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Japanese Composers
This is a list of Japanese composers, ordered by birth date. Not true actually: * Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443) * Yatsuhashi Kengyo (1614–1685) * Uragami Gyokudō (1745-1820) * Hiromori Hayashi (1831–1896) * Nakao Tozan (1876-1956) Shōka, Lied, Children's song * Isawa Shūji (1851-1917) * Sakunosuke Koyama (1864-1927) * Teiichi Okano (1878-1941) * Rentarō Taki (1879–1903) * Tadashi Yanada (1883–1959) * Nagayo Motoori (1885-1945) * Kōsaku Yamada (1886–1965) * Shinpei Nakayama (1887-1952) * Ryūtarō Hirota (1892-1952) * Tamezō Narita (1893-1945) * Kan'ichi Shimofusa (1898-1962) * Yūji Koseki (1909-1989) * Yoshinao Nakada (1923-2000) Classical and Contemporary Others * Koga Masao (1904-1978) * Masaru Sato (1928-1999) * Shunsuke Kikuchi (1931-2021), 20th-21st-century music producer and BGM composer * Koichi Sugiyama (1931-2021) * Isao Tomita (1932-2016) * Takeo Watanabe (1933-1989) * Yasuo Kuwahara (1946–2003) * Joe Hisaishi (born 1950), 20th- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Composers
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Definition The term is descended from Latin, ''compōnō''; literally "one who puts together". The earliest use of the term in a musical context given by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is from Thomas Morley's 1597 ''A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music'', where he says "Some wil be good descanters ..and yet wil be but bad composers". 'Composer' is a loose term that generally refers to any person who writes music. More specifically, it is often used to denote people who are composers by occupation, or those who in the tradition of Western classical music. Writers of exclusively or primarily songs may be called composers, but since the 20th century the terms 'songwriter' or ' singer-songwriter' are more often used, particularl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yūji Koseki
was a Japanese ''ryūkōka'', '' gunka'', march, fight song and film score composer. His real name was also Yūji Koseki, but its kanji was 古關 勇治. Koseki entered Nippon Columbia in 1930. He composed Hanshin Tigers' song "Rokko Oroshi" in 1936. His famous military song titled was released in 1937. Famous songs composed by him included "The Bells of Nagasaki" and "Mothra's song". Ichiro Fujiyama sang "The Bells of Nagasaki" in 1949. "Mothra's song", sung by The Peanuts, was used in the 1961 movie ''Mothra''. ''"Olympic March"'' in 1964. He also arranged ''"Olympic Hymn"'' for Orchestra. Filmography Music for films: * '' Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors'' (1945) * '' Kane no naru oka: Dai san hen, kuro no maki'' (1949) * ''Odoroki ikka'' (おどろき一家) (1949) * ''The Bells of Nagasaki'' (1950) * '' A Mother's Love'' (1950) * ''Mothra'' (1961) See also *''Yell (TV series) is a Japanese television drama series and the 102nd Asadora series, following '' Scarlet''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koichi Sugiyama
was a Japanese composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He was best known for composing the music for the '' Dragon Quest'' franchise, along with several other video games, anime, film, and television shows. Classically trained, Sugiyama was considered a major inspiration for other Japanese game music composers and was active from the 1960s until his death from septic shock in 2021. Sugiyama was also a council member of the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers, and Publishers (JASRAC), board member of the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, and honorary chairman of the Japanese Backgammon Society. Prior to his death, he was given the Order of the Rising Sun and was named a Person of Cultural Merit by the Japanese government. He also engaged in politics and activism, such as the promotion of Japanese nationalism and the denial of Japanese war crimes. Career Early life and television career Sugiyama was born in Tokyo, Japan, on April 11, 1931. While ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shunsuke Kikuchi
was a Japanese composer who was active from the early 1960s until 2017. He specialized in incidental music for media such as television and film. Kikuchi was regarded as one of Japan's most highly demanded film and TV composers, working principally on ''tokusatsu'' and anime productions, as well as violent action films, ''jidaigeki'', and television dramas. Early life and education Kikuchi was born on 1 November 1931 in the city of Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture. He graduated from Aomori Prefectural Hirosaki Technical High School, specializing in mechanics. Shunsuke then attended the Nihon University College of Art. Career After graduating from the Nihon University College of Art, he made his debut composing for the 1961 film . '' The Tō-Ō Nippō Press'' wrote that the contrast between the heroic opening theme and the melancholic ballad ending theme that Kikuchi composed for the 1969 ''Tiger Mask'' anime, "changed Japanese anime music." Kikuchi composed the song , sung by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masaru Sato
(sometimes transliterated Satoh) was a Japanese composer of film scores. Following the 1955 death of Fumio Hayasaka, whom Sato studied under, Sato was the composer of Akira Kurosawa's films for the next 10 years. He was nominated for Best Music at the 15th Japan Academy Prize in 1992. In 1999, the Japanese government decorated Sato with the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette for his contributions to the arts. Career He was born in Rumoi, Hokkaido, and raised in Sapporo. While studying at the National Music Academy, Sato came under the influence of Fumio Hayasaka, Akira Kurosawa's regular composer for his earlier films. He became a pupil of Hayasaka's, studying film scoring with him at Toho Studios, and working on the orchestration of ''Seven Samurai'' (1954). When the older composer died suddenly in 1955, leaving the scores to Kenji Mizoguchi's '' New Tales of the Taira Clan'', and Kurosawa's '' I Live in Fear'' incomplete, Toho assigned Sato to finish th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koga Masao
was a Japanese composer, mandolinist, and guitarist of the Shōwa era who was dubbed "Japan's Irving Berlin" by Universal Press Syndicate. His melancholy style, based upon Nakayama Shimpei's '' yonanuki'' scale, was popularly known in Japan as . He was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure (Fourth Class) and the People's Honor Award for his contributions to Japanese music. Life Koga was born in 1904 in the village of Taguchi (today part of the city Ōkawa) in the Mizuma District of Fukuoka Prefecture; he was the sixth of eight children. In 1910, Koga's father, Kitarō, died. As a result, Koga, his mother, older sister, and younger brother moved to Korea in 1912, where his eldest brother had migrated for work. His family first traveled to Incheon, before settling in Keijo (today part of Seoul). During this period, Koga was gifted a ''taishōgoto'' from his cousin; then later, while enrolled at the Keijō Good Neighbor Trade School, a mandolin from an older brother ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleiades Dances
{{italic title The ''Pleiades Dances'' are a series of solo piano pieces written by contemporary Japanese composer Takashi Yoshimatsu. They are, in the words of the composer, "a newly conceived set of preludes for the modern piano which takes its material from the seven colours of the rainbow, the seven pitches of church modes, and seven metrical units ranging from three to nine beats." Currently ranging from I to IX, these works were written between 1986 and 2001. Each set of Pleiades Dances contains 7 movements, which "are not placed in the order in which they appear in the work for any specific structural or contextual reasons, nor should too much be read into the curious titles e gavethem." Yoshimatsu, in the preface to these works, encourages free interpretation of these pieces "including tempo, dynamics and frequency of repetition," and suggests that "It may also be enjoyable to play along with the rhythm by a small percussion instrument like the triangle or the tambourine. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano Concerto (Yashiro)
The Piano Concerto is the only piano concerto composed by the Japanese composer Akio Yashiro. The work was composed between 1964 and 1966 from a commission by NHK (the Japan Broadcasting Corporation) for National Art Performance of Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. He won 16th Otaka prize with this concerto. On July 10 and 11, 1967, the work was recorded for its premier broadcasting at NHK broadcasting centre and the recording was on air on November 5. This premier recording was performed by pianist Hiroko Nakamura accompanied by NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hiroshi Wakasugi. The first public performance was on November 29, 3 weeks later from broadcasting, at the extra concert of NHK symphony orchestra with conductor Tadashi Mori and the same pianist. This work requires two flutes, a piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets (second player also uses bass clarinet), two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, a tuba, timpani, a vibraphone, two percus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nagauta Symphony
''The Nagauta Symphony'' is a symphony in one movement composed in 1934 by Japanese composer Kosaku Yamada. Description Kosaku Yamada was the first major Japanese composer to study the European tradition, and the first to write in the symphonic and operatic forms. He was responsible for introducing Japanese audiences to much of the European orchestral tradition through his conducting. In his compositions, Yamada had been working to combine European traditions with Japanese classical music since at least 1921, when he composed ''Inno Meiji'' which combined Japanese and western instruments. Composed in 1934, the ''Nagauta Symphony'' represented the culmination of this work. For this work, Yamada composed music for the western orchestra which is used to counterpoint a classical ''nagauta'', the music which accompanies the ''kabuki''.{{cite web , url=http://www.recordsinternational.com/cd.php?cd=09J003, title=KÓSÇAK YAMADA (1886-1965): Nagauta Symphony “Tsurukame”, Sinfonia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
November Steps
is a musical composition by the Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu, for the traditional Japanese musical instruments, '' shakuhachi'' and '' biwa'', and western orchestra. The work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic on the occasion of its 125th anniversary, and premiered in November 1967 by the orchestra under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. Background In his early career, Takemitsu had been reluctant to make use of traditional Japanese music in his compositions, as he said this music "always recalled the bitter memories of war".Takemitsu, Tōru, "Contemporary Music in Japan", '' Perspectives of New Music'', vol. 27, no. 2, (Summer 1989), 3. He began experimenting with traditional Japanese instruments in the early 1960s, using them in the soundtrack to Masaki Kobayashi's 1962 film, ''Harakiri''. Other film soundtracks in which Takemitsu used traditional instruments include Shinoda's '' Assassination'' and Masaki Kobayashi's ''Kwaidan'' (both 1964). Takemitsu's first co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunkan Kōshinkyoku
The is a Japanese march composed in 1897 by Tōkichi Setoguchi. It was the official march of the Imperial Japanese Navy and is the official march of its successor, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). In Japan, the march is also commonly referred to as the . History The march, which sets to music lyrics by Hiraku Toriyama, was originally composed in B-flat major, but was transposed to F-major in the Taishō era in order to make it more manageable for men's voices. The third part of the song contains the lyrics of '' Umi Yukaba''. Three years after its composition, Setoguchi made an instrumental arrangement of the song for the Imperial Japanese Navy Band where he served as its bandleader. The march was subsequently adopted as the Imperial Japanese Navy's official march. The Warship March was performed in Europe during the Imperial Japanese Navy Band's tour of Europe in 1907. When under the Nipponophone label Japan produced its first gramophone records in 1910, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano Concerto No
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musical keyboard, keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. It was invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700. Description The word "piano" is a shortened form of ''pianoforte'', the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from ''clavicembalo col piano e forte'' (key cimbalom with quiet and loud)Pollens (1995, 238) and ''fortepiano''. The Italian musical terms ''piano'' and ''forte'' indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume (i.e., loudness) produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
