Studio Ghibli Projects
kawaii power <3
I am continuously fascinated and inspired by the simple, pure, yet powerful films of Studio Ghibli and the unique, touching music of Joe Hisaishi. Through this research, I aim to share the depth, insight, and joy that the undervalued aesthetic of “cuteness” can enlighten upon our culture. What are the affects and attitudes associated with “cuteness”, and how can they help us understand our social environment? What is the broader cultural and artistic significance of the “cute”? By understanding the affects and attitudes associated with this seemingly trivial aesthetic topic, my research project will help us better reflect on our cultural values.
While often characterized by their cute, child-like, endearing, and magical qualities, Studio Ghibli films advocate for a range of serious values such as earnestness, sincerity, and a respect for and connectedness to nature. The power of these films lies largely in its masterful orchestral score written by Joe Hisaishi. Even separated from the visual components, the music in itself can stimulate the values, emotional intensity, and storyline developments of each film. That being said, aside from the original orchestra soundtrack, there exists of Hisaishi’s music only several live performance recordings, a jazz arrangement album, and various amateur fan-made covers.
Hisaishi’s music captures the significance of simplicity, truthfulness, and genuine emotions within these touching Studio Ghibli stories. Reimagining the popular music of Hisaishi using a classical chamber music formation with a grand, semi-abstract, and fantasy-like compositional style will allow for a new and deeper appreciation for the film scores.
Whether it is stimulating a warm nostalgia for audiences who grew up treasuring Studio Ghibli films or exposing this enchanting music to listeners for the first time, a musically complex and sophisticated rendition of Hisaishi’s music aims to highlight the deeper social, cultural, and artistic values that can be gained from these Japanese animations.
Research Project
“Cuteness Speaks Up to Cynicism: Recreating Japanese Animation Music in North America”
“Cuteness” is an aesthetic quality familiar to Western culture, but only recently have scholars begun to study its significance seriously. Commercialization and marketing practices that capitalize on the “cute” -the vulnerable, simple, childlike, soft, squishy, and fluffy- increasingly pervade our daily life, from toys such as Hello Kitty to media conglomerates that choose ‘cutesified’ names like Google and Twitter. “Cuteness” has worked its way into our literature, music, film and media, into our attitudes and social interactions, and consequently influenced our values and behaviours. Are there deeper meanings we can draw from this seemingly trivial aesthetic topic? And can “cuteness" be used as a positive and enriching influence on our culture?
My research will focus on using the musical field to explore the affects and attitudes associated with ‘cuteness’ in order to reveal their potential to address and counteract the cynical and skeptical attitudes that permeate our society today from politics and media to art and entertainment. Because Japanese culture leads the global impact of the “cute” aesthetic, my project will study Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi’s animation music to better understand the theoretical, artistic, and cultural significance of the “cute” as a new musical topic.
The deeply-cherished animations created by Japan’s Studio Ghibli such as Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro have increasingly resonated with Western audiences largely due to its endearing and simple “cuteness”. Consequently, the music of these animations have also started to impact the Western musical field. How can the popular response to Hisaishi’s ‘cute’ music help us understand our rapidly changing Western social environment? In Ghibli’s animations, the theme of “cuteness” goes hand in hand with the themes of simplicity, sincerity, and truthfulness; and Hisaishi’s film score plays an essential role in capturing those qualities. Thus, can “cute” music reinforce an appreciation for the values of earnestness and sincerity, and ultimately counteract our cynical culture?
To answer these questions, I will start from a theoretical approach by studying “cuteness” as a new topicin the context of musical topic theory. Topic theory associates musicals signs with different genres, styles, and cultural contexts to reveal broader meanings and expressions in music. This theory has been primarily applied to 18th-century classical music, and only recently used to study popular musical genres. However, scholars have not yet explored “cuteness” as a topic in either classical or modern music. What motifs, signs, and figures signify “cuteness” in the musical score? And how do audiences respond to “cute" signifiers within and without context? My research will apply topic theory to Hisaishi’s music to develop a definition and method for identifying the ‘cute’ as a musical topic. By recognizing this new aesthetic topic of “cuteness” and its cultural context, I can advance the field’s understanding of topic theory and expand its application to more musical styles and genres.
Performance and Recording Projects
My project will study examples of the ‘cute’ topic in three orchestral animation scores by Hisaishi: Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. I will analyze and apply these examples to new compositions and performances as a method for applying and presenting my research. I will be collaborating with graduate composition student Delong Wang from the Juilliard School and doctoral pianist-composer Wesley Chu from the Thornton School of Music, to recreate Hisaishi’s orchestral score into musically in-depth, technically challenging, and artistically rewarding pieces for piano trio. The new works will be virtuosic compositions that focus on using ‘cuteness’ in Hisaishi’s music as the main thematic materials.
The final performance aspect of my project will showcase and advocate for the value of Hisaishi’s “cute” music. I will perform Wang and Chu’s new compositions with my piano trio, the Kuma Trio, and present a multimedia lecture-recital that combines my theoretical research with art, animation, and music. These recitals will take place at McGill University’s Redpath Hall and Pollack Hall, respectively, and will be accompanied by extended program notes based on my research. Immediately following the recitals, I will conduct a survey to document the audience’s response to the “cute” musical topic to understand the emotions they experience as well as the images and subjects they associate with the “cute” signifiers. Understanding the audience reaction will further reveal the cultural significance of the “cute” aesthetic. My project will result in a final research paper, which I will submit to various academic music forums and conferences for presentation. Furthermore, I will disseminate my project online via a website containing my research paper, recordings, extended program notes, and survey results.
One of these pieces, “Fantasy on Princess Mononoke”, has been recently completed and premiered in Los Angeles in December 2018. The other two new works are being commissioned especially for this recording album.
8 hands, 1 honky-tonk piano, loads of cuteness. Come join 5 rowdy pianists in bringing alive the sweet, silly, fantastical world of Japanese animation alongside exquisite French duets!