Ifukube was born in Hokkaido into a
family with a long priestly history
in the Shinto religion. His school life
in Sapporo brought him into contact
through scores and records with the
music of Ravel, Stravinsky and de Falla.
These influences interacted with the
Ainu tradition.
Tapkaara is
a reference to the dance style of the
Ainu people indigenous to the north
Japanese island of Hokkaido. The 1954
symphony of that name is in three movements.
The first is a long and insistently
pulsing. It is substantially a battering
study in colour with a strong redolence
of Rimsky-Korsakov and especially of
the Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures from
an Exhibition. The gently lulling
central Adagio is charged with
a slowly dripping sorrow - almost Hovhaness
or Cowell in their Oriental mode but
softened and loose in focus. In the
final Vivace we return to a pulsating
insistence with brass adding thunderous
exclamation and the redolence of The
Rite of Spring. Ultimately these
three ‘pictures’ strike me as static
with a strong sense of colour but little
feeling of ineluctable progress.
Ritma Ostinata is
in one long movement for very active
piano with orchestra. The pealing attack
of solo and ensemble has many cross-references
including Grainger (Green Bushes
and Strathspey and Reel),
Godowsky (Java Suite) woven with
Ainu influences. Its thundered insistence
recalls the minimalist school but there
is variety too as in the angular stony
protest of 4:23 onwards - an episode
that grows into melodrama. Especially
attractive is the rocky impacting syncopation
at 11.23. Again this piece has little
sense of western-style progression but
again predicts certain aspects of the
minimalist school
Finally in Symphonic
Fantasia No. 1 there comes a work
spun from Ifukube's stage-Gothic music
for the multitudinous Japanese Godzilla
films. The pounding rhythmic cannonade
hardly ever lets up except to grind
with tense celluloid horror. We can
almost see the yawning chasms evoked
by cymbal and gong. Black deeds and
destruction are carried by coal-dark
trombones and scouring trumpets. Towards
the end a sort of all-purpose jollity
skips and hiccups along.
It is so valuable that
this music has been recorded but this
is music of fascination rather than
offering anything compelling.
Rob Barnett
Ekaterina Saranceva (piano) 
