Berichte/Features

Februar / März 2013

Obscure Tape Music from Japan

01. Joji Yuasa / Aoi no Ue / 1961 / 29:59
02. Joji Yuasa / My Blue Sky / (No. 1) / 1075 / 15:57
03. Toshi Ichiyanagi / Music for Tinguely/ 1963 / 10:01

01. Joji Yuasa / Aoi no Ue / 1961 / 29:59
'Aoi no Ue' is a noh-play composed by Ze-Ami in the 15th century, based on the famous 'Tales of Genji' written by Murasaki Shikibu in the 11th century. Prince Genji, married at a young age to Lady Aoi takes the young widow Lady Rokujo as a mistress. Before her husband's death, she had been next in line to become empress. Yet the death of the crown prince has left her powerless. When Prionce Genji leaves her for a younger mistress, Lady Aoi humiliates her in public. After finding out that Aoi is pregnant, Rokujo becomes so enraged her living spirit leaves her body and possesses Lady Aoi, which leads to Aoi's death.

"The text is composed by me keeping the original words. And it was sung in the style of Noh-chant by three brothers of Noh-actors, Kanze Hiedo, Hisao and Shigeo. This work is mainly based on metamorphosed sounds of Noh-chant. The other sounds are concrete such as bird songs, water drops, glasses, warped sounds of vibraphone, some generated electronic sounds and some other sounds.
These sounds are processed, metamorphosed through all the possible electronic techniques available at the time. And finally mixed and assembled on stereophonic tape. The piece took almost half a year to complete. I worked with the excellent sound engineer Zyunoske Okuyama at the Sogetsu Art Center and we usually worked through all night." (Joji Yuasa)

02. Joji Yuasa / My Blue Sky / (No. 1) / 1075 / 15:57
"My Blue Sky (No.1) is a special electronic work for me, for most of my other works im this field are based on white noise, whereas this pice (as the only one) is using generated sounds. In this work, I use only clicks, beats and pulses. (...)
I had imagined a movement of invisible energy generated in space and the infinite depth of space. Because When I look into the Blue Sky, it makes me feel movements of invisible energy. In this sense it might be said that there is a unity of man and the universe, or absolute solitude in Zen philosophy. THis work is carefully arranged in space, not only stereonphonically but also by means of using the foreground and the background of the sound space." (Joji Yuasa)

03. Toshi Ichiyanagi / Music for Tinguely/ 1963 / 10:01
"I believe it was 1963 when well known kinetic sculptor Jean Tinguely first visited Japan to exhibit his works at Minami Gallery, which at the time was the center of new art in Tokyo. I was looking forward to this exhibition because I knew his self-destroying piano performance ("Hommage to New York") which took place at Moma's garden in New York in 1960.
After arriving in Tokyo, Tinguely started searching for scrap every day. In those days we could still find broken fragments of machines here and there in Tokyo. His exhibition consisted of all new works. In all of his works motors were installed and though they were made of scrap some gave poetic images whereas others were noise making machineries with violent actions. Scrap machineries were reborn as thythmic sculptures and enchanted gallery visitors.
After having seen the show, I noticed that he was very careful about the sound the movement of the sculpture generated. I was fascinated and not able to stop my interest to make music out of those sculpture sounds. So I asked both Tinguely and the Minami Gallery for permission to use thesesounds. Tinguely was an amiable person. He accepted my proposal and became interested in my composition. And one of the compositions made of Tinguely's kinetic sculpture sound is this "Music for Tinguely". The piece was composed at the studio of Sogetsu Art Center which at this time was most cooperative place for new music." (Toshi Ichiyanagi)

Born in 1929 in Koriyama, Japan, Joji Yuasa is a self-taught composer. He first became interested in music in his boyhood. Yuasa made the acquaintance of Toru Takemitsu (composer), Kuniharu Akiyama (musicologist) and others while a pre-medical student at Keio University in Tokyo. He joined them in forming the `Jikken-kobo' (Experimental Workshop) in 1952, and turned to devote himself to music. Since then, Yuasa has been actively engaged in a wide range of musical composition, including orchestral, choral and chamber music, music for theatre, and intermedia, electronic and computer music. Yuasa has won numerous commissions for his works from such institutions as the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Saarland Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Canada Council, Suntory Music Foundation, IRCAM and National Endowment for the Arts of the U.S.A., etc.
Yuasa has received a number of scholarships at home and abroad: Japan Society Fellowship (1968-69), Composer in Residence at the Center for Music Experiment UCSD (1976), Berlin Artist Program by DAAD (1976-77), the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music in Sydney (1980), the University of Toronto (1981) and IRCAM (1987), etc.
As a guest composer and lecturer, Yuasa has contributed to the Festival of the Arts of This Century in Hawaii (1970), New Music Concerts in Toronto (1980), Asian Composers League in Hong Kong (1981), concert tour for Contemporary Music Network by British Arts Council (1981), Asia Pacific Festival in New Zealand (1984), Composers Workshop in Amsterdam (1984), Darmstadt Summer Course for Contemporary Music (1988), Lerchenborg Music Tage (1986, 1988), Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo (1990), and Music of Japan Today: Tradition and Innovation (Hamilton College, NY - 1992), etc.
From 1981 through 1994 Yuasa was actively engaged in music research and education at the University of California, San Diego (currently a professor emeritus). He has also been a guest professor at Tokyo College of Music since 1981 and a professor for the postgraduate course of the College of Arts at Nihon University since 1993.

Toshi Ichiyanagi was born on 1933 in Kobe, Japan. He studied composition with Kishio Hirao and John Cage, and piano with Chieko Hara, Barnhard Weiser and Beveridge Webster. After attending the Julliard School of Music and the New School for Social Research in New York between 1954-60, he returned to Japan in 1961, and introduced many new musical concepts, including Cage's idea of indeterminacy, exerting a strong influence on the direction of Japanese contemporary music.
As one of the leading composers in Japan, Ichiyanagi has composed in most genres of music: operas, orchestral, chamber and instrumental works. Among his major works are his Violin Concerto "Circulating Scenery" (1983), Piano Concerto No.2 "Winter Portrait" (1987) and Opera "Momo" (1995), based on a novel by Michael Ende. While composing these large-scale pieces, he also became known for his compositions using Japanese traditional instruments such as sho and gagaku ensemble. Many of them have been performed throughout the world, especially by the Tokyo International Music Ensemble - an organization where he serves as Artistic Director.
Ichiyanagi won the Elizabeth A. Coolidge Prize (1954) and the Serge Koussevitzky Prize (1956) during his studies in New York. He was also a member of Fluxus. Since his return to Japan, he has received numerous awards including the prestigious Nakajima Kenzo Award (1984), the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Government (1985) and Grand Prix of the Kyoto Music Award (1989). In 1990, he was awarded the Otaka Prize for the fourth time, for his unique symphony "Berlin Renshi".
His recent works include "Coexistence" for ondes martenot and orchestra (1996), Symphony No.5 "Time Perspective"(1997), "Coexistence" for orchestra (1997) and "Mirage" for shakuhachi and piano (1998).

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