō) is the name of a social and political movement that emerged after World War II in Japan and based on musical and choral activities of the working class of the entire nation. Ideologically communist or democratic socialist, activists of the movement organize choral circles in factories, in schools and in their residential areas.

Key takeaways

The Singing Voice of Japan belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Singing Voice of Japan to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Singing Voice of Japan from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Singing Voice of Japan (Japanese: 日本のうたごえ, Nihon no Utagoe / うたごえ運動, Utagoe-undō) is the name of a social and political movement that emerged after World War II in Japan and based on musical and choral activities of the working class of the entire nation. Ideologically communist or democratic socialist, activists of the movement organize choral circles in factories, in schools and in their residential areas. The movement reached its peak in the years 1950 and 1960. Japanese singer Akiko Seki (Japanese: 関鑑子) is generally regarded as the founder of the Singing Voice of Japan.

History

May 1, 1946: In the occasion of the first May Day post-war in Tokyo, Akiko Seki conducted L'internationale and a Japanese version of The Red Flag; this experience led her to the creation of a national musical movement of the working class. February 10, 1948: Akiko Seki created the Choir of the Communist Youth League of Japan (Japanese: 日本青年共産同盟中央合唱団, romanized: Nihon-seinen-kyōsan-dōmei Chuō-gassyōdan) in Tokyo, as the core of national musical movement of the working class. June 1949: First issue of the periodical Singing Voice, organ of the Choir of the Communist Youth League of Japan (Japanese: 日本青年共産同盟中央合唱団機関紙「うたごえ」, romanized: Utagoe). November 29, 1953: First national festival of the Singing voice of Japan in Tokyo, in the halls Hibiya Kōkaidō (日比谷公会堂) and Kanda Kyōristu Kōdō (神田共立講堂). February 14, 1955: Permanent institution of the Executive Committee of the Festival of the Singing Voice of Japan (Japanese: 日本のうたごえ実行委員会, romanized: Nihon no Utagoe Jikkō-Iinkai). December 20, 1955: Akiko Seki received the Stalin Peace Prize. May 1960: Statement of the Executive Committee of the Festival opposing the renewal of Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan. November 7, 1967: Première of a partial version of the opera Okinawa (Japanese: 歌劇「沖縄」, romanized: Kageki Okinawa) in Naha (Okinawa). November 25, 1967: First local performance in Tokyo, of the partial version of the opera Okinawa , in the Nippon Budōkan (日本武道館). December 10, 1969: First performance of the complete version of the opera Okinawa in Tokyo, in the hall Shibuya Kōkaidō (渋谷公会堂). April 1971: First issue of the quarterly organ of the executive committee of the Festival (Japanese: 「季刊日本のうたごえ」, romanized: Kikan Nihon no Utagoe). February 25, 1974: Radical revision of the organizational system of the executive committee, adopted during its sixth national congress: renaming the committee "National Council of the Singing Voice of Japan" (Japanese: 日本のうたごえ全国協議会, romanized: Nihon no utagoe zenkoku kyōgikai).

Musical repertoire and organization The repertoire of the movement consists mainly in revolutionary songs and those of the working class of different nations. Among registered members of individual committees (distinguished by region, industrial union, and other criterion) of the singing voice of Japan is favored to create new songs and choral pieces in the genre suited to the needs of their group. According to the program adopted in 2013, the National Council of the singing voice of Japan aims the objective to include 500 units and choral circles allover the national territory of Japan.

Origin of the Hiragana script (うたごえ) for the name of the movement Traditionally, the two initial words of the movement's official name Singing Voice are not expressed in Kanji (Japanese: 漢字) as would be standard today, but in Hiragana (Japanese: 平仮名) that is: うたごえ (Utagoe written in Hiragana) instead of 歌声 (the same in Kanji). And at least since the first national Festival of the movement in 1953, its title text was written in Hiragana: The singing voice is the vitality of peace - The Singing Voice of Japan 1953 (Japanese: うたごえは平和の力 - 1953年日本のうたごえ). Concerning the origin of such a particular script, Masamitsu Kiyomiya (清宮正光) who was one of the founding members of the Choir of the Communist Youth League of Japan, recalled the moment of publication of the first choir organ Utagoe (June 1949) in these terms:

However, even after the first issue of the choir organ, the script for the Japanese word Utagoe in Kanji (歌声) and one mixed with Hiragana (歌ごえ) were sometimes used by authors of books or periodicals concerning The Singing Voice of Japan, while an exclusive formalization of Hiragana script (うたごえ) has never been imposed by any official organization of the movement. A very remarkable example of the graphical oscillation would be the autograph of Akiko Seki dedicated to the national Festival of December 1962, in which she wrote one of the movement slogans The singing voice is the vitality of peace (Japanese: うたごえは平和の力, romanized: Utagoe wa heiwa no chikara) using mixed script of both Kanji and Hiragana for the word Utagoe, precisely such as: 歌こえ [sic].

Relationship with the Japanese Communist Party In accordance with the slogan Let's sing for the struggle (of the working class) (Japanese: うたは闘いとともに, romanized: Uta wa tatakai to tomo ni), activists of the movement have composed many songs to encourage workers protest against illegal discrimination of their employers. In the 1960s, instruction of militants of the movement and continued improvement of their ideological, political and artistic quality were considered important means of cultural policy by the Japanese Communist Party (Japanese: 日本共産党, romanized: Nihon kyōsantō). Nowadays (2016), the only group that is active and explicitly dedicated to the support of JCP is Choir of JCP-fans (Japanese: JCPファン雑唱団, romanized: JCP fan zassyōdan), established in 2011 in Kyoto by veteran activists of the movement and directed by Tadao Yamamoto, composer, accordionist, choir director and an ordinary member of the National Council of The Singing Voice of Japan: the choir witnesses the historical connection calling itself by the acronym of English official name of the party. Its repertory and artistic activity are strongly linked in the movement, and in various cultural events organized by the Party, the Choir of JCP-fans appears as an element among the joined choirs of the volunteer singers of The Singing Voice of Japan. Notable concerts and performances of the Choir:

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Singing Voice of Japan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Singing Voice of Japan claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Singing Voice of Japan before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Singing Voice of Japan ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Singing Voice of Japan

In research: The Singing Voice of Japan appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Singing Voice of Japan in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Singing Voice of Japan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Japanese Communist Party, Political movements in Japan, Social movements in Japan, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Singing Voice of Japan outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Singing Voice of Japan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Singing Voice of Japan means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Singing Voice of Japan out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Singing Voice of Japan in simple terms?

Why does The Singing Voice of Japan matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Singing Voice of Japan?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Singing Voice of Japan.