"Japanese Festival Music" (known in German as "Japanische Festmusik") was commissioned by the Japanese government to celebrate the "2600th" anniversary of the founding of Japan; a date that is shrouded in mythology and legend and has been widely rejected by most historians. The earliest emperor agreed to have existed by modern historiography was Emperor Yūryaku, who lived approximately during the 5th century AD and whose existence has been corroborated by archaeological findings. Yūryaku has been identified as one of the Kings of Wa who were in contact with the Chinese civilization. The piece was realized when Nazi German minister Joseph Goebbels tasked the German nation's foremost composer, Richard Strauss, to fulfill the request. Strauss, who already began work on his opera "The Love of Danae", set aside the composition to work on the commission. Strauss completed the "Japanese Festival Music" on April 22, 1940, and received 10,000 Reichsmarks. Other submissions commissioned by the Imperial Japanese government include that of Jacques Ibert, Benjamin Britten (rejected for being too sultry and Christian [and probably for being not kitschy and bombastic enough] for a nationalist celebration of pagan origin), Ildebrando Pizzetti, Sándor Veress, Hisato Ohzawa.
Date: 1940 Catalogue: Op. 84; Trenner Verzeichnis 277 Dedicatee: Hirohito, the Emperor Shōwa of Japan
Order of Sections: No. 1 - Seascape No. 2 - Cherry Blossom Festival No. 3 - Volcanic Eruption No. 4 - Attack of the Samurai No. 5 - Hymn of the Emperor
Performers: Unknown