So recently I did a rewatch of Your Lie in April. For those that don’t know, Your Lie in April, to quote Wikipedia, “follows a young pianist named Kоusei Arima, who loses the ability to perform the piano after his mother’s death, and his experiences after he meets violinist Kaori Miyazono.” It is a really good anime, and I highly recommend you watch it if you are interested. For this blog post though, I do want to focus on a particular aspect that this show features, and that is classical music competitions. In the show, Kousei and Kaori participate in some of these competitions, and how the show treats and portrays these competitions is really interesting. I myself am involved in classical music, having played the clarinet for 18 years now in concert bands in school and now in community bands. Seeing the portrayal of classical music performance, specifically in the context of competitions in Your Lie in April, surfaced a bunch of thoughts I’ve had on classical music competitions, both in general and how Your Lie in April portrays them.

In addition, there is another anime I watched a while back called Sound! Euphonium, which is honestly a lot closer to my experiences as it is about a high school concert band who used to be a champion-caliber concert band but has since fallen quite far. The anime follows Kumiko, an euphonium player who just drifts through life and goes with the flow, as she joins the band as a new instructor arrives who is determined to have them achieve a gold score at nationals. The center piece of the show revolves around the All-Japan Band Competition (which exists in real life) and the band members’ growth as a group as they grow more and more invested and hardworking to achieve the dream of getting gold in nationals. How this anime portrays this competition, again involving classical music, is also really interesting and I think focuses on an orthogonal aspect of these competitions compared to Your Lie in April.

So for this blog post, I’ll be going over my thoughts on classical music competitions as portrayed in Your Lie in April, Sound! Euphonium, and my own experiences. There’s not really a central thesis unlike my previous blog posts. It’s mainly going to be me musing about different aspects of classical music competitions that each of those three highlights. You don’t need any prior knowledge of the shows or to classical music in general, but I do hope you enjoy my thoughts.

Your Lie in April

A major theme in Your Lie in April concerns the conflict of Technician vs Performer in classical music performance. Kousei was previously a Technician, having been drilled and abused by his mother to always play the score as exactly as written with extreme precision and accuracy. Kaori is a Performer whose wild and energetic playing greatly deviates from the sheet music but puts her passion into her music and touches the audience. In the show, Kousei is pushed on and inspired by Kaori to develop how he wants to play instead of sticking to the score. This does conflict with the in-show competitions as we are told the only thing they evaluate is the ability to play the score, and deviations from the score are at best a risk and at worse a deduction. So, we see in this show this theme of expressing yourself through your music coming into conflict with the score and of these competitions. What is emphasized in judging stifled Kousei, both figuratively and literally (as it is why his mother forced him to play super sterile). Thus in the show, besides being milestones for Kousei’s redevelopment as a pianist, these classical music competitions hinder the art of music making and hinders the performer from expressing themselves.

This is a portrayal that I find interesting. There are of course real-life classical music competitions for a wide variety of instruments. The one I most know of is the International Chopin Piano Competition, one of the most prestigious and held every five years. In fact, the 19th edition of the competition is happening this year and is livestreamed on YouTube, with prelims already finished. Obviously, the judging varies from edition to edition, but anecdotally looking through the comments of the prelims, along with the comments cheering someone getting in or crying someone didn’t, there was some talk about how a lot of those that advanced mostly played it safe and didn’t take that many interpretive risks. Some comments expressed disappointment that a particular bold interpretation didn’t make the cut. This is obviously subjective, but at least anecdotally there is this sense that for classical music competitions in real life, there is this tension between straying too far or too close to the orthodox.

In Your Lie in April, the only thing being judged is on the score. In real life, all the competitions I’ve experienced do have a scoring element that factors in the individual performer’s interpretation. I am willing to bet that in real life if you just played exactly how the score is like a robot, you wouldn’t get far. In real life, it is expected that players will infuse their own artistry and musicality into their performance, even in competitions. However, interpretations are ultimately subjective, and a jury will have to evaluate the quality of a particular interpretation. And the jury of judges are composed of many people, each with their own particular likes and dislikes, which you can’t possibly know. What this means is that there is this dynamic and tension between a bold interpretation which may make you stand out from the crowd but may please or displease some of the jury, and playing the music piece in a familiar, safe way which may not stand out as much but also may not rustle many feathers. It’s an interesting tension, but one that I think ultimately results in many young performers in these competitions to not be willing to take much risk. When you have the potential of jumpstarting your career by winning or placing high in this competition, it is too risky to play a bold interpretation, which may cause half of the jury to be wowed while half of the jury be irritated, rather than a more orthodox interpretation which causes most of the jury to be at least mildly pleased. And this dynamic is not due to the judges only caring about following the score. As mentioned, interpretation is an aspect of scoring. It is just the natural result of the structure and risks associated with these competitions.

How Your Lie in April portrays judging in classical music competitions is ultimately oversimplistic. It portrays judging as only caring about the score when in real life, interpretation is also a factor. However, I do think it ultimately gets the same idea across. This being that classical music competitions often stifle artistry. Performers are led to play with the orthodox in these competitions at the loss of their own individuality and musicality. While in real life, why this is the case is more complicated than what Your Lie in April portrays, ultimately I do think the themes that are the result of this are ones that I find compelling. Classical music competitions is sort of a paradox. Performance isn’t really about winning or losing, or being better or worse than some other performance. So by having a competition, it naturally leads to elements of performance being lost, that being the performer’s artistry.

Sound! Euphonium

Unlike in Your Lie in April, Sound! Euphonium basically doesn’t delve into judging or scoring at all besides a general “git gud” sort of deal. It doesn’t really explore the internals of the band competitions besides having a “good” performance. Rather, Sound! Euphonium’s use of classical music competitions is more about how it serves as a motivator for the band members to reach their highest potential. At the start of the show, the band sucks. The members don’t really care about practicing and are just taking it easy. When the new instructor Noboru Taki comes in, he asks the members what their goal is, which they half-heartedly say getting a Gold score at nationals. He tells the members to let him know once when they are good enough to perform as an ensemble, but the members don’t really take practice seriously and instead are looking towards SunFes. As a test he has them play a very easy piece, which they do poorly, and says if they can’t play it perfectly in a week, they should not even think about performing at SunFes, much less nationals. This makes many of the band members very angry, and frustrates them to the point where they begin to practice seriously out of pride and shame. When the week is over and they perform, they do it well, and Mr. Taki reaffirms the goal of getting Gold at nationals, which the members see isn’t a joke but a real conviction, which makes them buy-in to the goal, to be better, to achieve excellence, and to want it for real.

This development of the band as a whole parallels Kumiko’s development. At the beginning of the show, we are shown a flashback of Kumiko in a middle school band seeing that although they got the Gold score in regionals, they weren’t chosen to advance to nationals. Upon seeing Reina crying, she inadvertently upsets Reina by asking if she really thought they could reach nationals, implying she didn’t really believe in it or want it that much. Once we get into the show proper, we still see her pretty laid back and going with the flow, not really having much desires of her own. But as the series progresses, she becomes more and more invested, and her determination and commitment grows stronger. She becomes more passionate about music and wanting to push her own limits and get Gold at nationals for reals. This parallel continues when she becomes a second year student and mentors Kanade, who initially starts off uninterested and detached about the competition. Eventually though, through her interactions with Kumiko, she begins to want to succeed. When they don’t reach Nationals that year, there is this really beautiful scene where Kanade, seemingly emotionlessly, says that this is why she wanted to stay out of it and all the work, practice, and struggles amounted to nothing. Kumiko, smiling slightly, asks if it was frustrating, at which Kanade begins to cry angrily and says yes, it is so frustrating that she could die. She is frustrated and crying, but the fact that she is shows how much she had come to want it and dream of it, to work towards it, and it is beautiful even when they failed.

Sound! Euphonium’s portrayal of a classical music competition doesn’t really focus on the mechanics of the competition itself. Rather, it focuses on how it provides concrete motivation for players to aspire to. It provides a concrete goal to reach for and work towards to improve themselves and their abilities as musicians. The students of the band were originally satisfied with their performance abilities and we’re laid back. It was when Mr. Taki said that they would make nationals with conviction that ignites the drive within the students. It ignites their passion and instead of taking it easy, they begin to work overtime. Practicing, rehearsing, spending so much of their free time trying to improve themselves and get better. To quote a student not in the band, they didn’t know the band was so “hardcore”. It is because there was that goal, that summit they wanted to climb that inspired the students to take playing seriously and try to achieve excellence.

Of course, it is not exactly necessary for there to be a competition for performers to want to perform music the best they can, or to push themselves to improve on their playing. Certainly, motivation can be derived from just wanting to put on an amazing performance. However, musical performance is subjective, so it is very easy to fall into the mindset of a performance always being satisfactory no matter how the performance went. And it is hard to feel validated for a performance as there are always ways that a performance could be better. Having a concrete goal and milestone that the competition provides brings a very clear success or failure mark. If the goal is achieved, it is vindication for all the hard work and it feels really satisfying. If it isn’t, then it is sad, sorrowful, frustrating, but isn’t it beautiful to feel that way. To feel is to have passion and the drive to do more. Having a clear milestone really does push performance to the limits of what they can achieve and beyond, and rewards the performer when all the hard work and practice finally pays off.

As mentioned above, Sound! Euphonium doesn’t really explore the judging aspects of classical music competition. Rather, the theme it conveys is one where the fact that there is a competition motivates players to work hard to try and achieve their own playing excellence. It gives something concrete to aspire towards, creating this drive and passion to improve to play the best they can. This portrayal is honestly more similar to sports than music. Sports themed media generally has that big competition that the characters are aiming for, and in Sound! Euphonium, the All-Japan Band Competition sort of fills that same role. It is a really interesting theme relating to its use of the All-Japan Band Competition but is born in real life. One of the reasons why school band is super popular in Japanese schools is because of the All-Japan Band Competition. It gives students the drive and structure to be able to succeed and work towards. It’s why alongside the United States, Japan has one of the strongest concert band movements in the world.

My School Band “Competition” Experience

So I’ve been playing in school band since 5th grade, and for this section I will mainly be talking about my own experience. Unlike in Japan, there is not one huge competition that one works towards. It is definitely more concert orientated than what Sound! Euphonium portrays. That being said, there are certain events that happen in the school year that more or less fits the vein of a “competition”.

The first is Marching Band in high school. During the fall, we practice and perform a show on the football field, not only for football games (which our team sucked big time) but for various competitions in the state. And these are legit competitions with like legit first place, second place, etc., not just scores. These were really fun to attend, especially when we won (totally not humble brag) and it was definitely rewarding seeing all the hard work that was done during summer in band camp all the way to the fall be rewarded by placing well. Spending a Saturday on the bus traveling to a competition, staying there, performing, etc. was a memorable experience and one that I actually think really brought the whole band together, and made us a tighter knit group. That being, it definitely isn’t my favorite aspect of band as it is really exhausting playing for 15+ minutes straight while marching in time, and that’s not counting practice. Marching band also tends to be a lot more strict in terms of musicality so the question of having to play safe as in Your Lie in April doesn’t really apply. You are playing on the football field, marching in time and are often far apart to the point where there is sound latency, so playing strictly and following the drum major is pretty necessary. And while obviously musicality is still important, it has to share with the marching and formation aspect of marching band, which I’ll be frank is not why I joined band.

The second is the Solo & Ensemble contest. This contest isn’t actually part of the school band program but something that is mentioned students can do as extracurricular. Its focus is on performing either solo or with a small group. I didn’t do this in high school, but I did do it in middle school where I was part of a clarinet quartet. Unfortunately, I don’t remember how well we did in the regional contest, but I do remember we didn’t advance to the state contest. This competition is probably the most similar to the one featured in Sound! Euphonium as there are multiple levels of contests and a scoring system that is similar (I to III, with I being the highest), though unlike in Sound! Euphonium there is also an explicit first place, second place, etc. It is said that ensemble playing, or playing chamber music, is the pinnacle of musical performance as you have to have both soloistic capability (like not hiding in the background) and the ability to perform as a group, so it is good that there does exist the Solo & Ensemble contest to encourage and provide a structure to these types of performances that is inside the school system. It is very rare for a standard public school to have a class on solo playing or small-scale ensemble groups. So having this contest is good for those that want to do such performance and work towards improving those skills, in addition to winning of course. Soloists and small groups have more of an opportunity to express themselves and their artistry than in a large group, so this is also really similar to competitions in Your Lie in April. I would talk about whether I felt restricted into playing safe to the score, but again I don’t exactly remember this period in middle school.

The last one I want to talk about is Large Group. This honestly isn’t really a competition at all, but more of an adjudication. The regional Large Group festival has no advancement to a next stage or anything. It is it. Groups perform at the event in the auditorium with the panel of judges and we get graded from a score of I to a score of IV (I don’t remember which one is the best so just pretend I is the highest). So while there is scoring, it’s more like an exam for ourselves instead of a competition between other bands. And unlike exams, the outcome doesn’t actually affect anything besides pride. That said, at least in my high school band, this is considered to be the most important concert of the year and represents that validation of the hard work and practice we’ve been doing through the school year, similar to Sound! Euphonium. Unlike in Sound! Euphonium though, what we perform isn’t something that is worked on all year. That would be crazy and I would be very bored. Rather, it is the skills that are worked on for the year. As this is a festival for the entire band, there aren’t a lot of comparisons that can be made with Your Lie in April, even beyond the fact that it really isn’t even a competition. When playing in a band or an orchestra, the individual interpretation of the players doesn’t really matter as much as the conductor’s. It is the conductor that determines the interpretation and style. Obviously individual musicality is still important, but there is more of an emphasis on following the conductor and being able to play how it is conducted. The conductor is always right. That said, I do think it not actually being a competition but an adjudication does give a lot more freedom for the conductor to conduct and interpretation that best suits the band and to show off the band’s musicality. Since it is just an adjudication with no forward stakes other than pride, it feels freer to interpret the musical piece how you wish.

There are a smattering of festivals and events that I didn’t talk about, like All-State or festivals hosted by universities, but those three are the big three in my life. So what was the point in talking about them? Well I just wanted to compare my own experiences to what was portrayed in Your Lie in April and Sound! Euphonium. As I did do concert band, not individual piano, it is pretty natural that Sound! Euphonium would have a lot more in common with my own experiences. Unfortunately for Your Lie in April, I don’t have a lot of experience with “competition” of the solo/ensemble variety. Two out of the three “competitions” are for large groups which don’t have much individual expression, and the one “competition” that is for small groups or solo is one I don’t remember much. So my experience definitely leans more towards the Sound! Euphonium portrayal of competitions than Your Lie in April. I think, especially for school, having this structure is important. It is important for school kids developing their skills to have this concrete goal and motivation to improve themselves to achieve the best they can, and the validation that comes with success or failure. That being said, outside of a school context and especially at the high level, I do think classical musical competitions is sort of a paradox and does stifle individual artistry, a la Your Lie in April. I guess it is due to the different contexts of the show, school vs professional, large group vs solo, etc.

Conclusion

As I mentioned in the introduction, there really isn’t a central thesis to this blogpost. This is just me musing on two shows about classical musical competitions and reflecting on my own experience. I guess if there is one, it is a synthesis of the two show’s themes, that competitions can provide motivation and validation, but at the high-level stifles musicality. As with most things, the effects of classical musical competitions is complicated and nuanced and definitely won’t be fully explored just from this blog post.

Hopefully you enjoyed this though. It was a sort of different style to my previous posts, but one that I liked. Variety is the spice of life after all. Yeah sorry about the three month lapse in blog posts this summer, things have been busy, but I do have a lot of ideas so be on the lookout for that! Thanks for reading as always!