Now what do you make
of this for a composer’s CV: Born in
Southern Japan. One of his first teachers
while a teenager had been a pupil of
Hindemith. On moving to Tokyo he met
and was taught by Qunihaco Hashimoto,
(a pupil of Egon Wellesz) who at that
time was writing much ‘patriotic’ music.
Hashimoto introduced Mayuzumi to Debussy,
Ravel, Stravinsky and in the light of
Wellesz some dodecaphonic music. During
the war, Mayuzumi having been interested
in pop music, met jazz and Latin-American
dance music head-on. He also got to
know the ‘doyen’ of the older school
of Japanese masters Akira Ifukube who
was attempting to bring Japanese traditional
melodies into the western orchestral
repertoire. In preparing this review
I also listened to Ifukube’s rather
ethnic Ballata Sinfonica of 1943
(BIS-CD-490) to see exactly where Mayuzumi’s
starting point might have been. I should
add that at the moment of writing I
have just (February 2006) heard of Ifukube’s
death aged 92.
After the war, now
in Paris, Mayuzumi got to know Peter
Schaffer’s experiments in the electronic
music field or as it was then called
‘Musique concrète’ and himself
wrote the first electronic Japanese
music. He was by now on a French government
sponsored scheme and came into contact
with Varèse and Messiaen. It
is not too surprising that amongst his
many achievements is a substantial corpus
of film music. Quite a CV!
This information is
available in the extensive booklet notes
by Morihude Katayama, however the notes
are a little restricted when it comes
to the music. For that you are advised
to investigate www.naxos.com/557693bk.
I did this but those notes give you
only a little more biographical detail
and no further musical detail.
What does the music
actually sound like? Depending on your
viewpoint and taste it can sound like
the whole lot mixed together - utterly
eclectic. My own feeling is that this
could well be the way forward in music
and will be for some years to come.
The only criterion is: ‘Is this good
music’. Here I have a bit of a problem.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with
the performances as far as I can tell,
being scoreless and with nothing to
judge against. The players seem on top
of the music’s often unusual demands
and we can surely expect that Takuo
Yuasa, who was born in Tokyo, has a
natural understanding of the composer’s
demands. There is nothing wrong with
the recording which is vivid and exciting.
So one has to say that the music is
given its best opportunity.
The Rumba Rhapsody
has a rather impressionist opening before
taking off into something more ‘Latin’
with typical percussion. I was even
reminded of Malcolm Arnold.
In the diptych, entitled
Symphonic Mood, Debussy often
seems close at hand especially in Movement
1; perhaps it’s the use of the pentatonic
scale which one associates with Eastern
music. In any case I hear more of Japan
in this piece than in any other. In
the second movement Vivo some
rather light-hearted film score comes
to mind, very colourfully orchestrated.
The Mandala Symphony,
also in two sections, is inspired by
the composer’s interest in Buddhism,
and is considerably more ‘modern’, unpredictable
and dissonant. Mayuzumi admits to using
serial technique here. This score is
more typical of a work dating from the
European 1960s. It expresses the kind
of pantheism which is the composer’s
aim. In the first part Buddha descends
to preach to man. In the second man
rises to seek after Buddha’s truth.
There are some very loud and powerfully
disturbing passages to be found along
the way.
The Bugaku ballet
music reminded me of Hiroshi Ohguri
(1918-1982) a contemporary of Mayuzumi’s
from Osaka. Its opening string glissandi
are more a reflection of the instrumental
grammar found in traditional ‘Noh’ theatre
and are also used by Ohguri in his Violin
Concerto. That this ballet is also entitled
Court Dance Music should therefore
be no surprise. These glissandi build
up in Part 1 - again this piece is a
diptych in form - and then by about
four minutes in, forms an impressive
vast wild landscape with Hollywood overtones.
One can hear modern day Japan somewhere
in this massive orchestration. Part
2 begins rather like a motley procession
of enraged soldiers faltering across
a water-colour landscape, before evoking
colourful local instruments with wailing
woodwind and low growling brass. Wonderful
stuff.
Whether all this coheres
into a style that is individual and
important I cannot at this point say.
This is however music with ‘character’
which surprises if not always pleases.
But then, ‘contemporary’ Japanese music
is still an area which I for one need
to know more about. The use of the orchestra
is intriguing and often exciting, the
melodic material varied and normally
memorable if sometimes derivative. Rhythmically
there are some foot-tapping moments
à la Copland.
All in all I would
say that it can do no harm to investigate
this composer who, when all of the music
is weighed up, has something to offer
all listeners.
Gary Higginson
see also review by
Kevin
Sutton and Rob
Barnett
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