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Korea¡¯s national composer Ahn Eaktai at the height of World War II composed a work celebrating the Japanese puppet state in Manchuria and conducted it in Nazi Berlin under a giant Japanese imperial flag. Manchukuo was set up in occupied China in 1932 under the nominal rule of China¡¯s deposed last emperor Puyi.
A film of the performance obtained exclusively by the Chosun Ilbo shows Ahn conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in the "Festmusik" he composed for Manchukuo¡¯s 10th anniversary. Germany and Japan were joined in an Axis against the Allied Forces of the U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union.
The titles of the seven-minute film announce a "festive concert commemorating the 10th anniversary of Manchukuo." It shows Ahn conducting the orchestra under a large imperial flag hanging from the rafters in the center of the concert hall.
Neither the performance nor the score are mentioned in the official chronological record of Ahn's works. To mark the composer¡¯s centenary this year, the Ahn Eak-tai Memorial Foundation is organizing various events including concerts and an academic seminar in October, which is likely to be overshadowed by controversy about Ahn¡¯s career.
Born in Pyongyang, Ahn was expelled from school for taking part in the March 1, 1919 Independence Movement. He then went to Japan to train as a cellist. In 1932, he went to the U.S. to study cello and composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He composed his ¡°Symphonic Fantasia Korea,¡± from which the tune of South Korea¡¯s national anthem is taken, in 1935 or 1936, and conducted the premiere in Dublin, Ireland. Ahn went to Berlin in or about 1938, where he continued his studies in composition and conducting under Richard Strauss. He spent the rest of his musical career mainly in Europe.
The film was unearthed by a Korean student at Berlin¡¯s Humboldt University, Song Byung-wook, from the TransitFilm archives there.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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