guitar music by japanese composers

GUITAR MUSIC BY JAPANESE COMPOSERS
BY
DANIEL QUINN
Submitted to the faculty of the
School of Music in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree,
Doctor of Music
Indiana University
May 2003
ii
Preface
The classical guitar is rarely thought of as a Japanese instrument. Yet, the
instrument has had an active life in Japan since Emperor Meiji opened his
country to the West over a hundred years ago. The guitar and Western music in
Japan had a slow start thwarted by the exclusion from the academic environment
of universities. Since World War II, however, there has been an enormous
growth in the number of guitar performers, societies and clubs, teachers,
competitions, makers, and music publishers.
Until I made my first trip to Japan in 1997 I was only aware of the guitar
works by Takemitsu and the famous Sakura variations. During this trip I became
aware of the enormous amount of guitar music by many excellent composers in
Japan. In the fall of 1998 I returned to Japan for three months to do a more
thorough research and uncover as many guitar works as I could find. I returned
with several hundred works that I had never heard of and a new interest in
bringing these works to light in the U.S.
This document will discuss the introduction and reintroduction of the
guitar into Japan. It will include a discussion of the development of music
composed for the guitar from the Meiji restoration through the pre-war era, then
from the post-war period up to the present day. I will discuss the music in a
general way with a focus on key works that define the period and the most
salient features of these works.
The Appendix at the end of this document lists over seven hundred works
by Japanese composers that use guitar. While collecting these works I realized
that there was a need to organize all of them into a historical account of the
publishers and composers that were responsible for this music. This list focuses
iii
on works written for the nylon string acoustic instrument in staff notation,
although several works for electric guitar are also listed in the appendix. Song
arrangements are not included nor are transcriptions or arrangements from other
instruments since I want to focus on works written specifically for the guitar.
iv
Acknowledgements
There are so many people to thank for their help with my research. Most
important are my wife Kei, and daughters Rita and Sara who put up with all the
time it took for me to write this. My mother –in-law Hiroko Matsui, who housed
us and made sure I could travel around Japan to find music. In Japan I have to
thank Keigo Fujii who told us about the Nakano collection in Kyoto and
introduced me to Jun Sugawara at Gendai Guitar, without these connections this
research would have never happened. Sugawara donated many scores and has
shown me their entire collection of old Gendai Magazines. Robert Coldwell
whose research on the guitar in Japan gave me a background to make my
research possible. Thanks to Kimiko Shimbo at the Japan Federation of
Composers for putting me in contact with many of the composers in my
research. The president of Casa de la Guitarra Takehiko Aoyagui, donated all of
that company’s publications of Japanese works to the Indiana University music
library at my request. Norio Sato who was tremendously kind and invited me to
look at many of his own scores at his home.
At Indiana I want to thank my committee Susan McDonald, Carmen
Tellez, and Ernesto Bitetti, and especially Jeff Magee, who had to read the really
bad rough drafts of this. Thanks to Tsuyoshi and Harue Tsutsumi for finding
some of the catalogues that I could not. The two people who kept me in odd jobs
while I worked my way through college Larry Stoute, and Steve Rolfe. Special
thanks to my brothers, sisters, and parents, who remained at my side through all
the challenges of college life.
v
Table of Contents
Preface …………………………………………………………………………………...ii
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………....iv
Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………...vi
Examples and Figures………………………………………………………………...vii
1. The Early Period of the Guitar in Japan (1543-1640):
Evidence of the Lute and Vihuela………………………………………………...1
Nanban Art…………………………………………………………………………..5
Printed music in Japan……………………………………………………………...8
Musical differences……………………………………………………………….…9
Embassy to Rome…………………………………………………………………..10
End of the Early Christian Period………………………………………………...12
2. The Return of the guitar in Meiji Japan (1868-1912)………………………….15
Western Music Education and Early Compositional Styles…………………...19
The Return of the Classical Guitar………………………………………………..26
Morishige Takei (1890-1949)………………………………………………………29
Yoshie Okawara (1903 -1935)……………………………………………………..35
Takayuki Oguri (1909-1944) ……………………………………………………...38
3. Post war Music 1945 through the 1950’s ……………………………………….45
4. 1960 through 1980 ………………………………………………………………….55
Casa de la Guitarra Publications …………………………………………….…...55
Zen-on……………………………………………………………………………….79
Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) ……………………………………………………...91
5. 1980’s to 2000 - the Present State of Guitar Music in Japan………………...104
The Japan Federation of Composers……………………………………………104
Gendai Guitar……………………………………………………………………..115
Summary………………………………………………………………………………121
Appendix: Guitar Works by Japanese Composers………………………………124
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………….157
vi
Musical Examples
2.1 Morishige Takei, The Floating Cloud, mm 1-4……………………………………32
2.2 Morishige Takei, Le Crab Ermite, mm 1-12……………………………………….32
2.3 Yoshie Okawara, Matsumushi-Flower, mm 1-5...………………………………...36
2.4 Yoshie Okawara, Matsumushi-Flower, mm 19-31………………………………..36
2.5 Yoshie Okawara, Dance of Oriental Popy, mm 24-29…………………………….37
2.6 Yoshie Okawara, Bolero Amaryllis, mm 1-8……………………………………...37
2.7 Takayuki Oguri, Doraji-Taryung, mm 1-16………………………………………39
2.8 Takayuki Oguri, Doraji-Taryung, mm 21-29……………………………………..40
2.9 Takayuki Oguri, Doraji-Taryung, mm 56-57……………………………………..40
2.10 Takayuki Oguri, Spinning Song, mm 10-13……………………………………..41
2.11 Takayuki Oguri, Preludio para Guitarra sobre una Japanese Anticuada,
mm 1-6…………………………………………………………………………………..42
2.12 Seiichi Suzuki, Sakura Variations, mm 11-18…..……………………………….43
3.1 Kojiro Kobune, Essey, mm 1-12 …………………………………………………..47
3.2 Takeo Saito, Poème, mm 1-8……………………………………………………….47
3.3 Yoritsune Matsudaira, Katsura, VII, Ama no hashidate, 1-6……………………..50
3.4 Toshiro Mayuzumi, Microcosmos, I, mm 1-13…………………………………...52
3.5 Toshiro Mayuzumi, Microcosmos, V, mm………………………………………..53
4.1 Hikaru Hayashi, Etude for Two Guitars, mm 1-15……………………………….57
4.2 Tsuyoshi Otai, Sho, mm 1-6……………………………………………………….59
4.3 Takeo Noro, Composition II, lines 1-3……………………………………………..61
4.4 Takeo Noro, Impromptu pour 2 Violins et Guitare, lines 1-2……………………..63
4.5 Kenjiro Ezaki, Music for Guitar and Electronic Sound, mm 1-5 ...……………….66
4.6 Kenjiro Ezaki, Contension for Female Voice and Guitar, page 5 ...……………….68
4.7 Kenjiro Ezaki, Nodule, mm 1-4 ...…………………………………………………69
4.8 Maki Ishii, Fünf Elemente für gitarre und sechs spieler, page 3-4 …………….70-71
4.9 Mao Yamagishi, Ki and Two Ritsu, page 3 lines 3-5……………………………..72
4.10 Ryo Noda, Nagare, page 1 lines 1-3, page 3……………………………………73
4.11 Kazuko Hara, Preludio, Aria et Toccata, Preludio mm 1-15…………………….75
4.12 Kazuko Hara, Preludio, Aria et Toccata, Aria, mm 1-9………………………….76
4.13 Teruyuki Noda, Intermezzo, mm 1-7, and mm 99-106…………………………77
4.14 Teiho Matsumoto, Nocturn, mm 1-4…………………………………………….78
vii
4.15 Akira Ifukube, Kugoka, Aria concertata di Kugo-Arpa, mm 1-5………………...82
4.16 Akira Ifukube, Kugoka, Aria concertata di Kugo-Arpa, mm 15-22……………...83
4.17 Yasuhiko Tsukamoto, Epithalamium, mm 1-8, mm 39-48, and mm 78-90
………………………………………………………………………………………..85-86
4.18 Akira Miyoshi, Epitase, page 1 lines 1-3, and page 3 line……………………..88
4.19 Akira Miyoshi, Epitase, page 3 line 7……………………………………………89
4.20 Yuji Takahashi, Metatheses 2, mm 1-4, and mm 68-70…………………………91
4.21 Toru Takemitsu, Ring, section O, t-guitar circle ………………………………93
4.22 Toru Takemitsu, Ring, section G, mm 12-17 ……………………………….….94
4.23 Toru Takemitsu, Valeria, page 4 first system…………………………………..95
4.24 Toru Takemitsu, Valeria, page 1 first system…………………………………..96
4.25 J.S. Bach, St. Matthew Passion, O haupt voll blut und Wunden, page 214
mm 1-4 ………………………………………………………………………………….97
4.26 Toru Takemitsu, Folios, third movement, mm 25-28………………………….97
4.27 Toru Takemitsu, Folios, first movement, lines 1-2……………………………..98
4.28 Toru Takemitsu, Toward the Sea, third movement, page 14, line 4…………..99
4.29 Toru Takemitsu, Toward the Sea, second movement, page 7, lines 1-2……..100
4.30 Toru Takemitsu, All in Twilight, first movement, mm 1-12………………...101
4.31 Toru Takemitsu, All in Twilight, second movement, mm 1-13…………….102
5.1 Mieko Shiomi, As it were Floating Granuels, no. 6 c-group, measures 1-5…...105
5.2 Yoko Kurimoto, June end Songs, michiyuki measures 30 –39……………….…107
5.3 Masao Homma, For Guitar, page 1 lines 1-3, page 4 lines 3 –4, and page 8 lines
3 –5………………………………………………………………………………...109-110
5.4 Tohru Aki, Noon City Suite, first movement mm 1-10………………………...113
5.5 Tohru Aki, Noon City Suite, second movement mm 1-3……………………....114
5.6 Tohru Aki, Noon City Suite, third movement mm 1-7………………………...114
5.7 Takashi Yoshimatus, Wind Color Vector, mm 1-6 ……………………………..117
5.8 Takashi Yoshimatsu, Water Color Scalor, mm 1-6 ………………………….….118
5.9 Hirokazu Sato, Sonatine no. 2, first movement mm 1- 7………………………119
5.10 Hirokazu Sato, Sonatine no. 2, second movement mm 9-20…………………120
viii
Figures
1 Nobukata, Woman Playing Guitar, painting, c1590…………………………………7
2 Woman playing Vihuela painting from sixteenth century…………………………..8
3 Printed music from sixteenth century Japan………………………………………..9
4 Ethiopian Minstrels on board Perry’s ships at Nagasaki 1856…………………..17
5 Fourth-frame chords devised by Koizumi Fumio………………………………...21
6 Malms four basic scale types………………………………………………………..23
7 Ryo and Ritsu Scales…………………………………………………………………49
8 Sho player……………………………………………………………………………..58
9 Sho harmonies ……………………………………………………………………….58
10 Ezaki; stage set up for Music for Guitar and Electronic Sound …….………….…65
11 Kugo Harp ………………………………………………………………………….81
12 Tunning for Metatheses2 …………………………………………………….……..90
13 Harmonic unit that Valeria is based on …………………………………………..95
14 SEA motive………………………………………………………………………….99
15 Vocalists positions for round conference……………………………………….105
16 Gendai Guitar magazine cover, and event and concert guide December
2001…………………………………………………………………………………….116
ix
Chapter One
The Early Period of the Guitar in Japan (1543-1640): Evidence of the Lute and
Vihuela
The guitar was brought to Japan through its early contacts with
Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries. However, it took several wars and
expansions of trade before this Western instrument became a permanent means
of music making for this mysterious island nation.
During the middle ages Islamic rule had controlled much of Southern
Europe and Northern Africa. It was during this period that the guitarra latine
began to take the form that we recognize today as the guitar. The guitarra latine
was a four-course instrument that was used primarily for strumming chords. Its
name distinguished this instrument from the guitarra morisca, or Moorish guitar.1
The Moorish guitar was brought from Africa with the Islamic invasion. This
instrument was used primarily as a melodic instrument plucked note by note.2
The guitarra morisca, also known as the ud or lute, was the instrument that
became extremely popular in Northern Europe until around 1800 when it was
overshadowed by the nineteenth century guitar and fell out of fashion.3
In 1249 the Portuguese finally managed to expel the Moorish leaders and
over the next century eventually gained independence from Spain. Spain also
gained its independence from the Moors in 1492. By 1500 the Spanish rebelled
1
Harvey Turnbull, “Guitar,” in Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan, 1980).
2
Frederic V. Grunfeld, The Art and Times of The Guitar: An Illustrated History of
Guitars and Guitarists (London: Macmillian Company, 1977), 11.
3
Diana Poulton, “Lute,” in Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians (London: Macmillan, 1980).
1
against Islamic culture and created a new plucked instrument, the vihuela.4 This
new instrument was used to play the same music as lute, with punteado
technique. However, the vihuela now used a body with incurved sides that was
more common with the guitarra latine. The vihuela is thought of as the earliest
instrument that today we call the classical guitar.
By 1415 the Portuguese had decided to take the war against the Moors to
their doors and invaded Ceuta on the Northern coast of Africa. Then the
Portuguese began an expansionist policy into South Africa in search of gold.
Later in the fifteenth century they decided to sail to India in an attempt to take
over the spice trade that had been monopolized by Islamic traders. The
Portuguese also helped to spread Christianity to all of the non-Christian lands to
which they traveled. By 1498 the Portuguese had established spice trade on the
west coast of India. In 1510 Goa had been captured and a commercial and
military base had been established. This port would remain the center of
Portuguese trade in Asia for the next four hundred years. The Portuguese next
built an embassy in Malacca to establish trade with China. In 1543 the first ships,
since Marco Polo, reached Japan when they were blown off course while
traveling up the coast of China. When the ship returned to China the news of the
discovery of a new land created excitement and soon after that several other
ships made the trip to Japan. In 1549 Saint Francis Xavier traveled to Japan to
bring Christianity to the Japanese. This was the beginning of the first century of
4
Diana Poulton and Antonio Corona Alcalde, “Vihuela,” in Stanley Sadie, ed.,
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan, 1980).
2
contacts with the Western world and marks the first wave of Western cultural
influence.5
The Jesuits and Portuguese came to Japan at the end of a long and
devastating war that destroyed Kyoto, which was the capital of Japan. The
Imperial family essentially had lost all power over Japan and was living in exile.
Powerful clans had taken control and were the acting rulers. The three successive
rulers during the early Christian period in Japan were Oda Nobunaga (1534-82),
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98), and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616). Decisions to
open ports for trade with the Portuguese lay in the hands of these three men. The
Jesuits and later Dominican friars were tolerated mostly as a means of keeping
the trade with China and the West. When the Portuguese first arrived in Japan
there had been a ban on trade with China due to the Japanese pirates that had
wrecked trade between the two countries. The Portuguese, with their enormous
ships, were able to open trade between the two countries. Japan imported silk
and gold in exchange for silver.6 The port of Nagasaki gradually was adopted as
the official site of trade with Macao and also became a settlement for foreigners.
By 1579 there were an estimated four hundred houses built in the Nagasaki
settlement.7
The Jesuits were a Roman Catholic religious order of priests and brothers
that formed around Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556). Ritualized chanting or recitation
of liturgy was not required so that the members could go out and minister to the
people. In 1548 a new direction came about with the formation of the first Jesuit
5
Michael S.J. Cooper, The Southern Barbarians: the first Europeans in Japan (Tokyo,
Japan: Kodansha International Ltd., 1971), 20 -24.
6
Ibid., 49.
7
Ibid., 51.
3
college in Sicily. By 1560 education became the primary goal of the Jesuits.
Because of this change, the teaching of musical instruments, which had been
banned, was now accepted as a means of reaching more students. In 1566 Jerome
Nadal, the principal assistant to the Jesuit general in Rome, set out instructions
for the use of polyphony in the ordinary of the mass. By the late sixteenth
century Nadal’s instructions became the rule.8
Saint Francis Xavier wrote about his first arrival in Japan. According to
Xavier, the Japanese were very curious about the strangers. The Japanese were
also fascinated by the beauty and dignity of the Christian liturgy and the music
and chant that came along with it. Christian music seems to have reached many
people and was some of the first music that was available to the general public.
The first complete translation of the Roman mass into Japanese was in 1553.
Before this period of Christian invasion there were several different types
of music in Japan. Gagaku, the music of the imperial court, came to Japan with
sailors from Korea. However gagaku was never heard by or performed for the
general public. Music in Japan was restricted to persons who were highly trained
and specialized in one type of music. Gagaku was strictly for the aristocracy and
performed by court musicians, Buddhist music was sung only by the clergy, and
mosobiwa, a solo singing style with biwa accompaniment, was the property of
state protected guilds of blind musicians. Several of these forms were passed on
in secrecy within families of musicians. Western music was not prohibited by
any of the social structures, as were these other musical forms. Eta HarichSchneider said, “By 1580 the basic elements of Western music were familiar to
8
T. Frank Kennedy,“Jesuits,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,,
2nd ed., edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillian, 2001)
4
one-fifth of the entire population of Japan.”9 Christian music was the first formal
music that was heard and performed by the masses, which may be why the
Christians had so much success with their music.10 In 1551 Xavier gave several
rare gifts to Ouchi no Yoshitaka, the resident daimyo (feudal lord) in Yamaguchi,
including the first keyboard instrument, possibly a harpsichord or clavichord.11
During this second visit to Yamaguchi, Xavier baptized a young half-blind
itinerant musician who played heike-biwa. The twenty-five year old minstrel
was given the name Lourenço, and later accepted as a lay minister. Irmão
Lourenço (or brother Lourenço) used both the biwa and the vihuela to spread the
gospel until his death in 1592. He was a master of traditional Japanese music but
seems to have favored Western music.12 Lourenço was an important figure in the
propagation of Christianity. He had a very persuasive personality that led to the
conversion of many Japanese. In the case of Irmão Lourenço, who was a member
of the guild of blind biwa performers, performance on vihuela may have freed
him from the expectations of biwa performance practice.
By 1582 there were about one hundred and fifty thousand converts in
Japan. The two hundred Christian churches in Japan were all combined with
elementary schools where music was a compulsory subject.13 The teaching of
European neumes is believed to have started at this time. Before this music was
taught only by rote.14 Two seminaries were also constructed in Arima and
9
Ibid.
Eta Harich-Schneider, A History of Japanese Music (London: Oxford University
Press, 1973), 446-447.
11
Ibid., 448.
12
Ibid., 458.
13
Ibid., 461.
14
Ibid., 462.
10
5
Nagasaki, where, after the completion of elementary courses, students received
studies in Latin, Japanese calligraphy and literature, and Western music.
Nanban Art
Musical instruments that were brought from Europe included the lute and
vihuela. In 1580 father Organtino requested that makers of musical instruments
be sent to Japan. Possibly the lute and vihuela were constructed in Japan, but it is
not known. The name “viola” was used to describe the vihuela and was clearly
different from the viola de arco and viola da braccio. Evidence of the lute and
vihuela appear in several paintings by Japanese artists. Figure 1 is an example of
nanban art, produced by Japanese artists in Western style, often using Western
paintings for examples to copy.
Figure 1 shows a woman playing a vihuela type of instrument. The
instrument in this figure is waisted in the upper and lower mid-section of the
body. Its shape reveals its links to the guitar family as opposed to the lute with
its oval-shaped body. The incurved sides appear to be separate constructs from
the longer curved piece of wood around the bottom of the instrument. This is
different from the rounded Spanish vihuela we come to see at this time. This
instrument shares the same highly ornamented rose that fills the sound hole as
would be found in the lute. The number of strings is not clear from this picture.
While the number of tuning pegs appears to be seven, the number of strings at
the bridge clearly shows four double courses. Four double courses may reveal an
instrument that is also closer to the four-course guitar that was at its height of
popularity in Europe at this time. The woman playing the instrument however,
6
is plucking the strings with her fingers and not with a plectrum device. Hence
she can be presumed to be playing melodic textures rather than strummed
chordal accompaniments as would have been expected from the four-course
instrument.
Figure 1. Woman Playing the Guitar. By the artist Nobukata c1590. Europeans
playing musical instruments were a popular subject of Japanese artists painting
in Western style.
7
Figure 2. Woman playing guitar, figure in Western costumes.
Figure 2 is another example of the same instrument played by a woman.
This time the Western costumes show the Portuguese visitors’ influence in Japan.
The instrument appears to be slightly smaller than the one in Figure 1 and has an
even more defined construction for the incurved sides. The woman in figure two
also appears to be plucking the strings with her fingers. In this second example
the number of strings or tuning pegs is not clear from the photo reproduction.
From both of these images the right hand does not seem to use the little finger to
balance the right hand by placing it on the face of the instrument. This technique
was common practice for the lute and vihuela.
Printed music in Japan
Printing presses with moveable type were brought to Japan in 1590 with
Valignano on his return with the Japanese embassy from Rome. Several
European books of notation were printed at Amakusa and Nagasaki, including
8
one printed in 1605 using two colored neumes (see figure 3).15 No music remains
for lute or vihuela. We can assume that they probably played intabulations of
vocal music, as would have been the performance practice in Europe.
Figure 3. Pages from Luis de Cerqueira, S.J., Manuel ad Sacramenta Ecclesiae
Ministranda. This was a manual of liturgical services used by the
missionaries. This book was printed at Nagasaki in 1605. This is the only
known book printed in two colors from this press.
Musical differences
The missionary Luis Frois wrote about the differences between European
and Japanese music in 1585. This description is particularly enlightening about
attitudes towards polyphonic music and singing style, and may shed some light
on what music may have been played on the vihuela and lutes in Japan.
15
Ibid., 473.
9
We sing in polyphony; the Japanese sing all one and
the same melody in an unnaturally pressed high voice: this
is the most horrible music imaginable.
Most pleasant is to us the melody of keyboard, viol,
flute, organs, dulcimer, etc.; to the Japanese all our
instruments sound harsh and disgusting.
We appreciate deeply the consonance and proportion
of our vocal polyphony; the Japanese consider it caximaxi
[kashimashi; a confused scattering] and do not like it at all.
On our vihuelas we have six strings and the
doublings and we pluck them with hands; on the Japanese
biwa they have four strings and they strike them with a kind
of comb.
In our countries even the highest noblemen gladly
indulge in playing the vihuela; in Japan this is the business
of blind men comparable to our street musicians.16
The Jesuits were trained in the church and were highly attuned to the
sounds of polyphonic music. They also were trained in punteado technique on
the vihuela as was established by the mention of “we pluck them with hands” as
a clear distinction to the plectrum used on the biwa. Plucking the strings with the
fingers rather than a plectrum device is usually thought of as the main difference
between the instruments used in popular music and the one used to play
polyphonic textures. In sixteenth century Spain, court musicians were usually
Flemish and plucked with their fingers. Of the extant music written for the
vihuela, most of it shows that the vihuela would have played similar textures to
the lute. Many of the pieces written for lute were intabulations of vocal
polyphony, or one of the other imitative forms, such as ricecare or fantasia. Luis
Frois also mentions that there were doublings of the strings on the vihuela which
could indicate several things; the strings were tuning in octaves or that they were
tuned in unison.
16
Ibid., 478.
10
Embassy to Rome
In 1579 Alessandro Valignano from the Jesuit mission in India came to
Japan. Valignano planned to take four Japanese students to Madrid and Rome in
an attempt to gain favor for the mission in Japan, and to show the splendors of
Europe and powers of the Pope to the young boys in hopes to impress them. In
1582 the mission sailed from Nagasaki and arrived in Portugal in 1584 and then
Italy in 1585. In March of 1585 three of the delegates met Pope Gregory XIII. Pope
Gregory died during their stay in Rome. The Japanese delegates were there for
the coronation of Pope Sixtus V.17 The Japanese delegates were also in Rome
during the controversy over the Palestrina compositional style being carried out
by the Roman clergy and may have heard his music performed there. 18
Reports by European writers tell of many concerts, ballets, and operas that
the young delegates attended. The delegates heard the best musicians of the day
and were most impressed with the technical skill of the performers. They also
seemed to show very little interest in the musical structure and expression of the
music. The delegates tried to understand the value of individual creativity that
was so highly appreciated by Europeans.19 Harich-Schneider suggests that in
Spain, they probably heard music by Alonso Mudarra (c1510-1580),20 who was
known for the music he wrote for the four-course guitar and vihuela. 21 In
17
J.S. Michael Cooper, Rodrigues The Interpreter; An Early Jesuit in Japan and China
(New York: Weaterhill, 1974), 70-71.
18
Harich-Schneider, 465.
19
Ibid., 463.
20
Ibid., 464.
21
Robert Stevenson, “Alonso Mudarra,” in Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, (London: Macmillian, 1980).
11
Florence they probably met Vincenzo Galilei who was a lutenist as well as an
important theorist. The delegates also must have heard Antonio and Vittoria
Archilei, a husband and wife team of lutenists. Vittoria was also an important
singer at the Medici court.22 The Court of Ferrara was visited on the return trip
from Rome where they surely heard the daily chamber-music concerts. There
was a concert held in honor of the visiting Japanese delegates on this trip,
although no program remains of the music played for this concert.23
The Japanese delegates set sail from Lisbon on April 18, 1586, on their
return trip to Japan. Before leaving Spain they were presented with an expensive
clavicembalo that was heavily decorated with mother of pearl inlays, a gift from
Ascanio Colonna. They presented this instrument to the new ruler, Toyotomi
Hideyoshi, when they returned to Japan. Harich-Schneider refers to Guido
Gualtieri’ s comments about how the Japanese had been able to learn to play
several musical instruments well while they were in Europe. 24 Gaultieri suggests
that they practiced a great deal on the trip home and were then able to perform a
public concert in Macao. The four Japanese delegates returned with Valignano to
Nagasaki in 1590 and proceeded to Kyoto where they arrived in the spring of
1591. Here they met Hideyoshi and presented many gifts to the ruler. Following
the presentation of gifts, the four delegates brought out European instruments
including lute, harp, clavichord, and violin. Then they proceeded to perform a
recital of Western music for Hideyoshi. The concert was a success and Hideyoshi
22
Wiley H. Hitchcock, s.v. “Archilei, Vittoria,” in Stanley Sadie, ed., The New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillian, 1980).
23
Harich-Scheinder, 465.
24
Guido Gaultieri, Relationi dell Ventura de gli Ambasciatori Giapponesi a Roma, fino
alla Partita di Lisbona (Milan, 1587).
12
requested three encores and then asked many questions about the instruments.25
Harich-Schneider says that each instrument was played separately for
Hideyoshi, at his request, and then he held each instrument while asking
questions about them.26
The four delegates returned to the Arima seminary where they were
appointed music professors. Harich-Schneider suggests that the European
training the delegates received on their travels must have helped raise the level
of music studies in Japan.27 By 1594 Father Pedro Gomez mentions the use of
lute, along with many other instruments, almost every Sunday during Holy
Week, and at most feasts.28
End of the Early Christian Period
Christianity in Japan slowly came to a halt in the late 1580’s when
Hideyoshi became suspicious of the Christians and the Portuguese traders.
Several incidents occurred where Hideyoshi found reasons to distrust the
missionaries, and in July of 1587 he ordered the missionaries to leave Japan.
These orders were not enforced, possibly in fear of losing the Portuguese trade
that came with the missions. In 1593 a Dominican embassy from the Philippines
came to Japan and was allowed to set up a church and monastery in Kyoto.
However, by 1596 Hideyoshi began rounding up the Franciscans and
subsequently forced them to Nagasaki where they were executed. Hideyoshi
25
Cooper, 80.
Harcih-Schneider, 471.
27
Ibid., 472.
28
Ibid.
26
13
died two years later and Ieyasu Tokugawa came to power in 1600. From 1609 to
1614 many missionaries were martyred and Tokugawa banned Christianity in
the capital city. In 1614 all missionaries were expelled from Nagasaki, and by
1619 they were being hunted.29
In 1616, after the death of Tokugawa, the new ruler Hidetada limited
foreign trade. The Portuguese traders were eventually expelled for supporting
the Jesuits. By 1640 Japan had closed its ports to foreign ships. Japanese who left
Japan were not allowed to return, and all Western influence was destroyed. If
there were vihuelas and lutes constructed, or music written by Japanese for these
instruments, they were destroyed during this period.
Clearly, around 1600 the lute and vihuela were in use in Japan and played
by several people. However, the popularity of the vihuela can only be estimated.
There is no evidence that any music or vihuela performance practice was carried
on through the Tokugawa period which influenced the guitar in the late
nineteenth century Japan.
During this long period of isolation, commonly referred to as the Edo
period, there was only minimal contact with outsiders. The only group of
foreigners allowed to stay in Japan was Dutch, and they were forced to stay on a
tiny man-made island in Nagasaki harbor. Christianity was not completely
wiped out in Japan during this period. When the first ships from the United
States arrived in 1865 they found as many as 20,000 Christians hiding in
Nagasaki, to the surprise of the Westerners and the Japanese authorities.30
29
30
Ibid., 89-90.
Ibid., 96.
14
Chapter Two
The Return of the guitar in Meiji Japan (1868-1912)
In 1846 when the USS Columbus, commanded by James Biddle, attempted
to gain access to trade with Japan, he was shoved off a Japanese junk with the
reply of “depart as quick as possible, and not come any more in Japan.”1 Since
the late 1780’s the United States had increased trade with China and India and
wanted very much to expand to the mysterious island nation of Japan. The new
steam ships from Oregon could reach China in two or three weeks. Japan was
thought to have the coal needed to make these journeys possible. In 1851 the first
recommendations to open Japan by force were proposed by several ship captains
who had dealt with the Japanese and understood how weak the country was
militarily. In 1852 Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry received orders (that he
probably wrote himself) from the state department to be firm but peaceful with
the Japanese and request a trade agreement. In a show of military power he
sailed into Edo bay with eight heavily armed ships carrying over 900 men. Perry
even used two steam ships to help awe the Japanese. These ships are often
referred to as the black ships from the thick black smoke they created.
Perry made the request for trade with Japan peacefully then returned to
China for a year to wait for an answer. The return trip was made early in
February to seek an answer. In 1854 an agreement was reached and the United
States was allowed to make port in Japan for provisions, hospitality for
Americans in need of shelter and the creation of a consulate at Shimoda. The
1
Frederic Trautmann, With Perry to Japan: a Memoir by William Heine translated,
with an introduction and annotations by Frederic Trautmann (Honolulu: University
of Hawaii Press, 1990), 1.
15
Japanese knew that they had to allow for this treaty with the United States since
they could not fight such a powerful military. The Japanese also knew that they
could learn from these foreign invaders and then when the time was right
declare war.2
Music was present at most of the functions between the Japanese and
Perry’s group. Perry had a military band present at many of the meetings with
Japanese officials. When the agreement was signed on the USS Powatan, Perry
invited the Japanese officials on board for dinner and entertainment by Ethiopian
minstrels alternating with a choir. A printed program announced the minstrels
would perform first as “Gemmen of the North” and then as “Niggas of the
South.”3 The performance of ‘I’ve been to California’ and other tunes4 was a huge
success that seems to have inspired many members of the crew to get up and
dance.5 The entertainment was a success and can be thought of as the beginning
of the reintroduction of the guitar in Japan.6 Figure 4 is a sketch made of the
Ethiopian minstrels. This figure clearly shows two guitars, a banjo, two violins, a
tambourine, bones, and a triangle. From the wild clothing and dance depicted in
the picture, and the performers being referred to as pseudo darkies, it can be
assumed that the performers were actually white sailors with blackened faces. In
the 1820’s America, performers would dress up in what was thought to be the
2
Ibid., 15.
Arthur Walworth, Black Ships off Japan: the Story of Commodore Perry’s Expedition
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946), 203.
4
Peter Booth Wiley, Yankees in the Land of the Gods (New York: Viking Penguin,
1990).
5
Walworth, 204.
6
Francis L. Hawks, D.D.L.L.D., Narrative of The Expedition of an American Squadron
to the China Seas and Japan performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under the
Command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy, by Order of the Government
of the United States (Washington: Beverly Tucker, Senate Printer, 1865) 470.
3
16
tattered clothes that African-Americans would have worn, and adopt the dialect
of uneducated, naïve, southern plantation slaves.7 In the 1840’s the group of
minstrel performers would have arranged themselves in a semicircle with a
tambourine and bones at either end,8 as can clearly be seen in this picture. The
guitar in this picture is marked with a waisted body shape to indicate the
difference from the banjo. Robert Coldwell suggests that the strange number of
strings and unusual tuning pegs were probably a creation by Bunsen Takagawa,
the artist who made the sketch. Takagawa probably took liberties with the shape
and drew one he was more familiar with from the shamisen, which is a three
stringed traditional instrument played with a plectrum.9
Figure 4. Ethiopian minstrels at Nagasaki, 1854.
7
Ibid., 203.
Clayton W. Henderson, “American Minstrelsy,” The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London:
Macmillian, 2001).
9
Robert Coldwell, “The Early Guitar and Biographies of Important Guitarists in
Japan,” http://home.earthlink.net/~coldwell/japan/j-intro.html; Internet;
accessed 1 March 2002.
8
17
The guitar had undergone major changes in its construction during the
nineenth century as well as basking in one of its most important periods of
popularity in Europe. This new instrument lost the rounded back made from
ribbed construction in favor of a flat solid back. A bridge was added in front of
the saddle to send the vibrations directly into the soundboard. Around 1800 Jose
Benedid created a new system of internal bracing known as “fan bracing.” This
new development created a much louder sound because the braces were placed
only where needed and did not dampen the soundboard. The fret board was also
raised up above the soundboard and tuning pegs were replaced with machine
heads. Georg Staufer used metal from buttons to create the first metal frets and
Antonio de Torres Juardo established the larger size of the guitar that is
commonly used today.10 From this picture of Ethiopian minstrels it is difficult to
see any of these changes. This instrument appears to be from the period before
the Torres innovations.
Perry’s trip to Japan had several major repercussions including the fall of
the Tokugawa bakufu that had been in power since the 1600’s. The inability of the
ruling clan to stand up to Western powers helped reinforce the country’s
criticism of their leaders and sped up the attacks against it. Shortly after the
treaty was made with the United States, Japan made similar treaties with
England, Russia, France and the Netherlands.11 These treaties had been made
without the imperial approval. Emperor Komei (1831-1866) still viewed
isolationism as the best solution. By 1866 the country had shifted in favor of
10
Harvey Turnbull, The Guitar from the Renaissance to the Present Day (Westport,
Connecticut: The Bold Strummer, 1991), 77.
11
Mikiso Hane, Modern Japan: a historical Survey, 2nd ed. (San Francisco:
Westview Press 1992), 68.
18
returning the imperial family to power, and in 1868 Emperor Meiji took the
throne and the seat of leadership for Japan.
Meiji immediately renamed Edo as Tokyo and made the capital there.
Most importantly Meiji set out to develop Japan’s military and economic powers
to ensure that they would not become victims to any external menace.12 In 1871
Meiji established the three houses of government to run the country. Many
departments were created at this time including the department of education.
The Meiji leaders set out to eliminate illiteracy completely and every child was
required to attend school for eight years. Arts were seen as important to the
cultivation of the spirit and moral good of people.13 Social changes ended state
protection for blind musicians of musical guilds. These guilds had been one of
the few groups allowed to practice music in Japan for centuries.
Western Music Education and Early Compositional styles
To understand the development of Western music in Japan and how the
earliest composers were trained we first have to look at the beginnings of music
education. The earliest guitar works reflect the contemporary compositional style
of composers brought up in this new system, and eventually their reaction to
Western influences.
Western music in Japan got a major boost in 1869 when John William
Fenton from England began teaching in Yokohama. He helped train the first
band of thirty men from Satsuma. Before this Western military music had been
12
13
Ibid., 85.
Ibid., 102.
19
taught at the Dutch school at Nagasaki as early as 1839.14 Fenton’s teaching was
followed by that of the German teacher Franz Eckert (1852-1916), who taught
music to the Japanese navy, and then the Frenchman Charles Leroux, who taught
it to the Japanese army. One youth who led a drum and fife band in 1866 was
Isawa Shuji (1851-1917). In 1875 the Japanese Ministry of Education sent sixteen
youths, including Isawa, to the United States to study teacher training at the
State Normal School in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Here Isawa met Luther
Whiting Mason (1828-1896). Mason was a very important music educator in the
United States.15 On returning to Japan in 1878, Isawa created the Music
Investigation Committee (Ongaku Torishirabe-Gakari), which was the first
official school of Western music. The main activity of this school was to train
Japanese to be music teachers. In 1877 Isawa wrote a letter to his overseas
advisor, Megata Tanetaro, revealing that Isawa was interested in improving
Japanese music by assimilating it with Western music.16
In 1880, Isawa invited his former teacher, Luther Mason, to come to Japan
to be the director of the new music school. Isawa’s plan was to teach Western
classical music; however, the nationalistic attitude that was beginning to surface
in Meiji Era Japan would not tolerate only foreign music being taught. Isawa had
to come up with a way to teach the best from both Japan and the West. With this
idea in mind, Isawa and Mason set out to put Japanese texts to Western
melodies. Most of these songs were written, arranged, or taken from the best
14
Ury Eppstein, The Beginnings of Western Music In Meiji Era Japan (United
Kingdom: Edwin Mellen Press, 1994), 10.
15
Ibid., 27.
16
Ibid., 29.
20
they could find from traditional Japanese songs, and compiled into books for
children.
Eppstein gives numerous sources for the songs in this first book. The first
songbook published for school contained thirty-three songs. Thirty of the songs
were from Western sources, three from Japanese sources.17 What is most
interesting about these settings are where the Western tunes are arranged with
pentatonic scales, with the half steps between the 4th and 7th degrees taken out.18
Eppstein further shows how some of these melodies came from gagaku.19 Later
revisions and editions of this songbook included a greater number of traditional
Japanese melodies. These were important books for the first propagation of
Western forms, melody, and harmony and would leave a lasting impression on
music in Japan.20
Later songbooks by Tamura Torazo in 1900-1902 show an increased use of
tetrachordal harmonies. Koizumi Fumio (1927-1983), in his discussion of
Japanese music, says that the tetrachord is the basic unit of traditional music.
Koizumi has given us four basic types of tetrachords to represent different types
of Japanese music. Each tetrachord contains an outer frame of a perfect fourth
with an inner tone (see Figure 5).
Figure 5. Koizumi Fumio four basic tetrachords
17
Ibid., 93.
Ibid, see pages 93 – 122 “the songs.”
19
Ibid., 104 –107.
20
Ibid., 108.
18
21
The first of these four basic types of tetrachord represents min’yo or folk
songs or childrens game songs. Tetrachord II is called miyakobushi or urban
melodies, these would be heard in urban art music of the koto, shamisen,
shakuhatchi and biwa. Tetrachord III comes from ritsu that is most common in
gagaku or imperial court music. Tetrachord IV, Ryukyu, comes from the music of
Ryukyu Island between Kyushu and Taiwan.21 The songs of Tamura Torazo are
the first attempts to fully combine elements of both Japanese and Western
harmony, much more than the music Isawa chose for his songbooks.
William Malm suggests that the music used in these new songbooks
focused on three pentatonic scale types carried over from traditional music in the
Edo period. Specifically, the ryo and ritsu scales that were common in gagaku
music were used. These scales types were preferred by the music investigation
committee, of which many of the members were gagaku musicians. A fourth
scale type, in, was not used because it came from urban music with which the
investigation committee would not have had much contact. The in scale used a
flat second scale degree that made it unreconcilable with major/minor Western
harmonies.22 Examples in figure 6 show Malm’s four basic scale types. Malm also
suggests that using the in scale might have had unacceptable connotations
similar to using blues scales in American kindergarten music.23
21
Ibid., 123-124.
William Malm, “The Modern Music of Meiji Japan,”in Tradition and
Modernization in Japanese Culture, ed. Donald H. Shively (New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1971), 274.
23
Ibid.
22
22
Figure 6. William Malms four scale types.
Malm’s scale types are quite similar to Koizumi’s tetrachords; Koizumi’s
tetrachords summarize the characteristic sounds from Malm’s scales.
The Western method of using notation to teach music was a big change in
Japan. Before this change, music was learned almost entirely through rote
systems. Students who learned music from notation were trained to accept and
expect a melody line to be accompanied. This was a major change from the usual
single-line melody found in most traditional Japanese music.24
Mason stayed in Japan for three years and then went back to America. He
was the first of many teachers who came to Japan in these early years of reform.
The Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan lists several of the important teachers who
came at this time as well as many of the Japanese who went to Europe to study.25
Isawa’s initial plan was just to train students to teach music. The idea of
teaching musicians to write new music had not been included as part of his
educational design. The first degree in composition was offered in 1932. The
24
25
Ibid., 276.
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, s.v. “Western Music,” 286.
23
compositional style of many of the early composers in Meiji Japan used Western
art music as models. Cultural adaptation of Western models was widely
accepted in the early Meiji period. By 1880, however, the Japanese were
developing a discriminating taste for Western culture and many of the ideas that
previously were freely accepted now came under close scrutiny. Many of these
new “cultural nationalists” wanted to adopt the best from the West without
having to lose either their sense of cultural or national identity.26
An American, Ernest F. Fenollosa, came to Japan in 1878 to teach
philosophy at the Imperial University in Tokyo. While in Japan he became
interested in Japanese paintings and woodblock print. Soon after this he started
advocating the continued tradition of Japanese arts, and then he presented many
works to the government to be preserved as national treasures. Fenollosa was a
key figure in the campaign to revive Japanese art.27 Several of Fenollosa’s
students were important for promoting the idea that Japanese should learn
Japanese arts before adopting Western forms.
By 1900 several organizations appeared that promoted Western music,
including the Meiji Ongaku Kai (Meiji Music Society) founded in 1898. This
group performed Western music along with traditional Japanese music. Other
groups that performed almost entirely music by Western composers included
Teikoku Ongaku Kai (Imperial Music Society) founded in 1907 by the composer
Komatsu Kosuke who had studied music in Paris. The Tokyo Philharmonic
26
27
Hane, Mikiso, 132.
Ibid., 135.
24
Society was organized and several new schools of Western music were founded
in Tokyo at this time as well.28
In 1911 Emperor Meiji passed away and was succeeded by the Emperor
Taisho (1879-1926) in 1912. Culture in Japan during the Taisho period was
different than that of the Meiji period. Intellectuals had a new freedom. They
were free from the tasks of enriching and strengthening the nation as would have
been expected of their predecessors. This was a period when many enjoyed
cultural refinement, and the arts were a big part of this new culture. Everyone
had access to the new popular cultures being disseminated through newspapers,
magazines, motion pictures, phonograph and radio.29
The years 1900-1926 were a period of development in which traditional
Japanese music and European music were beginning to be combined to create
the first important compositions by Japanese composers. Composers such as
Kosaku Yamada and Kiyomi Fujii explored the possibilities of materials they
could adapt from traditional music. Yamada was trained in Germany and Fujii
learned by studying folk music in Japan. Yamada believed in the supremacy of
Western music and pursued German romantic music in his early compositions.
Later, after a short visit to Russia, he turned more to the exotic flavor he could
create using hexachordal harmonies. By the 1930’s more than half of Yamada’s
piano compositions used pentatonic scales without the 4th and 7th scale degrees.
From the mid 1930’s to the 1950’s almost all of Yamada’s works use open 4ths
and 5ths as harmonies. This was a device used by Western composers to suggest
exoticism, which, however, does not actually exist in traditional Japanese
28
29
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, s.v. “Western Music,” 286.
Ibid., 220.
25
music.30 Fujii on the other hand never left Japan. After attending the Tokyo
University for the Arts he remained in Tokyo where he taught himself
composition and composed many songs in minyo style (folk song style). Fujii
always used Western instruments to accompany these songs. Often these
instruments were used in imitation of traditional instruments such as the
shamisen.31 These new compositional styles were important developments for
music in Japan. The next generation of composers looked to these ideas as
sources for nationalism in Showa Japan.
The Return of the Classical Guitar
Several Japanese went overseas in this early period to work in foreign
countries, including Hiroshi Hiraoka (1856-1934) who worked on the railroad in
New Hampshire in 1871. Hiraoka is primarily remembered for bringing baseball
to Japan; he also is credited with bringing the first guitar to Japan to accompany
himself for minstrel songs. A later interview with Hiraoka’s son revealed that he
was not very advanced on the guitar.32 Until the post-war era there are many
stories of untalented guitarists.
The first guitar teacher in Japan was Kenpachi Hiruma (1867-1936).
Hiruma traveled to America, Germany, and Switzerland between 1887 and 1901
to study cello and zither. In 1899 he went to Germany and Italy to study guitar
30
Judith Ann Herd, “Change and Continuity in Contemporary Japanese Music:
A search for a National Identity” (Ph. D. diss., Brown University, 1987), 19.
31
Ibid., 27.
32
Coldwell, Robert, “Hiroshi Hiraoka” from “The Early Guitar and Biographies
of Important Guitarists in Japan,” http://home.earthlink.net/~coldwell/japan/jintro.html; Internet; accessed 1 March 2002.
26
and mandolin. In 1905 he began teaching at the Tokyo Music School (which later
became the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music) and became the
conductor of the first mandolin orchestra in Japan. Hiruma never taught guitar at
the University, as guitar had never been accepted as an instrument of serious
study in Japan. Several of Hiruma’s students worth noting included Morishige
Takei and Hideo Saito (who was the instructor of the famous conductor Seiji
Ozawa). 33
The first known foreigner to teach guitar and mandolin in Japan was
Adolfo Sarcoli (1872-1936) from Siena. Sarcoli was an opera tenor and performer
of guitar and mandolin. Sarcoli came in 1911 to teach. He performed with the
Keio mandolin orchestra and was an active and rather successful vocal teacher.
He wrote several works for the guitar that he and his students played. At this
time there were no active guitar soloists in Japan. One of Sacoli’s students, Bunzo
Sekine, performed three works, including one by Sarcoli, many times in recitals
with other performers and then apparently quit playing after that.34
Fuku-ichiro Ikegami gave the first known solo guitar recitals in Yokohama
in 1926. Nothing is known about the life of Ikegami except his recitals and a few
unpublished manuscripts he wrote for guitar. A 1999 recording by Kazuhito
Yamashita is the first recording of Ikegami’s music. There is important
information we can gather from Ikegami’s recital about the musical repertoire
that was performed by Japanese guitarists at this time. Ikegami’s second recital,
given in 1926, contained duos by Carulli and Giuliani, as well as solo works by
33
34
Ibid., Coldwell“Kenpachi Hiruma.”
Ibid., Coldwell “Adolfo Sarcoli.”
27
Mertz, Giuliani, Sor, and Regondi. In 1927 Ikegami’s recital contained the
following works:
Abendlied (Mertz)
Notturno, Op.3 No.1 [or No.3?] (Zani de Ferranti)
Russian Theme and Variations, Op.10 No.12 (Carcassi)
Sonata, Op.15 (Giuliani)
Grand Ouverture, Op.6 (Carulli)
Lied ohne Worte/ Mazurka, Op.13 No.11 (Mertz)
Ronde de Fées, Op.2 (Zani de Ferranti)
The Shore at Night (Ikegami)
Ikegami’s last known recital was in 1928 in which he played a duo by Sor,
and works by Tárrega, de Falla, Torroba, and Pujol.35 Ikegami was quite aware of
European musical taste in the classical guitar repertoire. Composers such as Sor,
Giuliani, Caruli, Tarrega, and Mertz are still staples of classical guitar repertoire
of many guitarists today. Most of these composers, except Tárrega, lived in the
early part of the nineteenth century. The style of these early composers is clearly
rooted in the style of the day with Alberti bass patterns, architechtonic phrase
shapes, clear and simple harmonic progressions moving slowly through
standard sonata forms, and brilliant virtuoso passages to show off the performer.
The fact that Ikegami was performing Tárrega and Zani de Ferranti shows
that already guitarists in Japan were quite aware of current trends in guitar
music. More importantly they were aware of the new techniques developed by
Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) that work well on the new modern sized guitar.
35
Ibid., Coldwell “Fuku Ichiro Ikegami.”
28
Morishige Takei (1890-1949)
The earliest known scores written for guitar in Japan are by Morishige
Takei. Takei was very important in establishing the classical guitar in Japan.
Takei came from a wealthy family and later in life became the baron over the
family estate and companies. Takei heard the guitar for the first time in 1911
when he was in Italy. In 1913 he began to study guitar and formed the first
mandolin orchestra in Japan. Next to his home he built a small recital hall where
he held the first mandolin and guitar recitals. He also started the Mandolin and
Guitar journal in 1916.
Takei played a guitar with steel strings, although he had actually started
with gut strings. The high humidity in Japan made gut strings impractical for
many guitarists; most of the imported guitars had steel strings. He may also have
switched to steel strings to be heard while playing with the mandolin orchestra.
In 1919 Takei purchased three guitars from Philip Bone in England
including an 1858 Lacôte that was originally owned by the famous
guitarist/composer Carulli. Takei later owned a terz-guitar by Stauffer. In 1922
Takei bought the larger half of Bone’s collection. This is when many of the
important standard works of the guitar repertoire were first brought to Japan.
Bone had to sell some of his collection to cover his expenses while he wrote his
book The Guitar and Mandolin. These scores included works by Mertz, Molino,
Giuliani, Shultz, Call, and Kuffner. In addition to the scores Takei also bought
approximately 500 journals from the nineteenth century. Takei’s collection was
29
lost in a fire resulting from The Great 1923 Kanto Earthquake, including all the
scores bought from the Bone collection. 36
In 1925 Takei took over four European libraries and again bought more
music from Bone. Later that same year Takei published his book Glimpses of the
Mandolin and Guitar. This 500-page book offered criticism about guitar and
mandolin performers as well as works by individual composers. Most of his
information about other guitarists comes from Bone’s book. In 1929 Takei wrote
several articles about the Segovia tour in Japan.
In 1941 the Mandolin and Guitar journal had to stop publication because of
a paper shortage caused by the war. In 1945 Takei’s home was burned down in
an air raid, fortunately his collection was in the basement and most of it was
saved. Takei’s collection is now housed in the Kunitachi Music University library
in Tokyo.37
Most of Takei’s life was spent in his other activities as a public figure. All
of Takei’s fifty-seven works for guitar were published in 1965 by Zen-on music.
Takei is not remembered as a performer or composer but is remembered in the
form of the Takei Prize awarded for new guitar works.
Takei began composing for guitar in 1919. His first two works are; Ricordi
d'Infanzia (using an open E Major tuning E,B,E,G#,B,E) and Passegiata Campestre
(using an open tuning of D,G,D,G,B,D). These were the only works that he wrote
using an extensive alternate tunings. Harmonically they are rather simple in
36
Murao Susita, “A Brief History of Moreshige Takei,” from Japanese Melodies for
Guitar, music by Takei, Zen-on guitar library, Tokyo, 1965.
37
Coldwell, “Morishige Takei” from“The Early Guitar and Biographies of
Important Guitarists in Japan,” http://home.earthlink.net/~coldwell/japan/jintro.html; Internet; accessed 1 March 2002.
30
major keys that are never ventured outside of. Takei sets the formal design of
these two works as intro A, B, A. The second work, Passeggiata Campestre, shows
Takei’s knowledge of the Romantic style and uses tempo indications to separate
the sections of music;
A –Allegro m1-20
B – Andante m22-29
C – Adagio m30-35
D – Allegretto m36-57
Cadenza Adagio m58-64
B – Andante m65-72
The third work in this publication of Takei’s music is a dedication to the
guitarist composer Francisco Tárrega. The main stylistic traits of Tárrega’s music
that Takei uses are the portamento effects and habanera rhythmic figures. These
devices return many times throughout Takei’s works.
In The Floating Cloud (Example 2.1) both the portamento effect and a
modified habanera rhythm are used to create an underlying ostinato figure. This
example was composed toward the end of Takei’s life in 1946 but is still quite
similar to earlier works, harmonically and formally.
Example 2.2 was written in 1944 and shows his later developments with
harmony. Takei was a very educated person and would have been aware of the
nationalism that was showing itself in other composers’ works. In the beginning
he appears to be working in A minor but then he is clearly in a pentatonic mode
in the third line when the scales appear.
31
Example 2.1. Takei The Floating Cloud ©1946 Zen-On Music Company, ©
renewed, all rights reserved, Used by permission of European American Music
Distributors LLC, sole US and Canadian agent for Zen-On Music Company
Limited.
Example 2.2. Takei Le Crab Ermite © 1944 Zen-On Music Company, © renewed,
all rights reserved, Used by permission of European American Music
Distributors LLC, sole US and Canadian agent for Zen-On Music Company
Limited.
32
Takei’s works are usually rather brief, comprised of less than two pages
each. The quality of his music is consistently strong throughout his career and
marks one of the best of the early guitar composers. Takei was also active in
trying to get other composers to write for guitar, but the success of that quest is
unknown. Several of Takei’s works were performed by other guitarists as can be
read at the beginning of his scores in the Zen-On publication.
Before World War II there were a total of eleven journals published in
Japan for guitar.38 These guitar magazines usually doubled with the mandolin as
the main subject. One of the most important journals, Armonia, was published in
Sendai from 1927 until 1941 when it too was forced out of publication. After the
war it resumed publication in Sakamoto from 1954 to 1959. The publisher of the
Sendai Armonia was Chuzaemon Sawaguchi, an amateur guitarist from Sendai
who learned to read German and worked at a bank most of his life. His German
ability helped him correspond with other guitarists in Germany and he was able
to translate articles from the German magazine Die Gitarre into Armonia.39 Most
importantlyArmonia published scores by both European and Japanese
composers. The scores from Armonia make up the best collection of early works
for guitar in Japan.
In 1926 the new Emperor took over and there was a change in attitude in
Japan. Where musicians of the previous periods concerned themselves with
teaching and learning about music, the new generation was able to refine its
38
Werner Schwartz, Guitar Bibliography: an International Listing of Theoretical
Literature on Classical Guitar from the Beginning to the Present, (New York, 1984), 5
–6.
39
Coldwell, “Chuzaemon Sawaguchi.”
33
tastes. This was a period when the Japanese composers began to realize that they
would face artistic stagnation if they did not experiment with the synthesis of
Western and Japanese music. The main ideas of national music came from the
music of Yamada and Fujii in the previous years.40 By 1930 there was a large
organization called The Newly Rising Composer Federation. This group believed
that Japanese national music should be promoted throughout the world. The
composers from this group moved away from Western models and explored
nationalistic style composition. These compositions included: 1) Japanese scale
fragments (pentatonic scales), 2) vertical tone clusters similar to Gagaku
harmony (quartal harmony), 3) linear focus, and 4) more varied use of timbre.41
In the early 1930’s there were suddenly new opportunities for many
Japanese, such as foreign companies willing to publish Japanese scores. In 1931
the Japanese national radio began to broadcast works in Western style by
Japanese composers. This was in response to the high fees that were expected for
playing music from Western countries. In 1926 the Tokyo Philharmonic began to
sell tickets for concerts instead of just giving them away for free. From 1917
onward there were always performers visiting from other countries, and by 1937
Japan had the largest market in the world for classical records.42 This is the time
when Armonia appeared. This new magazine was an important source of the new
national style as it appeared in guitar music.
40
Herd, 27.
Ibid., 29.
42
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, 286.
41
34
Yoshie Okawara [Yosie Ohcawara] (1903 -1935)
One of the guitarist/composers who had scores published in Armonia was
Yoshie Okawara. Okawara was one of the few guitarists who attempted to be a
professional performer. He was born in Hokkaido and moved to Tokyo in 1925.
He was unique because he preferred to play works by Japanese composers more
that any other music. In 1928 Okawara was one of the first Japanese to have solo
guitar recitals in Japan. The following year Andrés Segovia made his first trip to
Japan. He was the first great performer to show what the guitar was capable of.
This visit inspired many guitarists to perform a more Segovia style of repertoire.
Okawara, on the other hand, turned even more to Japanese composers for his
repertoire. In 1930 he played a program of sixteen works of which only two were
by Western composers. Most of the music on this recital was by himself, Takei
and Sawaguchi. Okawara recorded two records for Polydor Japan and wrote one
of the first guitar methods in Japanese.
Okawara wrote about thirty works for guitar, many of which were
published by Armonia. In 1930 Armonia published five short works by Okawara
entitled “ A Bouquet (Suite). The five short works were named after flowers:
“Matsumushi-flower,” “Song of Hydranga,” “Dance of Oriental Poppy,” and
“Bolero Amaryllis.” These works are an excellent blend of traditional sounds in
Western forms.
Example 2.3 from “Matsumushi-flower” shows the use of pentatonic scale
in the opening section. The piece uses a tonal center of E with pentatonic notes
being E, F, A, B, D. Only at the first ending does the G# appear to give a clear
modulation to A in the second section. The flat second degree (F) displays his use
35
of the miyako-bushi sound. This would have been heard in urban melodies played
on the koto, shamisen, shakuhatchi and biwa.
Example 2.3. Okawara “Matsumushi-flower,” 1930 Armonia
The B section of “Matsumushi-flower” starts with a strumming sound that
is common in shamisen performance. This example uses a virtuoso effect that
intertwines a melodic part above the ostinato figure. This is a texture that would
not occur in shamisen practice due to the plectrum that is used.
Example 2.4. Okawara “Matsumushi-flower,” 1930 Armonia.
The third movement also uses a shamisen type of accompaniment in the B
section, this time using an open fourth sound for the ostinato pattern.
36
Example 2.5. Okawara, Dance of Oriental Popy, 1930 Armonia.
The final piece from Okawaras suite is the “Bolero Amaryllis” (example
2.6) which gives us a taste of his understanding of Western forms. Here he uses a
Bolero rhythm that would be more common to the early Spanish version of it,
which is closely related to the traditional polonaise rhythm.
Example 2.6. Okawara, Bolero Amaryllis, 1930 Armonia.
Okawara’s work was hailed as important, even in his day, because of his
ability to synthesize traditional sounds on a guitar in a polyphonic style.
Technically these works show a daring guitarist who must have taken many
risks with challenging textures and jumps in his performances. The technical
ability of guitarists at this time was becoming much more advanced as can be
seen in the works of Takayuki Oguri.
37
Takayuki Oguri (1909-1944)
Not much is known about Takayuki Oguri, other than that he died in the
war and his guitar teacher was Shun Ogura (1901-1977). Shun Ogura is worth
mentioning because he was highly influential. Ogura was primarily a teacher,
although he appears to have performed on occasion in the 1930’s. He was a
colleague of Takei, Nakano, Sawaguchi and Okawara. Possibly the most
important contributions that Ogura may have made to the guitar in Japan were
his translations of Spanish text into Japanese. Ogura also held the position at
Ongaku-no Tomo to advise what music to publish for guitar. Today, Ongaku-no
Tomo is the largest publisher of music in Japan.
The influence of Ogura must have had quite an impact on Oguri’s music.
His music is some of the most technically demanding of the prewar composer.
Oguri’s scores show that he was quite aware of common techniques used by
European guitarist/composers.
Doraji-Taryung, published byArmonia in 1938, came with the subtitle
“Danza Coreana.” This work is loosely based on the famous Korean folk song
Doraji Taryung. Doraji is a bellflower that grows in the mountains and Taryung
means song. The meaning of this song is about love of mountain maidens.
Oguri’s style in this work is very closely tied to European romantic conventions.
Some of the most obvious of these are the dramatic changes in tempo, key, and
cadential material.
In this first section (Example 2.7) the vivo section uses a rolled three and
four-string technique that is one of the favorites used by most European guitar
composers to create a thick and exciting sounding texture.
38
Example 2.7. Oguri, Doraji-Taryung, 1938, Armonia.
Big tempo changes are used in the transition from the opening vivo
introduction to the main melody in example 2.8. In this example the expression
marks move from molto apassionata to a measure in adagio of dolce e tranquillo.
39
Example 2.8. Oguri, Doraji-Taryung, 1938 Armonia.
Example 2.9. Oguri, Doraji-Taryung, 1938, Armonia.
In example 2.9 the cadenza figure takes us through a brief modulation to
the key of F major and ends with modulation to the proceeding section in C
major. This is very distant modulation from the E major key the previous page of
music was in. This sort of unprepared modulation was a staple of romantic
writing style.
Oguri’s style of guitar writing is tinged with the quirky techniques of the
last generation of romantic guitar composers such as Barrios. Other works of
40
Oguri show he must have been a technical wizard to be able to play his quasi
tremolo work Spinning Song (Example 2.10). The tremolo figure used in this work
has a melodic note to be played on the second thirty-second note of the group, a
very unusual effect.
Example 2.10. Oguri,The Spinning Song, Armonia.
Oguri is one of the first to use the guitar’s arpeggiated strumming style to
imitate the traditional Japanese koto. The koto is a ten-string zither type of
instrument that is laid flat and plucked with the fingers. Harp type arpeggios
appear frequently in the music written for this instrument. In his work Preludio
para guitarra sobre una moda Japanese anticuada, Oguri is imitating the koto by using
pentatonic chords that can be played with one finger to glissando across the
strings. Example 2.11 was probably published from Sendai Armonia. Although it
is not dated, it probably was published around the mid 1930’s when several
composers began writing in a mixture of Japanese and Western styles for guitar.43
43
The copy of this score that I have came from the Jiro Nakano collection that
was donated to the Kyoto University Library and photocopied into hardbound
books. Many of the score covers were omitted from the photocopies.
41
Example 2.11. Oguri, Preludio para guitarra sobre una moda Japanese anticuada,
Armonia.
Seiichi Suzuki also uses a similar effect in his variation on Sakura
published by Sendai Armonia in 1934 (Example 2.12).
42
Example 2.12. Suzuki, Sakura Variations,, 1934, Armonia.
It is evident that the guitarists/composers from this period were quite
aware of the current thoughts on music in Japan, as can be seen in their
combinations of Western and Japanese music. In 1931, at the same time as this
nationalistic attitude was beginning to shape classical music in Japan, there were
already the undercurrents of the ultra-nationalists who wanted to censor
Western music. As early as 1930 this ultra-nationalism was brought about
through government-controlled censorship. Music education was being changed
and all Western songs were replaced with military songs. By 1934 music was
heavily censored, including how long a person could listen to Western music in
the public library.44 In 1937 the government considered music an essential tool
for transmission of state propaganda and took over the popular music industry.
This military controlled industry copied over a million records of nationalist
44
Herd, 71.
43
songs.45 There was an almost complete ban on Western music from radio
programs during this period. This ban included the use of the steel string guitar
and banjo. The ban on steel string Western instruments was founded on the
grounds that the glissando and slur figures weakened people’s will. The ukulele
(or ukelele) completely disappeared from recording and Hawaiian music
vanished until after the war.46 The classical, nylon, stringed guitar was probably
not excluded from radio programming, if it was heard at all.
Some composers prospered during this period, others found it a daily
struggle and had to suffer from having their paper rations reduced for not
complying with the war effort. This may be one of the final blows that stopped
Armonia’s publication. Some composers quit writing altogether; others, such as
orchestra members, had to work almost non-stop at the radio stations.47 In 1944
all public musical activities stopped by government decree due to the desperate
wartime period. For some musicians this was the end of their careers.48
For the guitar no scores were published in Japan between the end of
Sendai Armonia in 1941 and the first scores published in 1960 by Casa de la
guitarra. However there are later editions of works by composers who were
active during these years and wrote for guitar who will be discussed in the next
chapter.
45
Ibid., 73.
George S. Kanahele, Hawaiian Music and Musicians; an Illustrated History
(Honolulu, University press of Hawaii, 1979), 184.
47
Herd, 75.
48
Ibid., 76.
46
44
Chapter 3
Post-war Music 1945 through the 1950’s
Immediately following the war there was a great deal of finger pointing
and blame given to several people for the wartime censorship of musicians.
Several major composers quit composing because of guilt from the war. From
1945 to 1949 the United States occupational forces only censored music where the
text conflicted with policies of the occupation. Some critics said this inhibited free
expression. For others this was a time when they could finally boycott music that
they had grown tired of hearing.1
Many new works were introduced following the war. The Japanese
quickly began to rejoin the intellectual exchange of ideas with foreign musicians,
an exchange that had been silenced during the war. All of the new currents in
Western music were again adopted in Japan. Some composers returned to the
nationalist music for inspiration to create new music that would be closer to the
Japanese sensibility. The composer Kosaku Yamada continued composing but
with little success. The public made strong judgments against those who were
most powerful during the war and were unwilling to support them again.2
There was a new wave of nationalism that came about as composers
began to realize that the foreign artists who toured in Japan played music rooted
in their own cultures. This music was rooted in the history and society of Europe
and America. For the Japanese to have a national music they would have to go
beyond the mere acquisition of techniques from these countries, they would have
1
2
Herd, 95.
Ibid., 97.
45
to create their own language.3 This new generation of composers had a much
larger palette of musical styles to choose from than the pre-war composers did.
As with Europe and America one of the most important forces that drove the
post-war period was that of a highly individualized musical language for each
composer. Japan was no different and many composers adopted every new
musical trend that they could learn in an attempt to create their own style.
For the guitar in Japan, one of the most important trends that began in this
post-war period was the publication of scores by composers who did not actually
play the instrument. All of the previous scores from before the war were by
guitarist/composers. Immediately following the war there were several scores
written for guitar that were not published until the late 1960’s by Zen-on
publications. Many of these scores show a new level of compositional
complexity, and a refined technical advancement achieved by the guitarists who
helped make these works playable on guitar. This first example (example 3.1) by
Kojiro Kobune shows one of the earliest twelve-tone works for guitar. This work
is published by Zen-on in a collection entitled Selected Pieces by Japanese Composers
in 1969. Only some of the works from this collection have actual composition
dates printed at the end of the work. The following example is not given a
composition date in this publication, yet it appears to be from the mid 1960’s. In
this work Kobune gives us the twelve-tone row that this composition is based on
before the piece.
This second example, Poème (1963) by Takeo Saito, is a highly chromatic
work from this same collection. This example (Example 3.2) is highly chromatic
3
Ibid., 98.
46
Example 3.1. Kobune, Essey, © 1969 Zen-On Music Company, © renewed, all
rights reserved, Used by permission of European American Music Distributors
LLC, sole US and Canadian agent for Zen-On Music Company Limited.
Example 3.2. Saito, Poem, © 1963 Zen-On Music Company, © renewed, all rights
reserved, Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC,
sole US and Canadian agent for Zen-On Music Company Limited.
47
to the point of having no clear tonal center or harmonic function, but this is not a
twelve-tone or serial composition.
Composers from the post-war era quickly broke with the tonal languages
of the past and embraced the new currents in Europe and America. Specifically
they embraced the new freedom to use dissonance without fear. In several
sources it is said that in 1948 Toda Kunio brought to Japan René Leibowitz’s
book Schoenberg et son école about twelve-tone music theory.4 This is how the first
twelve-tone music came to Japan. It was not till the early 1950’s that the first
serial works appear. For guitar the earliest works do not appear until the early
1960’s.
One of the first Japanese to use twelve-tone theory was Yoritsune
Matsudaira (b.1907). Matsudaira spent most of his life studying gagaku (imperial
court music) and applying combinations of avant-garde techniques with it.
Matsudaira had a good deal of success in the 1930’s, and Alexander Tcherepnin
arranged to sponsor some of his works for publication. During the war years he
quit writing music for lack of inspiration. After the war he started to blend
gagaku and twelve-tone music. Matsudaira found that gagaku was similar in
bimodality to the polytonalities found in the music of Stravinsky. He also found
that chord clusters created with the Sho (type of bamboo flute where several
notes are played simultaneously) were similar to Debussy’s quartal harmonies
and tone clusters.5
4
Uenami Wataru, Orientation Seminars on Japan: 20, The Characteristics of
Japanese Postwar Music (Tokyo, The Japan Foundation, 1985), p 1.
5
Herd, 149.
48
Gagaku is based on Chinese music theory that uses a chromatic scale
based on perfect fifths. The Japanese have used this scale to create two scale
types: Ryo and Ritsu. From these two types the first six scales used in gagaku are
derived (Figure 7). Gagaku often combines the ascending and descending
versions of these scales to create minor seconds and tritones.
Ryo scales
Ristu scales
Figure 7. Ryo and Ritsu Scales found in gagaku
One work by Matsudaira published by Ongaku no Tomo that uses the
guitar is Katsura (1959). This work is for voice, flute, harpsichord, harp, guitar,
and percussion. The guitar only appears in the third, seventh and eighth
movements of this work. In example 3.3 the instruments enter in a stretto-like
technique that is common to gagaku orchestration. The instrumentation is also
imitating gagaku instruments used in saibara-style songs. The vocal part is
49
suggesting an imitation of roei chanting that would also have been heard in these
songs. Matsudaira is not using strict twelve-tone technique in this work. Instead
he chooses to focus on the opening motive as the main point of interest. In the
second half of measure two the guitar part presents a retrograde version of the
first three fragments from measure one and the first half of measure two.
Example 3.3. Matsudaira, Katsura,1959 ©Ongaku No Tomo Sha, used by
permission of the publisher
50
Sannin No Kai was a group of three composers that openly promoted
their own music, even at their own expense.6 This group believed that the new
Japanese music should come from a combination of nationalism and European
avant-garde. The composers from this group were Toshiro Mayuzumi (b.1929),
Yasushi Akutagawa (b. 1925), and Ikuma Dan (b. 1924). From this group only
Mayuzumi has written for guitar.
Mayuzumi studied with Tomojiro Ikenouchi and Akira Ifukube at the
Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Then, from 1951 to 1952, he
went to study with Tony Aubin at the Paris Conservatoire. Here he absorbed the
European avant-garde trends he found in Paris, such as strict serialism, aleatory,
and prepared piano techniques. When he returned to Japan he began
experimenting with combinations of instruments to create new sounds. In his
works Ectoplasm (1954) and Microcosmos (1957) he calls for an amplified guitar,
but it appears from the writing that he specifically wants an electric guitar.
In example 3.4 from Microcosmos Mayuzumi uses the combination of
clavioline, guitar, vibraphone, xylophone, piano, bongos, congas, and musical
saw. Mayuzumi creates tone color through the combination of instruments
similarly to the music of Edgard Varèse. This work is rather interesting due to his
combinations of guitar and percussion techniques, which create a unique tone
color. For the classical guitarist this work offers the guitarist none of the virtuosic
techniques of the modern performance standard, with little more than a single
note line. This work was written before his famous Nirvana Symphony (1957-58)
6
Ibid., 131.
51
and thus does not contain the same pentatonic/ harmonic configuration of
temple bells7 as does his well-known later style, although there are similarities.
Example 3.4. Mayuzumi, Microcosmos, 1957 © by C.F. Peters Corporation.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
In the fifth movement of this work he is experimenting with the use of
contrasting polymodal elements. This section (Example 3.5) uses a fugue-like
technique where each time a new instrument enters it plays the complete theme
of the piano. The main theme here contains only four notes D, E-flat, C- sharp,
and the octave D. At rehearsal C in the following example the xylophone makes
its entrance with the opening theme. At the same time the guitar plays a different
7
Ibid., 135.
52
pattern of notes, much more rhythmically simple than the other parts and using
different notes. The guitar plays E, F, D-sharp, and the octave higher E. The
combination of notes from the two parts is C-sharp, D, D-sharp/E-flat, and F.
These five adjacent notes of a chromatic scale together would form a tone cluster
similar to the chromatic sound Mayuzumi found in his study of temple bells.
Example 3.5. Mayuzumi, Microcosmos, 1957 © by C.F. Peters Corporation.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
These works show that the Japanese were right in step with the trends in
guitar music being composed in Western countries. Adoption of Western styles
was complete for many composers almost immediately following the war.
53
Also in the 1950’s there was a huge boom in the number of guitarists in
Japan. In 1955 one of the leading classical guitar makers in Japan, Masaru Kohno
(1926-1998) reported that he had over two-hundred orders for new guitars. This
was such a large order that he needed to hire several helpers.8 In 1949 the first
Guitar Contest was held in Tokyo. This Contest was renamed in 1982 as the
Tokyo International Guitar Competition9 and has become one of the most
prestigious competitions in the world today. Also the famous Nibori guitar
schools that are presently in every city in Japan, started during this period. The
presence of a large guitar instructional system helped catapult the level of
performers to an international level. The guitar has never been accepted as an
instrument of serious study at the University level in Japan. Private instruction
has been the primary way the guitar was taught.
8
Masaru Kohno, ‘Interview with Masao Kohno,”Interview with Andrea Tacchi,
1998, Classical Guitar 20, no. 3, November 2001, 24.
9
Program, 41st Tokyo International Guitar Competition 1998, (Tokyo, Japan
Federation of Guitarists), 25.
54
Chapter 4
1960 through 1980
Casa de la Guitarra Publications
The first publications for guitar in Japan following the war came from
Casa de la Guitarra (Casa). Takehiko Aoyagui founded Casa in 1965, as the first
classical guitar specialty shop. This company began by selling guitars, scores,
offering classes, as well as publishing scores by new composers, methods, and
general European classical guitar repertoire pieces. In 1966 Aoyagui married the
daughter of a well-known classical guitar performer by the name of Yasumasa
Obara. This guitarist convinced many Japanese composers to write for the guitar.
Consequently, when Casa began publishing new music there were many scores
to choose from. Then Aoyagui also approached many composers to write new
works for guitar.
Japanese composers were for the first time taking the guitarists seriously
because of the formation of the group Guitarists 20th Century. This was a group
comprised mainly of Obara’s students, whose focus was on performing new
works by Japanese composers. Obara also established the Takei Prize for new
guitar works. This prize was named after the prewar guitarist Morishige Takei
discussed earlier in this paper. This prize helped bring many more composers to
write for the instrument. Many of the scores published by Casa have been
awarded the Takei Prize.
Casa published some of the best of the new generation of composers, and
is by far the most diverse of the post-war publishers. The many different styles of
55
composition that were published by this company, as a whole, show the vast
changes in music in the post-war period.
Several new groups of composers were formed at this time that focused
on creating a new national music in various ways. One composer published by
Casa was part of the group Yagi No Kai, which formed in 1953. This was a group
of three composers: Hayashi Hikaru, Mamiya Michio, and Toyama Yuzo, who
utilized elements of folk songs to create a Japanese sense of music in the manner
of Bartók. Hayashi wrote several works that use the tuning of the shamisen to
create a language based on tetrechordal elements. One of these works is a duet
for two guitars written in 1960. Hayashi uses the Okinawan style, or Tetrachord
IV, Ryukyu, tuning to create the language for this piece. These tetrachords are, as
explained earlier, a theoretical creation of Koizumi Fumio, who was also the
director of the folk music study group at the Tokyo National University of Fine
Arts and Music. This is where all of the members of this group studied. In this
example by Hayashi, Fumio’s influence on his students can be seen (Example
4.1). The most Western elements that are used in this excerpt are the canon-like
parts in line number three. Traditionally shamisen would have played in unison.
This example is quite tame compared to the manner in which other members of
this group and others used traditional music elements in their compositions.
56
Example 4.1. Hayashi, Etude for Two Guitars, 1960 © Casa de la Guitarra, used by
permission.
Another composer published by Casa is Tsyoshi Otai (b 1932). The one
guitar work published by Otai is Sho for two guitars (1973). Sho is an instrument
that was used in gagaku (imperial court music). This instrument (figure 8) is a
sort of mouth organ that is played by blowing into a resonating chamber
connected to seventeen bamboo pipes. Each individual pipe contains a small
57
reed like a harmonica that only produces sound when the resonating hole is
covered, with the exception of the two mute pipes.
Figure 8, Sho Player.
The sho is used to produce chords. There are eleven chords that are
played on this instrument as shown below.
Figure 9, Sho harmonies1
1
Shigeo Kishibe, The Traditional Music of Japan (Tokyo, The Japan Foundation,
1982), 36.
58
The most characteristic sound from these chords is the A B (whole step)
combination in the middle of every chord. In Example 4.2 Otai chooses, instead,
to use a half step combination, here set to the notes D-sharp and E.
Example 4.2. Otai, Sho, 1973 © Casa de la Guitarra, used with permission.
Another member of the Sannin No Kai was Ikuma Dan. Although he did
not write for guitar, Dan’s ideas of music are important for this study. Dan was a
supporter of the idea that composers who were trained in Western music have
lost their Japanese sense of time. Dan believed that western concepts of time
were based on logic and symmetry. These were not Eastern ideas according to
59
him.2 One of the key aesthetics that Dan believed in was the Japanese sense of
silence that occurs in Japanese traditional arts. The concept that Dan is referring
to is commonly called Ma.
Ma is an important concept for understanding some of the works by
Japanese following World War II. Many composers found ways to use Ma in
their music starting in the 1960’s. In the article on Ma by Richard B. Pilgrim he
explains the concept of Ma through its religious and historical perspectives. The
main religions in Japan are Buddhism and Shinto. Shinto is the official religion of
the Imperial family and thus has been an enormous influence for a large part of
Japan’s history. One of the key elements of the Shinto religious experience exists
in the thousands of shrines built in every town and village in Japan. These
shrines are a place to stop, relax and pray so as to replenish the self before
returning to daily life. This is similar to Zen Buddhism where chanting and
meditation are used to achieve a state of harmony by freeing one from the self.
This is the religious concept of Ma that is carried on in many aspects of Japanese
daily life.3
Literally Ma means interval or space between and among. It is not just a
silence, but a perfect silence that joins the objective elements together. It is a
mode of experience that allows both the objective and subjective to be joined
together. Ma is a space between events in time that transcends spatial positioning
2
Ikuma Dan, “ The Influences of Japanese Traditional Music on the Development
of Western Music in Japan,”The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan 8, no. 3,
Dec 1961, 216-217.
3
Richard B. Pilgrim, “Intervals (Ma) in Space and Time: Foundations for a
Religio-Aesthetic Paradigm in Japan,”Japan: in Traditional and Postmodern
Perspectives (New York, State University of New York Press, 1995), 55-76.
60
to become part of the whole. In traditional Japanese performing arts Ma is one of
the main aesthetics. Noh drama is said to be the art of Ma.
For post-war composers in Japan this realm that is opened through Ma is
extremely important, since it is Ma that deconstructs all boundaries that the mind
creates to impose order on chaos. It is for this reason that Ma blends so well into
the avant-garde postwar music in Japan.
The earliest work composed for guitar that uses Ma is the work published
by Casa entitled Composition II (1960) by Takeo Noro (1925-1967). The most
striking thing about this example is the sparse texture and use of rests between
all of the short, two to four note, fragments.
Example 4.3. Noro, Composition II, 1960 © Casa de la Guitarra, used with
permission.
61
Noro gives the following performance indications for Composition II in the
score:
A: Rests should be played freely according the player’s interpretation
B: Eighth notes are equal to one beat. The Tempo is left to the player’s own
interpretation.
C: Notes with fermata over them may be held without regard for the
tempo.
Noro is clearly indicating that the performer should be active in
determining the lengths of silences according to their interpretation. So while
there are silences between fragments they are not without form or reason, and
must be carefully controlled by the performer to join the fragments and silences
together.
In solo compositions when Ma is used interpretations can be much more
varied than is possible in ensemble works. When more than one instrument is
used other means must be devised to organize the work without imposing metric
organization. In many works the difference between Ma and other static forms is
blurred to the point where it is difficult to say what works are or are not Ma. The
concepts of silence and freedom of rhythm as a key factor in music effects most
of the experimental music in post-war Japan.
Noro wrote a total of five works for guitar and an unfinished sixth work.
Casa published one other work by Noro posthumusly in 1969, Impromptu, pour 2
violins et guitare (1961). This is an example of the experimental attitudes toward
composition, especially in the area of time. In this work (Example 4.4) Noro
leaves the rhythm free from meter and tempo and the connections of notes
between parts are left up to graphic devices such as lines and arrows.
62
Example 4.4. Noro, Impromtu pour 2 Violins et Guitare, © Casa de la Guitarra, used
with permission.
Following the Second World War there were many striking new styles
that clearly mark the period. One of the most influential composers of the postwar era was John Cage (b1912-). Cage adopted indeterminacy or chance as one of
the principle factors in his compositions. In indeterminate compositions one or
more of the elements of the music are left up to the performer. Throughout the
history of western music there have always been indeterminate factors found in
music. However in the post-war period indeterminacy was one of the most
characteristic elements of composition.4 Herd notes that when Toshi Ichiyanaga
returned from the United States in 1961, indeterminate style was already widely
adopted in Japan.5 Looking back at Composition II (example 4.3) by Takeo Noro
that was discussed above, it was clear that composers in Japan were already
4
Robert P. Morgan, Twentieth-Century Music (New York, W.W. Norton
Company), 359.
5
Herd, 190.
63
using these new indeterminate forms to develop their own compositional styles,
which reflected the newest trends in the West.
There were many scores published for the guitar in Japan that show this
new indeterminacy movement; the works by Noro above is but one of many to
follow. Probably the most important composer for guitar in this form from Japan
is Kenjiro Ezaki (b 1926). Ezaki studied composition at Nippon University. Later
he received a Fulbright scholarship to study at Illinois University and Columbia
University in 1965. Here he met the Japanese guitarist Yasumasa Obara who was
touring the United States at that time. Ezaki agreed to write a work for him.
Ezaki completed the work Music for guitar and Electronic Sound in 1967 after
returning to Japan. Casa de la Guitarra published two works by Ezaki; Contention
for Female voice and Guitar, and Music for Guitar and Electric Sound (1968).
Music for Guitar and Electric Sound is written to be performed with an
amplified acoustic guitar played back through a delayed tape loop while at the
same time a prerecorded tape sound is played through a separate set of speakers
that are to be set back behind the guitarist. The score gives the stage set up to
ensure correct positioning of devices on the stage for performance (Figure 10).
The performance notes say to contact the publisher for the tape part but they
have apparently lost the tape, so we will have to have to imagine what the tape
part may have been from the graphic notation. Ezaki says that this score is a
collage of old and new music, between baroque and modern sounds.
64
Figure 10, Ezaki Music for Guitar and Electric Sound: Stage set up
The tape loop that is used creates an echo/delayed part that is partially
noted in the score (Example 4.5). At the 1’00” in this score the guitarist is asked to
“Play one section of a popular classical piece like J.S. Bach or Mozart for about 25
seconds.” Ezaki is contrasting the new electronic sounds with a sentimental
glimpse of the past poking through the mist of, it is presumed, unpitched
electronic sounds.
65
Example 4.5. Ezaki, Music for Guitar and Electronic Sounds, 1967 © Casa de la
Guitarra, used with permission.
In Contention for Female Voice and Guitar, Ezaki gives us twelve musical
gestures written on a broken staff that only appears when the instruments are
used. The performance notes are in a Japanese with a rather bad English
translation. Here is what he clearly says in Japanese:
66
1) Order of performance: perform in regular order from 1 – 12, including
both the sections 7 and 7’, and also 8 and 8’. After the twelfth section you
should repeat several sections. The number order has to be planned by
both performers in advance.
2) Duration & Velocity: First time: about 25 seconds for each page.
Repeat: about 15 seconds for each page
Total duration: 6~8 minutes.
3) Finish: at end of fifth or twelfth section during the repeat.
4) Stoppages: places where the staff disappears use your eyes to measure
the distance of seconds
5) Caution: fundamentally performed without rhythm, decide length of
notes freely by measuring distance with your eyes
Ezaki has created a work that utilizes chance operation by leaving the
repeated sections up to the performers to choose the music, what order it will be
heard, and where it will end. He has also given us an example where he seems to
want no connection to rhythmic drive created by standard notation. This leaves
the work totally free to be nothing more than gesture figures rather than phrases.
Ezaki also uses several non-standard notational practices such as having
the size of the note head determine the volume of the pitch in relative contrast to
the other notes (example 4.6). Percussion effects to be played on the guitar are
used extensively throughout this work. Ezaki uses his own set of symbols to
mean different ways of striking the strings, soundboard, or scratching the strings
with a plastic object. These new uses of the guitar’s sound possibilities show
Ezaki’s knowledge of the new experimental age of using all the sounds that an
instrument is capable of besides the normal pitched sounds.
67
Example 4.6. Ezaki, Contention for Female Voice and Guitar, © Casa de la Guitarra,
used with permission.
68
Ezaki published one other work through Suvini Zerboni in 1964 for solo
guitar. Nodule contains many of the conventions of the later graphic notational
devices that Ezaki uses in the scores published by Casa. In Nodule Ezaki uses a
greatly expanded number of percussion effects on the guitar and uses a notation
to show rhythm values (Example 4.7). The score contains three lines: the tone;
one five line staff (actual notes to be played), noise; single line staff (percussion
effects) and tempo; single line that is bent to show changes in tempos with
tempos in parenthesis written above it. Nodule is an interesting score that shows
how Ezaki was already approaching a much freer musical form that he later
expresses in the Casa scores.
Example 4.7. Ezaki, Nodule 1964 © Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, permission of
Sugurmusic Ltd/Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, Milano.
Of the several other works worth mentioning in the free experimental
attitude of the 1960’s is the work written by Maki Ishii and published by Casa
titled Fünf Elemente; fur Gitarre und sechs Spieler (1967). This work was written for
famous German guitarist Siegfried Behrend. This is the only score published by
Casa where all the texts are in German and Japanese. The instrumentation for this
work is for piccolo one and two, percussion, guitar, violin, viola, and cello. The
69
composer uses score staves only shown when the instruments are playing. This
score in particular is reminiscent of some of the scores by George Crumb. On
page two there are two large boxes for each piccolo player to pick and choose
from. In each box are ten different fragments to be played in any order for forty
seconds. Pages three to four from the Ishii score gives us a harmonic language of
quartal fragments positioned in minor second relations to each other in the
strings. The harmonic language Ishii uses in this work contains the harmonic
dissonances common to the chordal language of the sho. The guitar displays a
vast array of percussion and sliding effects throughout the piece that are more or
less left up to the performer where on the instrument to perform them (Example
4.8).
70
Example 4.8. Ishii, Fünf Elemente; fur Gitarre und sechs Spieler 1967 © Casa de la
Guitarra, used with permission.
The work Ki and two Ritsu (1973) by Mao Yamagishi is another example of
free form musical composition. In this work the indeterminate devices used are
in the rhythmic relationship between the flute and guitar. In this example the
flute and guitar seem to be playing a Messiaenic type of coordination. The flute is
playing a random birdcall-like figure over the guitar part that is a repeated
twelve-chord pattern (Example 4.9). The two parts are not locked together by a
pulse but are free to play at will till the end of the section. This work contains
some strict twelve-tone usage in the last movements and a freely atonal first
movement.
71
Example 4.9. Yamagishi, Ki and Two Ritsu, © Casa de le Guitarra, used with
permisson.
Ryo Noda is a saxophonist/composer who has written only one work that
uses guitar. Nagare (1974) for flute and guitar was published by Alphonse Leduc in
Paris and composed for the duo of flutist Maxence Larrieu and guitarist Ichiro
Suzuki. Noda captures a unique combination of modern techniques such as
percussion effects and string slides marked with “Schu-“ below the notated
symbol in the third line of example 4.10. Noda is also relying on Ma to create a
quiet between gestures. In the middle of this work Noda takes the composition
into a song like texture with the flute playing a melodic line and the guitar
72
accompanying in an arpeggiated chord style. The scale is one of the Ritsu types
that give a koto instrumental flavor to the section.
The B section
Example 4.10. Ryo Noda, Nagare, 1974 © 1977 Editions Alphonse Leduc, Used by
Permission of the Publisher.
73
One of the most characteristic features of Noda’s saxophone music is his
use of grace notes. All of Noda’s solo saxophone works start with the same grace
note figure before the first note followed by many more grace notes with large
intervals. His work Mai for solo saxophone has a similar structure with a rapid
middle section that uses larger divisions of the beat to create acceleration, exactly
like Nagare, except that Mai ends with silence instead of the jump to the melodic
material in Nagare. In his dissertation, Andy Young-Wen describes Noda’s use of
grace notes as characteristic of shakuhachi music.6
In the early 1970’s Casa published several excellent scores, including one
by Kazuko Hara (b1935). Hara is a librettist, singer, composer, and professor of
music. She studied composition with Tomijiro Ikenouchi in Tokyo and
graduated in 1957. In 1962 she studied in Paris with Henri Dutilleux and then the
following year in Nice with Alexander Tcherepnin. She also studied voice in
Venice. She won second prize in the NHK and Mainichi music contest in 1955,
the Takei prize in 1974. Since the 1980’s Hara has mainly been composing
operas.7 She began teaching at the Osaka University of Arts in 1968. She is also
married to the composer Hiroshi Hara who has also written several excellent
works for guitar. This is the source of her married family name. Like Americans
in the 1950’s through 1970’s many Japanese went to Europe to study music.
Quite a few Japanese composers studied in Paris, and several of the well-known
6
Andy Young-Run Wen, “Improvisation I and Pulse 72+, By Ryo Noda: an Analytical
and Interpretive Study” (DMA diss., University of Georgia, 1995).
7
Japan Federation of Composer: Catalogue of Publications 1984 (Tokyo, The Japan
Federation of Composers) “Yugato Eika.”
74
ones studied with Dutilleux. Kazuko Hara must have met her husband Hiroshi
Hara here, since he also studied with Dutilleux.
Kazuko Hara’s work for guitar strongly reflects her European education
rather than the experimental indeterminate American tradition. The modal
harmony is set in a linear melodic fashion that sounds a bit like other guitar
works that appear in Europe around this period. The harmonic structure utilizes
the tritone as a basic structure for the entire composition. Many times this
dissonance is de-emphasized in the linear motion of the driving melodic
pulsation (Example 4.11).
Example 4.11. Hara, Preludio, Aria, e Toccata, 1971 © Casa de la Guitarra, used
with permission.
In the second movement the tritone harmony is made quite clear in the
accompaniment. Here in example 4.12 the E minor chord with an added A- sharp
start the mood for the piece under a lyrical aria-like melody.
75
Example 4.12. Hara, Preludio, Aria et Toccata, 1971 © Casa de la Guitarra, used
with permission.
This work was written for Norio Sato, who premiered it. Norio Sato has
worked with many composers on new guitar music including the piece Toward
the Sea by Toru Takemitsu and Metatheses 2 by Yuji Takahashi that are discussed
later. Sato is an important figure in the creation of new music for the guitar, and
has premiered and recorded many new works for the guitar by Japanese
composers.
Probably the most often played work published by Casa is the work
Intermezzo (1978) by Teruyuki Noda (b.1940). Noda studied with Tomojiro
Ikenouchi and Akio Yashiro at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and
Music. Speaking about his own music, Noda claims to compose “very freely”:
76
In my music, there may be a feeling of tonality, but analysis will
show that it is not tonal music. I employ a personal technique, choosing
each note through a filtering of my entire life experience.8
The harmonic vocabulary in this work is definitely of a freely atonal
language, however the several returns to the opening material give it a sort of
harmonic center on the first chord of measure one. This chord (F, B, D, A-sharp,
D-sharp, E) occurs three times. The first and third times function like a theme
and recapitulation.
Opening
Recapitulation
Example 4.13. Noda, Intermezzo 1978 © Casa de la Guitarra, used with
permission.
8
Shuko Watanabe, “Tradition and Synthesis: Influences on the Solo Piano Works
of 34 Japanese composers Surveyed” (DMA diss., University of Maryland, 1992),
632.
77
Shuko Watanabe notes that the only influences that can be traced in
Noda’s music are to the music of Berg.9 The most obvious of these are the
expressionistic use of chromaticism similar to European composers before
serialism, gestures as opposed to phrases, and passages that cover a wide range
of registers within a short span of time. And like many composers of this period
Noda uses chords built on fourths to avoid tertian harmony.
Casa de la Guitarra published a broad range of music. Many of the
compositions not mentioned here, specifically the works by Teiho Matsumoto
and Atsumasa Nakabayashi, continue in the nineteenth century
guitarist/composer style. These works are simple in tonal and formal elements.
Nakabayashi’s music reflects his love of Spanish flamenco music. Matsumoto’s
compositions seem to draw on the music of Chopin as models for his works
using titles such as valse, nocturn, and etudes. Matsumoto’s Nocturn is one of
only a few guitar works written with five sharps in the key signature.
Example 4.14. Matsumoto, Nocturn, 1971 © Casa de la Guitarra, used with
permission.
In 1980 Casa stopped publishing new works for guitar and has fallen into
the mode of just promoting their old catalogue. Many of the works published by
Casa still appear as set pieces for the Tokyo International Guitar Competition.
9
Watanabe, 636.
78
However, I have not found any recordings of these works, with the exception of
Intermezzo by Teruyuki Noda, recorded by Kazuhito Yamashita. Casa is one of
the most important of the postwar publishers of guitar music simply for the
broad range of music by young composers it promoted as well as the quality of
the works it published.
Zen-on
One of the most well known publishers in Japan is Zen-on. This company
is a household name, especially if anyone in the house plays piano. Zen-on was
founded in 1931 and currently has a catalogue of over 3000 scores. The piano
library is the main part of Zen-on’s publications. They also have published a
small number of scores for guitar by several of the best-known composers in and
outside of Japan. The main publishing range of years for guitar scores by Zen-on
comes between 1968 and 1977.
One of the most internationally recognized composers in Japan is Akira
Ifukube (b 1914). Ifukube is a composer who had a great deal of success
immediately before the war, when his music was performed frequently. Ifukube
was able to capture all of the developments of the prewar years and incorporate
them into his compositional style. Born in Hokkaido (Northern island of Japan),
Ifukube studied to be a forest engineer at Hokkaido University, where he
graduated in 1935. Out of his own curiosity, he studied the music of the earliest
known inhabitants of Japan, known as Ainu, who mainly live in Hokkaido, and
79
also Japanese folk music, known as min-yo. Ifukube’s only known teacher was
Alexander Tcherepnin who he studied with briefly in the mid 1930’s.10
His work Ballata Symphonica was dedicated to his brother, who died in the
war. This was written in 1943 and was performed in the United States the same
year. Ifukube wrote five ballets from 1948 to 1953, then turned his attention to
orchestral music. Later he focused on film music, and is known for the extremely
popular Godzilla movies that he wrote music for. Ifukube played the piano,
violin, and lute. His brother was a guitarist who did not seem to fair well as a
concert performer and was told not to perform in public after his first concert.11
Ifukube wrote three works for guitar that were published by Zen-on: Toka,
cantilena ballabile sul Modo Antico de Giappone (1968), Kugoka, Aria Concertata
diKugo-Arpa (1969), and Toccata per Chitarra (1970). These works were published
individually first then republished in a new collection in 1995.
Kugoka means music for the kugo harp. The kugo harp was an instrument
from ancient Japan that was known to have been used around 710 to 780 A.D.
This instrument is also known as a vertical angled harp. The Kugo harp had 23
single strings attached to silken tuning –rings on the horizontal neck, Figure 11.
The tuning of this instrument is not known.12
10
Herd, 61
Tamaki Yoshihiro, http://www1.nisiq.net/~y-tama/history.html; Internet;
accessed 1 March 2002.
12
Akira Ifukube, Music for Guitar, Tokyo, Zen-on Music Company Ltd., 47.
11
80
Figure 11, Kugo Harp.
Kugoka begins with a slow introduction, followed by sextuplets that bring
a harp–like glissando sound into the work (Example 4.15). The materials from
the introductory section are the same materials used to create the slow B section
in the middle of the work.
After the introduction, the A section begins (Example 4.16). The harp-like
arpeggiation is used for ninety-one measures in the first A section and one
hundred and twelve measures in the return of A. Ifukube says about the texture:
Kugoka is modeled on kinka (koto song). The theme is the arpeggio
keeping in mind the kugo effect. A somewhat particular fingering is used
so that each note of a set is to be played with a different string.13
Having the arpeggio as the theme makes for a unique texture in the guitar
repertoire. Usually the upper melody given with opposite stems will have the
13
Ibid.
81
greater musical interest. Here Ifukube is saying the opposite; here the arpeggio is
to have the interest. Harmonic progression created by the arpeggio gives a tonal
center of A minor, with plenty of B – flats to give it a phrygian modal sound.
Example 4.15. Ifukube, Aria Concertata di Kugo –Arpa, © 1969 Zen-On Music
Company Limited, © renewed, All rights reserved, Used by permission of
European America Music Distributors LLC, solo US and Canadian agent for Zenon music Company Limited.
82
Example 4.16. Ifukube, Aria Concertata di Kugo –Arpa, © 1969 Zen-On Music
Company Limited, © renewed, All rights reserved, Used by permission of
European America Music Distributors LLC, solo US and Canadian agent for Zenon music Company Limited
Ifukube was greatly influenced by Ainu music. One feature of Ainu music
is its long phrases built up on repeated figures. Ifukube builds a similar texture
in Kugoka with phrases of eleven, thirty, and fifty measures contrasted by subtle
harmonic changes.
Masakata Kanazawa describes Ifukube’s music as ethnic exoticism and
says that his use of rhythm is often described as barbaric, like Stravinsky or
Prokofiev. 14 The shifting meters and driving arpeggiated figures in this piece are
similar to some of Stravinsky’s music, with an almost random barring created to
fit the music.
14
Masakata Kanazawa, “Ifukube, Akira,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians, 2nd ed., edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell
(London:Macmillian 2001).
83
Another work published by Zen-on is Epithalamium (1976), by Yasuhiko
Tsukamoto (b 1934-). Tsukamoto was born in Manchuria (northeastern part of
China). He graduated from the Tokyo University of fine arts and music in 1961
where he had studied with Mareo Ishegeta. He presently teaches at Gumma
University as a professor of music, and he is a member of the Japan Music
Education Society.
The title, Epithalamium, comes from the Greek word for a marriage song or
poem that is usually in praise of the bride and bridegroom. Sometimes this is an
instrumental piece intended to be played at a wedding or evocative of the
ceremony. Tsukamoto’s work is not about any particular wedding of any known
persons. The sections depict the joining of a man and woman in wedding. The
sections represent male and female, although they are not marked as either.
There are three sections to this work; A, B, and AB. A, being one set of material,
B, being another set of material. AB, then, is both of them together.15 In the AB
(marriage) section the A theme is only heard in 19 of the 157 measures of this
section. Harmonically the language of this work is clearly tonal. The music is not
developed as would be expected with this sort of music. Tsukamoto instead
chooses to write through composed sections and then combine pieces of them for
the AB section.
Epithalamium and Kugoka are excellent works that are rarely performed.
These works represent some of the best of the tonal music that is usually
forgotten when considering twentieth century Japanese music.
15
Yasuhiko Tsukamoto, Epithalamium (Tokyo, Zen-on music, 1976) composer’s
notes on back cover.
84
85
Example 4.17. Tsukamoto, Epithalamium © 1976 Zen-On Music Company
Limited, © renewed, All rights reserved, Used by permission of European
America Music Distributors LLC, solo US and Canadian agent for Zen-on music
Company Limited
Just as these two works by Zen-on show a rather conservative tonal
vocabulary there are other important works by several world-renowned
modernist composers. The contrast between these two groups show the vast
differences between the purely academic compositional style and a more popular
style that would be performed more often by the generation raised on Segovia
repertoire.
Akira Miyoshi (b1933) was a student of composition at an early age under
Kozoburo Hirai and Tomojiro Ikenouchi. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire
86
in 1955-7 with Gallois-Montburn. His most notable influence is that of
Dutilleux.16 The obvious influences to Dutilleux are Miyoshi’s use of pivot chords
to establish unity and absence of progressive growth in a work. At present only
two of Miyoshi’s guitar works have been published, although a new collection is
due to be printed soon by Gendai Guitar.17
Epitase (1973) is the second scene from his first work for guitar duo
entitled Protase. Protase means continuation, while Epitase is continuation with
change. Change is symbolic for crisis in this work.18 One of the most striking
characteristics of this work is the compactness of Miyoshi’s style. The entire work
is in three movements, with each movement taking only one standard size page.
Yet, on the first page alone there are a total of eleven tempo changes: molto vivo,
lento, vivo, lento, senza tempo, animato, vivo, lento, moderatamente vivo, senza
tempo, lento. Each of the three movements contains these frequent changes in
tempo similar to the first movement (Example 4.18).
Miyoshi uses slashes ( / ) to separate the gestures in this work. Due to the
undetermined length of these slashes it can be presumed that the length of
silence between each gesture is being left up to the performer. This is to say that
Miyoshi is, in a modernist sort of way, using Ma or Ma-like breaks to help
distinguish the gestures from each other.
16
Yoko Narazaki, “Miyoshi, Akira” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, 2nd ed., edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London:Macmillian
2001).
17
The web page for Gendai Guitar, Tokyo has listed a new collection of works by
Akira Miyoshi for the past two years with “n.p.”(not priced) in their catalogue. I
tried to order it, but was told it is not yet available.
18
Akira Miyoshi, Epitase, Tokyo, Zen-on 209, 1975, composers comments on back
cover.
87
Miyoshi is not using tonal or serial techniques in this composition.
However, the work has a modal sound due to the many returns of the opening
chord, and inversions of it. The main components in the first and third
movements of this work are chords that mainly use the combination of E-flat, A,
and D that are easily sounded on guitar in the lowest open strings. The guitar is
tuned to an E – flat on the sixth string to facilitate this combination. The second
movement focuses more on the intervals of m2 (m9), M3 and m3, as well as M6
and m6. The tt-P4-P4 combination comes back a few times but is less of a factor
in the harmonic sound of the second movement.
Example 4.18. Miyoshi, Epitase, © 1975 Zen-On Music Company Limited, ©
renewed, All rights reserved, Used by permission of European America Music
Distributors LLC, solo US and Canadian agent for Zen-on music Company
Limited.
88
The tt-p4-p4 modal sound is firmly established in the final cadence-like
material at the end of the work when the last line shifts to an E-flat, B-flat, D
–sharp, A, B, (P4, P4, P4, tt, M2) chord that gives a tonal-like resolution to the
final chord of E-flat, A, G - sharp.
Example 4.19. Miyoshi, Epitase, © 1975 Zen-On Music Company Limited, ©
renewed, All rights reserved, Used by permission of European America Music
Distributors LLC, solo US and Canadian agent for Zen-on music Company
Limited.
Miyoshi’s music falls into the post serialism and indeterminacy
generation. This period in the mid 1960’s through 1970’s was marked by a
complete breakdown of temporal direction. The conventions of Romantic music
used harmonic and rhythmic factors to give the listener a sense of where the
music is at, from the proceeding material, and where it is going. Serialism was
used to remove harmonic direction and indeterminate forms took away rhythmic
direction. From these new techniques composers developed a more static concept
of musical form. With Miyoshi’s Epitase , the motion of the piece still has quite a
bit of forward motion in both the modal pull from the repeated harmonies and
the drives in the rhythmic notation of the gestures. However, the overall
structure of the work is more important than the parts, which points to some of
the new developments by Xenakis and Stockhausen in Europe in the 1960’s
Another important composer published by Zen-on is who was active in
this new post-serialist/indeterminate period was Yuji Takahashi (b 1938).
89
Takahashi is known as both a composer and an excellent performer who is able
to perform difficult avant-garde works with brilliance. He studied composition at
the Toho Gakuen School of Music with Shibata and Ogura from 1954 to 1958.
Then he was able to study with Xenakis in Berlin from 1963 to 1966 on a Ford
foundation grant. In 1966 he came to the United States on a Rockefeller grant,
which used to spend time at Tanglewood, The Lukas Foss Center in Buffalo New
York, and Indiana University.
Takahashi’s Metatheses 2 (1969) for solo guitar is a structurally organized
work that shows his understanding of the new trends in European music.
Stockhausen’s influence can be felt in Takahashi’s formal design and absence of
serial-like structures. This is one of the few works for guitar from Japan at this
time that uses this kind of rhythmic complexity to avoid temporal direction.
Textural changes mark the main points of location within the temporal space; the
beginning and end are quite simple with a single note line, while in the middle of
the work the texture becomes very thick and complex (Example 4.20). The
organization of this work is based on probability calculations.
The score is also unique in its notation for guitar. The lower six lines are a
tablature system to help guide the performer through this complicated notation.
This tablature is helpful since the tuning of the guitar is changed to:
Figure 12, tuning for Metatheses 2
90
The notation for Metatheses 2 is rather sparse in dynamic and articulation
indications, again showing his separation from European serialism that used
dynamics and articulations for every single note.
Takahashi, Yuji, Metatheses 2, Opening section
Example 4.20. Takahashi, Yuji, Metatheses 2, page 6, middle section, advanced
complexity. Takahashi, Metatheses 2, © 1969 Zen-On, permission granted by
composer.
Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996)
The most famous and internationally accepted composer to ever come out
of Japan is Toru Takemitsu. At the age of sixteen, Takemitsu decided to take up
91
music after hearing Western music from both his father, who loved Jazz and
dixieland music, and western classical music that he heard while working at an
American military base. He received intermittent instruction from Yasuji Kiyose,
but was largely self-taught. Ichiyanaga was a colleague who introduced
Messiaen’s music to Takemitsu. Messiaen and Debussy were important
influences on Takemitsu’s style from his earliest days. Takemitsu was
profoundly influenced by John Cage, and where he claims to have learned about
Zen Buddhism. Takemistu’s musical language is a combination of modal and
chromatic elements. Rhythmically his music usually contains irregular metric
combinations and moments where the forward motion is suspended. Takemitsu
was a member of the experimental workshop Jikken Kobo that was founded in
1951. This group contained musicians and artists who worked together to create
mixed media works. Some of the composers involved with this group included
Joji Yuasa, Hiroyoshi Suzuki, Keijiro Sato, and Kazuo Fukushima.
Takemitsu wrote a total of twenty-three works that use the guitar either as
the main instrument of melodic and textural material in a solo or small ensemble
setting, or as a color within a larger instrumental texture. The latter of these will
not be discussed here. His best-known works for guitar are Toward the Sea, All in
Twilight, and Folios. These works have received numerous performances by many
of the major performers of classical guitar repertoire.
The earliest work by Takemitsu that uses guitar is Ring for flute, terzguitar, and lute, published in 1961. Ring is often discussed in writings about
Takemitsu’s music as one of his first aleatoric and freest works. Takemitsu was
greatly influenced by the music of John Cage and even performed several
happenings with him in 1964. Ring consists of five sections R (retrograde), I
92
(inversion), N (noise), G (general theme), and the 0 section which is a graphic
notation19. The R,I,N,G, sections are to be performed in any order with the 0
between each section. The 0 sections (see Example 4.21) leaves many factors up to
the performer, including which notes to perform within the given mode (black
key or white key), rhythm and meter, and tempo. Dynamics are marked in the
outer rings to show general scale in relation to the individual part.
Example 4.21. Takemitsu, Ring, @ 1974 Editions Salabert- Paris, used by
permisson.
The G section in example 4.22 shows that Takemitsu used a similar
method of notation as Noro in his work, Impromptu, for two violins and guitar
(Example 4.4). In example 4.22 Takemitsu uses arrows to show the relationship of
the parts to each other. Here, Takemitsu uses notes that do not have rhythmic or
19
Noriko Ohtake, Creative Sources fir the Music of Toru Takemitsu, (England: Scolar
Press, 1993), 9
93
metric values for two of the parts, while contrasting in layers with a third
rhythmically notated part. Spatial organization of the notation is important for
temporal location of notes in these sections. The harmonic language of the work
is freely atonal. The flute part in the N section begins with a twelve-tone row but
never fully restates the row again.
Ring also contains several indications of a theatrical presentation. In the
opening instructions ‘the flute player should have a ring which looks very gay’
are given. In the N section the flutist is instructed to knock on the mouthpiece
and joint with this ring. Takemitsu finds it important to note how it looks
indicating that he wants the ring to be a visual part of the performance.
Example 4.22. Takemitsu, Ring ©1974 Editions Salabert-Paris, used by
permission. (top voice flute, middle terz-guitar, bottom lute)
Another work by Takemitsu composed in 1965, revised in 1969, is Valeria.
This work is written for violin, cello, guitar, two piccolos, and organ. Similarly to
Matsudaira’s Katsura, discussed earlier (example 3.3), Takemitsu is using an
instrumental ensemble to imitate gagaku orchestration. Gagaku instrumentation
usually contains wind, strings, percussion, and sho. In Valeria the organ part is
94
similar in function to the chordal harmony of the sho. The guitar is also filling the
same function as the biwa would in gagaku by reinforcing and embellishing the
main materials played by the strings (example 4.23).
Example 4.23. Takemitsu, Valeria, © 1962 Universal Editions, © renewed, All
rights reserved, Used by permission of European America Music Distributors
LLC, solo US and Canadian agent for Zen-on music Company Limited.
Herd points out the symmetrical divisions of this work into metered and
un-metered sections and materials that are repeated. The harmony for the first
movement of this work is entirely built upon one harmonic unit and its
inversions (Figure 13):
Figure 13, harmonic unit of Valeria in Opening section.
95
This harmony is similar to one of the chordal figure played by the sho (see
figure 9). In example 4.24 the harmonic unit is clearly presented in the guitar
part.
Example 4.24. Takemitsu, Valeria, © 1969 Universal Editions, © renewed, All
rights reserved, Used by permission of European America Music Distributors
LLC, solo US and Canadian agent for Zen-on music Company Limited.
The first solo guitar work written by Takemitsu is Folios (1974). This music
draws on one of Takemitsu’s most important influences: the music of J.S. Bach,
specifically St. Matthew Passion. Takemitsu began each day by listening to this
work before he composed. In Folios, Takemitsu uses a quotation technique by
adding a direct quote from Bach’s music. ‘Choral no. 72’ is a strange number that
can not be fully explained here since there are not 72 chorales nor is the 72nd
work (Aria. Coro II: Konnen Thranen Meiner Wangen) related to the chorale he
quotes. The choral Takemitsu is quoting is the 75th work from St Matthew
Passion; Choral. Coro I.II O Haupt voll blut und Wunden.
96
Example 4.25. Bach, St. Matthew Passion, © 1990 Dover Publications, from 1856
Bach-Gesellschaft, Chorale: O haupt voll blut und Wun-den, used with permission.
Example 4.26. Takemitsu, Folios ©1974 Editions Salabert-Paris, used by
permission.
Takemitsu uses the anacrusis notes of the chorale several times in the
other three movements to create an easier transition to the chorale without
causing undue discontinuity. This can be seen in the opening line of Folios.
97
Example 4.27. Takemitsu, Folios ©1974 Editions Salabert-Paris, used by
permission
The term folio has to do with the folded page rather than any connection
to the folia pattern found in Spain in the seventeenth century. For this work, a
folio is a single sheet of paper folded in half. This score is three folios or three
single pages folded in half.
In the 1970’s Takemitsu was able to work with many excellent performers
to ensure that his works were playable. The guitar style of Takemitsu uses thick
textures and many harmonics, a combination that often is found to be unperformable. Folios was written for one of the most famous guitarists from Japan,
Kiyoshi Shomura. Takemitsu’s earlier works for guitar do not use indication of
timbral changes for the guitarist. The later works from the 1980s show a much
greater use of these markings, specifically in All in Twilight, composed for Julian
Bream, and Equinox, for Manuel Barrueco. Collaboration with these artists has
ensured playability of his works.
Takemitsu’s duet, Toward the Sea (1981), for alto flute and guitar, is
currently one of the most often played works by flute and guitar duos. The sea,
98
as a programmatic title, is the most used image that Takemitsu refers to for his
compositions. So much so that he even developed a motive to represent the sea.
The SEA motive that is used in this work uses the notes E-flat, E, and A. The
German equivalent of E-flat is Es, hence the pronunciation SEA.
Figure 14, the SEA motive.
In Toward the Sea, Takemitsu uses this motive many times in the second
and third movement. The piece ends with motive, first in the lowest notes of the
guitar, then in the flute (see Example 4.28).
Example 4.28. Takemitsu, Toward the Sea, © 1982 Schott Company Ltd, ©
renewed, All rights reserved, Used by permission of European America Music
Distributors LLC, solo US and Canadian agent for Zen-on music Company
Limited.
The second movement, Moby Dick, begins with an inverted form of the
SEA motive. Also in Toward the Sea Takemitsu uses Ma to bring a static mood to
the work. This example from Moby Dick shows a 2” pause after the dying away
in the flute part. The silence here is more than just a separation of gestures,
99
Takemitsu is inviting silence into his work here by offering a calm moment
(example 4.29).
Example 4.29. Takemitsu, Toward the Sea, ©1982 Schott Company Ltd, ©
renewed, All rights reserved, Used by permission of European America Music
Distributors LLC, solo US and Canadian agent for Zen-on music Company
Limited.
The solo work All in Twilight (1981) is a four-movement work. Each
movement is in ABA form with coda like endings. Harmonically All in Twilight is
so tonal sounding, compared to his earlier work Folios that one almost wants to
analyze this work within the framework of traditional major tonality. Timbre
color is important for this composition to express the dynamic contrasts. Also, in
the second line, fourth measure of this example Takemitsu uses another figure
that is common during his later compositions. This figure also appears in the
100
concert for Oboe and Guitar, Vers, L’arc-en, Palma (1984), and appears to have
been borrowed from Messiaen. 20
Example 4.30. Takemitsu, All in Twilight, © 1987 Schott Company Ltd., ©
renewed, All rights reserved, Used by permission of European America Music
Distributors LLC, solo US and Canadian agent for Zen-on music Company
Limited.
The second and fourth movements from All in Twilight are tonally
centered in a modal harmony (example 4.30). Both of these movements exhibit
song-like qualities in their textual presentation. The second movement has an
accompaniment figure that starts in an ostinato-like pattern, reminiscent of Eric
20
Peter Burt, The Music of Toru Takemitsu (United Kingdom: Cambridge
University Press, 2001), 211-212.
101
Satie’s famous Gymnopédies. Over the ostinato pattern Takemitsu adds a simple
and rather static melody.
Example 4.31. Takemitsu All in Twilight, © 1987 Schott Company Ltd., ©
renewed, All rights reserved, Used by permission of European America Music
Distributors LLC, solo US and Canadian agent for Zen-on music Company
Limited.
Takemitsu’s guitar works are published by a number of important
publishers including Schott Japan, and Salabert in Paris. The only guitar music
published by Schott Japan is Takemitsu’s music and one other rarely heard work
by Toshio Hosokawa (b 1955) entitled Renka I (1985). Takemitsu’s later style of
writing for guitar is a harbinger of the new tonality that is being explored by the
next generation of composers.
102
The newest generation of composers from the 1980’s to the present has
several publishers in Japan to choose from. The music these companies publish is
either of a more academic nature or are strongly influenced by popular music. In
the next chapter we will consider the music of two publishers and the recent
scores they have produced.
103
Chapter 5
1980’s to 2000 - the Present State of Guitar Music in Japan
The Japan Federation of Composers (JFC)
The Japan Federation of Composers began as the Composers Union in the
1960’s. In order to receive government funding the name was changed to The
Japan Federation of Composers. Publications began in 1970 with help from
government subsidies and later in 1983 JFC was established as a non-profit
organization. The composers who belong to this group are some of the most
prestigious in Japan. Most of these composers have works published by major
publishers and are teachers of composition at universities in Japan. Quite a few
of the members have attained international success and have had articles written
about them in important journals and dictionaries of music.
As already mentioned, most of the composers in JFC teach in academia,
where most of them remain aware of the newest trends in music. Works
published by The Japan Federation of Composers are centered on the art music
languages that have become part of the academic tradition of the late twentieth
century. This language is freely tonal or atonal with little concern for breaking
down tonal centers such as was the ideal of the serialist schools in the mid
twentieth century. Several excellent works for guitar that are published from JFC
are by composers such as Toruh Aki, Masao Homma, Yoko Kurimoto, Mieko
Shiomi, Kazu Munakata, Masanori Iida, and Hiroaki Zakohji.
One of the earliest scores published by JFC that uses guitar is As it were
Floating Granules (1975) by Mieko Shiomi (b.1938, real name Chieko Sakaguchi).
This work is for nine male and nine female vocalists, synthesizer, six clarinets,
104
guitar, violin, viola, and cello. There are also two kinds of white noise to be
played through different channels of the speakers. These two noises are set to
cause waves from the six and eight second interval of the recorded noises. The
stage is set with seven slide projectors and spotlights to form areas of
congregation where the vocalists are to gather (figure 15). In the first and fourth
section of this work the chorus is to be in the audience in attempt to bring the
audience into the performance.1
Figure 15. Vocalists positions, ‘the round conference of vocalist’. Mieko Shiomi,
As it Were Floating Granuels, © 1975 Japan Federation of Composers, used with
permission.
Example 5.1. In this section seven virtuosos are to surround a guitarist. Shiomi,
As it Were Floating Granuels, © 1975 Japan Federation of Composers, used with
permission.
In example 5.1 the guitarist is instructed to play with no concern for the
vocal ensemble and to leave intervals of 10-25 seconds between every two
groups of materials. The guitarist has three groups of materials to choose from, A
and C groups are notated, while the B group has instructions on what to do with
1
Japan Federation of Composer: Catalogue of Publications 1975, (Tokyo, The Japan
Federation of Composers) “As it Were Floating Granules”
105
notes that are selected by the guitarist. Indeterminacy is an important factor in
Shiomi’s works. Her style reflects the influences from her time as a member of
Fluxus in New York from 1964 to around 1970. One of the most important
members of Fluxus was John Cage, with whom Shiomi performed with on
several occasions.2 Shiomi wrote many works for Fluxus, including works like
Disappearing Event; where the performers were to just smile and relax their faces
as would happen in daily life. The Fluxus ideals were closely connected with
dada-ism, where any object from daily life could be a work of art.
In the fifteen pages of Shiomi’s score there is very little actual music
notation (notes on a staff); most of the score is instructions on how to perform the
given materials. Shiomi says the instructions are like “game rules,”3 where the
performers can choose how they want to contribute to the performance. Shiomi
is attempting to create an intermedia work to show the symbol and sound
relationship in the text ‘as it were floating granules’.
Later, in the 1980’s, several more works with guitar appear from JFC. June
Ends Songs (1984) by Yoko Kurimoto is for recorder and guitar. Kurimoto’s music
contains gesture-like instrumentation that is usually carried through by one
instrument playing much longer phrases. Kurimoto also likes rather static and
sparse material with minimalist type of quality. The following example from June
End Songs contains a simplistic guitar part, along with a humming part to be
2
Ken Friedman, The Fluxus Reader, (Great Britain: Academy Editions, 1998). The
Fluxus Chronology, p 257 to 282, lists the many performances of Fluxus. Shiomi
appears many times in the mid sixties and several times with Cage. Ichiyangi
who is often said to have brought Cages music to Japan is also listed in several of
the performances.
3
Japan Federation of Composer: Catalogue of Publications 1975 (Tokyo: The Japan
Federation of Composers), ‘As It Were Floating Granules.’
106
performed by the guitarists. Over this part the recorder is playing a gesture-like
part with quarter note bends and then adds a hummed line for the recorder
player. Between the first and second movements Kurimoto indicates that the
performers are to ‘attacca without tuning;’ clearly she is attempting to keep the
mood of the sections going without the usual break given by many performers,
especially guitarists who sometimes add long breaks for re-tuning of the
instrument.
Example 5.2. Kurimoto, June End Songs, © 1984 Japan Federation of Composers,
used with permission.
Borrowing from traditional Japanese music continues on to the present
day. A good example of this is in the work published for guitar by JFC, For Guitar
(1988), by Masao Homma (b. 1930, also spelled as Honma). Homma studied with
Kiyohiko Kijima and Kanji Tonosaki. From 1958 until 1974 he taught at Wako
Gakuen School. In 1974 Homma entered the Miyagi University of education as
an assistant professor of music, and in 1979 he became a professor of music. He
107
retired from this position in 1994. Homma was part of a group known as Ashino-kai, a group of six composers all who graduated from Nihon University.
Homma’s style early began with a neo-classic approach based on
polychords (bitonality and polytonality). In the 1950’s and 1960’s he began using
twelve-tone technique with elements of the Japanese musical language. In the
1970’s He began to use the tetrachords (or fourth frame chords) devised by
Fumio Koizumi to create a mixture of modal elements.4
For Guitar was written in 1988 for Kazuhito Yamashita and premiered
June 6th 1989 by him. This was Homma’s first composition for guitar. His goal for
this work was to realize his compositional technique on the guitar.5 Homma says
he is trying “to create a contemporary sound structure based on rhythms and
melodies derived from national music,” and he is “as much as possible,
searching for beauty of sound without the use of tri-chordal harmony”.6
In Example 5.3, the work opens with a motive that returns throughout the
work (F, B, A). This may be the ryukyu fourth-frame chord augmented by a half
step. The augmented fourth and perfect fourth are the main intervals used in this
work, usually in combinations of the two together, such as the last chord of line
two. The importance of the fourth may be the most important indicator to
Homma’s own description of his musical language.
4
Watanabe, 361.
Japan Federation of Composer: Catalogue of Publications 1989 (Tokyo: The Japan
Federation of Composers), ‘For Guitar’
6
Watanabe, 361.
5
108
The beginning section is a slow introduction (Ha) has an improvisational sense in
the rhythmic progression.
The middle section begins a new tempo and material of a different character
more progressive than before. This is the main feature of the Ha section.
109
Example 5.3. The beginning of Kyu (rapid). This section brings the big final
climax before ending with a rapid deceleration of events. Homma, For Guitar ©
1988 Japan Federation of Composers, used with permission
Jo-Ha-Kyu is the most common musical form in Japanese music. This is
based mostly on rhythmic material rather than melodic changes. This form
originally comes from Gagaku music and profoundly affected No Theater as well
as other instrumental and vocal forms. Jo- slow introduction, or beginning
section; Ha- breaking apart section, with a building tempo; Kyu- rushing, rapid
section that ends with a rapid slow down at the end of the work. Jo-ha-kyu is the
formal design of For Guitar, with the opening motive reoccurring between each
section.
Guitar works based on books, such as the famous guitar solo The Black
Decameron (1983), by the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer (b.1939), appear
occasionally in later twentieth century guitar music. Japan also has several works
110
based on books. By far the most complex of these is the flute and guitar duo Noon
City Suite (1989) by Tohru Aki (b 1956). Aki bases this work on the novel by
Truman Capote Other Voices, Other Rooms (1955).
The titles of all the movements are parts of the story that the composer felt
illuminated the mood of the story. JFC publishes a catalogue every year of works
they publish. The 1991 catalogue gives a short history of Tohru Aki and his ideas
on this work. Aki says it is about:
A boy captured conversely by a figment of his imagination – the
fragile but enchanting world the boy saw, and finally parted with,
stimulated by sympathy like deja-vu, while the mental images of the hero,
in the story were strangely associated in my mind with those of urban
people wriggling along under an infinity of weird illuminations.
Between this association image full of artificial lights and the name
of Noon City, I found an ironical analogy, which inspired me to write this
suite. 7
The five movements are named “Tiger Lilies,” “Skully’s Landing,” “Other
Voices,” “The Little Blue Flowers of Forgetfulness,” and “The Far Away Room.”
This story is about Joel, a thirteen-year-old confronting his own sexuality and
mortality. Joel is traveling from New Orleans to a place just past Noon City
called Skully’s Landing where his father lives. The swamp alongside the road
that leads to Noon City is full of enormous tiger lilies and luminous green logs
that look like drowned corpses; images that represent Joel’s search for self.
Skully’s Landing is a strange place where he hopes to discover himself by
meeting his father, only to find his father is an invalid unable to take care of
himself. Joel spends his time retreating to his imagination, symbolized as the faraway room, to protect himself from the strange people who live with his father.
7
Japan Federation of Composer: Catalogue of Publications 1991, (Tokyo, The Japan
Federation of Composers), ‘Noon city Suite.’
111
Later Joel and Idabel, the man-hating tomboy, plan to run away, but only
with plans to go as far as the traveling show. But a thunderstorm stops the rides
and Joel runs around in the rain trying to find his love Idabel, only to end up
sleeping outside and getting a terrible fever. When he wakes up from his long
sickness Idabel is completely forgotten. Skully’s Landing is always described as
covered in deep green foliage and used as a symbol for forgetfulness, or as the
name Aki uses for the fourth movement: The Little Blue Flowers of
Forgetfulness.
Aki creates a five-movement work where the first, third, and fifth
movements represent Joel’s daydreams and light, while the second and fourth
movements are symbols of the darkness of Skully’s Landing and the Little Blue
Flowers of Forgetfulness.
The first movement, “Tiger Lilies,” is rather dreamy and represented with
a whole tone harmonic sound that he achieves within an E minor mode (Example
5.4). Aki’s musical style is very impressionistic with singing lyrical melody lines
within a modal tonality of exotic design. The mode is E, F-sharp, G, A, B, Csharp, D-sharp/E-flat, which is roughly an E melodic minor scale. Aki uses the
last six notes of this scale to create the whole tones scale sound.
112
Example 5.4. Aki, Noon City Suite © 1989, Japan Federation of Composers, used
with permission.
The third movement, “Other Voices,” represents Joel’s excursions into his
imaginary world. Aki represents this with playful, improvisatory like gestures in
the flute part over a continuous ostinato figure in the guitar (Example 5.5). The
romantic cadenza for the solo guitar clearly delineates the tonality of D major
and the relative minor of F sharp is symbolic of Joel’s search for love.
The fifth movement is similar to the third in its playfulness. “The far
Away Room,” is Capote’s symbolism for Joel’s imagination. Aki sets this
symbolism in the fifth movement with a quirky, rhythmically driven,
combination of 5/16 and 3/8 meter that is to be played prestissimo.
113
Example 5.5. Aki, Noon City Suite © 1989, Japan Federation of Composers, used
with permission
The second and fourth movements represent Skully’s Landing where he
has to live with several very strange characters in a house that has several rooms
burned out from a fire, and is in terrible disrepair from neglect. Aki represents
these elements with a tonally ambiguous harmonic language and unpredictable
gesture-like motion in the parts (Example 5.6).
Example 5.6. Aki, Noon City Suite © 1989, Japan Federation of Composers, used
with permission.
114
The strangeness of Joel’s surroundings and reality at the landing are what
Aki chooses to use as subjects of the contrasting movements. These compliment
the much lighter lyrical first, third and fifth movements, which represents Joel’s
imagination. The lack of forward motion in the second and fourth movements is
evocative of Capote’s style of symbolism that is used to describe the house.
Gendai Guitar Scores
One of the most exciting publications to take place after the war is Gendai
Guitar magazine (contemporary guitar). This magazine was founded by one of
the most important luthiers of guitars in Japan, Masau Kohno. Since 1967 this
magazine has been an important source of information about current guitar news
in Japan. In a typical month this magazine will advertise for dozens of guitar
recitals. Usually there is at least one guest from Europe or America giving a
recital in Tokyo every month. This magazine offers sections on theory, technique,
new music, popular music, flamenco, as well as historical reflections on past
repertoire. There is also ample evidence of an extensive number of guitar schools
and teachers, as can be seen in the advertisements that fill the last fifteen pages of
this magazine.
This magazine also offers new scores every month by Japanese composers,
many of which are composers/guitarists. In 1995 Gendai Guitar also began
publishing scores for guitar. Gendai has published several collected-works
editions by a number of important composers in Japan, which will be discussed
below. What is most striking about Gendai Guitar publications is their connection
115
to the guitar-playing community. The guitar community around the world, as
well as in Japan, has, throughout the post-war years, avoided performances of
most of the avant-garde and serialist music that was published during this time.
The new music published by Gendai Guitar could possibly be best summed up
with the music of Takahashi Yoshimatsu (b. 1953).
Figure 16, Gendai Guitar cover page and concert schedule. Gendai Guitar © 2001
Gendai Guitar, used with permission.
Yoshimatsu had a collection of his works published by Gendai Guitar in
1995, which included the following works: Guitar Sonata “Sky Color Tensor”(1992),
Wind Color Vector (1991), Water Color Scalor (1993), Canticle and Noel (originally for
piano or harp, arranged by composer), and Litmus Distance (1980). Yoshimatsu
was mostly a self-taught composer who learned by playing jazz and rock music,
except for a brief period where he studied with Teizo Matsumura. Yoshimatsu is
116
against “unmusical modern music” and pushes for a new lyricism in his music.8
In this score (Example 5.7) by Yoshimatus entitled Wind Color Vector (1991), he
clearly stays within one key throughout the entire three movements of this work,
E minor (Example 5.7). Allusions of other keys come through repetition of notes
as opposed to dominant-tonic types of progressions.
Example 5.7. Yoshimatsu, Wind Color Vector © 1995 Gendai Guitar, used with
permission.
In the example 5.8 we can see Yoshimatu’s fascination with syncopation
and added rhythms. Here in example 5.8 Yoshimatsu gives unmetered measures
of 14/16 (or 1/4 + 3/16 + 1/4 + 3/16) followed by a measure of 12/16 (or 1/4 +
2/16 + 3/16 + 3/16). Asymmetrical measures are an important feature in many
of his guitar works. This gives his music a unique rhythmical drive that keeps his
music lively and exciting.
8
Takahashi Yoshimatsu, Wind Color Vector (Tokyo: Edition Gendai Guitar 1995)
profile of composer.
117
Example 5.8. Yoshimatsu, Water Color Scalor © 1995 Gendai Guitar, used with
permission.
One of the most active composers in recent years is Hirokazu Sato (b.
1966). Sato was born in Hirosaki Japan and began to play guitar when he was 14
years old. He graduated from Hirosaki University in 1988, where he majored in
music education, and studied piano and composition. He studied guitar with
Norihiko Watanabe and Shiki Nagashima, and won the second prize at the 21st
Classical Guitar competition in Tokyo. In 1992, Sato gave his debut concert in
Tachikawa; presently he is a member of the Tokyo Guitar Quartet.
Sato had several scores published in Gendai magazine between 1991 and
1994. Gendai published several of these works that were previously published in
their magazine into a new collection of works, including thirteen short works,
Twelve Preludes for Guitar Duo, and Sonatina no. 2.
About these works Sato says:
I have been feeling for a long time that the guitar has not so many
easy and enjoyable pieces by Japanese composers compared to piano and
other instruments. It made me want to write these pieces, therefore these
are easy to understand and also technically they are not demanding. I
wish these pieces may be enjoyed by many guitar lovers.9
9
Hirokazu Sato, Collected works of Hirokazu Sato (Tokyo: Editions Gendai Guitar,
1996).
118
Sato’s style is like a combination of the elegance of the sonata style in
Manuel Ponce’s guitar works with a new-age jazz type of tonal vocabulary. The
main harmonic unit is the major-seventh chord that gives the overall sound of
this work. Where this luscious sound could get excessively sentimental, Sato
gives life to the music through his gorgeous lyrical writing style that avoids
being too melodramatic (example 5.9).
Example 5.9. Sato, Sonatine no. 2 © 1996 Gendai Guitar, used with permission.
Sonatina no. 2 was composed for guitarist Hiroyuki Enomoto in 1994 and
performed by him in Tokyo that year. The second movement was originally
entitled “Autumn Song,” so he named the whole work Autumn Song although he
says that the first and last movements are not very autumn-like. Example 5.10 is
an excellent example of Sato’s highly lyrical composition style.
119
Example 5.10. Sato, Sonatine no. 2 © 1996 Gendai Guitar, used with permission.
Sato recorded his own works, including Sonatina no. 2, for a compact disk
released from Gendai Guitar in 1998 titled Sato plays Sato [GGBD2013].
Sonatina no. 2 is more typical of the new music coming from Japan than
the types of compositions that Casa de la Guitarra published in the 1970’s. Casa
was more interested in the new avant-garde style that was very popular in
Europe and America. New compositions published by The Japan Federation of
Composers still reflect the avant-garde; however, Gendai Guitar seems to focus
more on the music that the average player, without a background in academic
music styles, will actually play. We have to keep in mind that the guitar was not
accepted into the academic environment of universities or music schools in
Japan, where avant-garde concepts are still alive and well with composers who
are producing new works.
120
Summary
The guitar (vihuela) was brought to Japan by Portuguese traders and
Jesuit missionaries in the sixteenth century. Music was printed in Japan at this
time, however no scores appear to have been printed for guitar. If there was
music written for guitar by Japanese during this period it probably perished in
the early seventeenth century when foreigners were expelled and all foreign
influences ordered to be destroyed.
The guitar was reintroduced to Japan in 1854 when Commodore Perry
hosted a concert at Nagasaki to celebrate the new treaty that opened Japan to
trade with America. At this party the Japanese were introduced to Ethiopian
Minstrels (blackface performers) who performed wild dances to music played on
guitar, banjo, violin, tamborine, and bones. Hiroshi Hiraoka (1856-1934) brought
the first classical guitar to Japan in 1871. The first guitar teachers were Kenpachi
Hiruma (1867-1936) and Adolfo Sarcoli (1872-1936) who both were active around
1900. The first solo classical guitar recitals began in the 1920s and showed that
Japan was already aware of European classical guitar repertoire.
Western music education was adopted during the reign of Emperor Meiji,
who established mandatory education for all Japanese. Isawa Shuji (1851-1917)
was in charge of creating the curriculum for the music program, and he chose
mostly Western music set to Japanese text. From the beginning there were
protests to the total use of Western music in education and changes were made
to adopt more Japanese melodies. The first works composed in Japan around
1900 adopted both European forms and traditional Japanese music, specifically
pentatonic scales to create the first Japanese style of Western music.
121
Early compositions for guitar between 1915 and 1945 show that the
guitarists/composers were aware of, and part of, the trend of borrowing from
traditional Japanese music. Works by Moreshige Takei focus mainly on
pentatonic scale usage for his borrowings, while Okawara, Oguri, and Suzuki
used imitations of Japanese instrumental techniques such as from the koto and
shamisen.
The post-World War II period saw a huge surge in the number of players
of classical guitar as well as many new publishers of guitar music. Zen-on and
Casa de la Guitarra both help publish a substantial body of new music for guitar
reflecting the new trends of music in Japan. The new music for guitar by
composers in post-war Japan took up all of the new European and American
trends. This is the first generation of Japanese composers who write for the guitar
but are not performers of the instrument.
The classical guitar around the world in the post-war era was split into
two separate schools of repertoire. One was a continuation of tonality and sonata
forms from the nineteenth century that are often infused with popular music
rhythms, a music we can define by calling it the Segovia repertoire. In Japan
Ifukube, Tsukamoto, Matsumoto, Nakabayashi all are based in tonal music and
many have strong ties to popular music forms, and thus fall into this tradition.
The other repertoire was deeply entrenched in the avant-garde traditions of
atonality and indeterminate forms. In Japan there are many composers who
write in these western styles and also many who combine traditional Japanese
music to these forms to create a new nationalism in music. Several of these
composers combine serialist techniques with materials from Japanese modes of
Ryo and Ritsu to create what is known as twelve-tone gagaku. Others use silence
122
from the Japanese concept of Ma to create new static forms. Works by Ezaki,
Noro, Ishii, Matsudaira, Yamagishi, Noda Miyoshi, Takahashi and Takemitsu all
reflect these academic traditions of aleatoric and non-tonal music.
From the 1980’s through the 1990’s there has been a greater emphasis on
lyricism and tonal guitar music that could best be ushered in by the late music of
Takemitsu, and the compositions by Yoshimatsu and Sato published by Gendai
Guitar. Gendai Guitar is also the publisher of the most important classical guitar
journal in Japan. This company deals much more with what the masses of
guitarists is Japan actually play, which is still heavily indebted to the Segovia
repertoire and popular music.
The guitar music published by The Japan Federation of Composers, on the
other hand, represents music by the more academic trained composers, who
teach as well as compose, and thus are more in touch with the newest thoughts
and trends in music. The scores by JFC are much less attached to the serialist
schools of thought that created harsh harmonic dissonances in the 60’s and 70’s
publications. Works by Homma, Kurimoto, and Aki published by JFC reflect
some of the best of the most recent literature for guitar in Japan.
Rarely do histories of music contain information about compositions
written for guitar. The guitar has become an important medium for many
twentieth century composers, including most Japanese composers. The repertoire
of works by Japanese composers has grown so large that a history of western
music in Japan could be traced through the guitar literature alone. It is time this
music found its place in the history of music in Japan and in concert programs of
classical guitarists around the world.
123
Appendix
Guitar Works by Japanese Composers
This list is made alphabetically by the family name of the composer. Publication
number refers to one of the following company names (see below), no entry here
means that it is not known if the work is published, Unpub(lished )means that
we know the work has not been published. Whenever possible the publication
number is also given. Year refers to the year(s) the work was written; if this is
unknown then year of publication is given. On several occasions only the
composer and name of work appears with no instrumentation given; this means
that this work is listed in a source of guitar music but did not give
instrumentation - presumably most of these works are solo based on sources they
came from. Occasionally the name of the composer is listed with publication
number and instrumentation but no name for the work has been found for this
work.
Publisher Abbreviations:
ACA= American Composers Alliance
BH= Breitkopf & Hartel
Casa= Casa del la guitarra
Cashiers=Les Cashiers de la Guitare
DYOZ= les production d’Oz
ERI= Edizione Russa Ignota
ESZ= Editioni Suvini Zerboni
GBE=Gerard Billaudot Editeur
GG= Gendai Guitar
JFC= Japan federation of Composers
Moeck=Moeck Verlag
TO= Tonos Musikverlage
T= Musikverlag Joachim Trekel
ON= Ongaku no tomo sha
Peters= Peters Editions
Pierrot= Pierrot Press
Puget= Puget Sound
SJ Schott Japan
TAS= Tokyo art service
TOS= Tokyo Ongaku Shoin
Tre Media musikverlage
V&F= Voct & Fritz
UE= Universal Edition
UME= Union Musical Espanola
Unpub= Unpublished (listed with works that are known to be unpublished)
ZG-= Zen-on
ZM= Musikverlag Zimmermann
Instrument abbreviations:
Numbers given before instrument indicate how many are needed
bsn = bassoon
cb = bass clarinet
124
clar = clarinet
db = double bass
elec pf = electric piano
fl = flute
G = guitar
hrpsd = harpsichord
ob = oboe
orch =orchestra
perc = percussion
pf = piano
rec = recorder
shaku = shakuhachi
synth = synthesizer
trbn = trombone
trp =trumpet
vibra = vibraphone
vln = violin
vla = viola
vlc= cello
Composer
title
pub &#
year
instruments
Abe, Yasuo
[
]
Kojono
ZG 110
ZG 47
1978
1976
G solo
G solo
1981
G, vln, vla, vlc
1992
1989
1990
1997
G, synth
G, fl
2G
G-ensemble
1987
1987
G, nar, synth, perc,
computer
G solo
Andoh, Hisayoshi (1938-)
Where is the wind to go?
1990
G solo
Aoki, Takayoshi (1951-)
Spirous II – capriccio for four players
1998
G, perc, mandolin,
db
Aiba, Yoshimi (1950-)
Aria for five players
Aki, Tohru (1956-)
Aura
Noon City Suite
Hikarinagi
Little suite
JFC 9109
Ando, Etsuo (1950-)
Rand
Two part
125
Aoshima, Hiroshi (1955-)
Seven Colored Pieces
Peace of female
1996
1985
2G
G, rec, perc,
soprano, female
chorus
Arima, Reiko (1933-)
Rainy Blue
Noir’s Dance
Thermal Balloon’s Travel
Makyo
Mt. Fuji in Twilight
Cats on Harpsichord
Andantino and samba of 3 rabbits Harmony
Cronos
Rondo at Dawn
In Autumn
Umi no Sanka
Fog fantasy
Sange
Uzushio
Hana-no
Yamatoji
Windy march
Prayer for the green and clean earth
1991
1992
1989
1989
1994
1993
1995
1980
1980
1980
1981
1985
1985
1986
1986
1986
1987
1988
G, orch
G, orch
G-orch
G-ensemble
5G
G, orch
G ensemble
G, rec
G-ensemble
G-ensemble
G-orchestra
2G
G-orch
G-orch
G solo
G solo
G, orch
G, orch
Asaka, Mitsuru (1958-)
Invention
1998
G, fl, db, pf
Asami, Noboru (1921-)
Introduction et Rondo
GG 206
Casa 271
G solo
Asano, Katsuhiko (1960-)
Umare te Oide yo
1990
Undecided
1986
Ashikawa, Satoshi
Still Space
Emura, Tetsuji (1960-)
Intexterior
Asterisk dot exc.
Endo, Masao (1947-)
Two Children of Nyx
Wind’s corridor
G, tuba, perc,
ondes martenot
G, singer
G solo
Unpub
1995
Unpub
1995
Unpub
2002
Academia 6011 1977
126
G, fl, bass trb, perc,
piano resonace
G, banjo, fl, perc,
prepaired piano
G solo
G, alto fl
Play, echo, play and then…II
Trio Tropus I
Garden of Eternity
GG 240
Ezaki, Kenjiro (1926-)
Contention
Music for Guitar
Casa 1004
Casa 1005
1990
1994
1985
4G
G, vln, db
G, vln
G & female voice
G & electronic
sound
Zerboni 6963 1964 G solo
Nodule
1968
Fujii, Bondai (1931-)
Cantata “fuji no uta”
1985
G & mand
-ensemble, brass,
strings, mixed
choir, Japanese
-ensemble
Fujiie, Keiko (1963- )
Bodrum sea
Dialogue with the night
The night
Now the horizon comes into view
Three poems
To the far off land
Sweet Tenderness
Guitar Concerto no. 1
Reverbration
Guitar Concerto no. 2
Fujin
Nina de Cera (monologue opera)
1992
1995
1994
1993
1995
1993
1995
1996
1997
1999
1995
1995
The Red Calm (monologue opera)
Sun and Moon
The Fountains of Paradise
Sampo
Akai Nagi
Maria’s Cheekbone
In their shoes
1996
1998
1995
1996
1996
1989
1998
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G, orch
G, db, orch
G, orch
G, vlc, shaku
G, 2 vln, vla,2 vlc,
pf, mezzo soprano
G, shaku, tenor
G, db
G, vln, choir
G, tenor
G, tenor, shaku
G, mezzo
G, vlc, vln, pf,
singer
Fujii, Keigo (1956- )
The Legend of Hagoromo
Suite "Dies Irae"
Twelve Studies
Medieval Suite
Preludio Melancolico
Waltz in a Dream
Linkoping waltz
Lullaby for Homa
GG 097
GG 104
GG mag
GG329
GG329
GG329
GG329
GG329
127
1997
1994
2001
2001
1997
2001
G solo
G duet
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
Introduccion y Danza no. 1
Variations on “Haru ga Kita”
GG329
GG329
Fujieda, mamoru (1955-)
“Kyrie” resounded II
Fujikake, Hiroyuki (1949-)
Spectrum
Yoake no Sana
Fujisawa, Michio (1947-)
Music for Video
Fukuda, Akira (1956-)
Rhapsody
Rhapsody (revised)
Fukuda, Rere
Infantia
Unpub
2002
2001
G solo
G solo
1987
G, 2 soprano, tenor
1983
1984
G, mandolin-orch
G, mandolin-orch
1981
G, pf
1992
1997
G, clarinet
G, fl
1996
G, alto sax
Fukushi, Norio (1945-)
Ode 1
ON 34/4
1974
Follia
1982
Dawn Brightens the Day of Mortals Robed in Purple
1992
Furukawa, Kiyoshi
Zwei Rilke Lieder aus “Den Ungeborenen Gottern”
Unpub
1996
Gondai, Atsuhiko (1965-)
Le Poeme de la Force
Zwischenraum III
Harada, Hajime
Sonata for Guitar
GG
Harada, Keiko (1935-)
After the summer…
G, fl
G, pf, vla, clarinet,
soprano
1994
1993
G, soprano
2G
1987
G solo
1995
G, pf, fl, vln, vlc,
perc, tape
G, perc, vln, bass
-clar
G, vln, bass
recorder
G, eleven
instruments
G, vln, pf, bass cl,
contra bassoon
G, twelve
instruments
Sonora Distancia
1996
Plateau
1997
Sonora Distancia II
1997
Heavy wood
1998
Wa-ta-ri I
1999
128
G, perc, Baritone
G solo
Hashimoto, Kunihiko
Okashito Musume
Okashi
[
]
1959
1959
G solo
G solo
Hara, Kazuko (1935-)
Preludio, Aria e Toccata
Casa 1024
Introduction and Allegro for guitar trio
1972
1981
G solo
3G
Hara, Hiroshi (1933- )
Canto Funebre
Offrande
Divertiment
Felicita felicita tanyi auguri
Suite
1969
1981
1988
1994
1968
G solo
G solo
G duo
G duo
G trio
1998
1989
1987
1988
1988
G solo
G, fl, perc, narrator
G, fl, cem
G, nar
G solo
Hattori, Kazuhiko (1944-)
Bonzo del monte
September blue
Miminashi Hoichi
Horizon
Blue fantasia
Guitar works for children I
ZG
ZG
ZG 161
Casa 1015
GG 275
GG 275
GG 275
GG 275
ZG
Hattori, Ryoichi
Yamadera
ZG 108
1959
G solo
Hattori, T.
Canzone Giapponese
ARM
1954
G, voice
Hattori, Takayuki (1965-)
Dans un Sommeil Solitaire
1989
Hayakawa, Kazuko (1944-)
In
Sou
Hayakawa, Masaaki (1934-)
3 preludes
Soundscape
Hayashi, Hikaru (1931-)
Song book
Northern Sail
Etude for two Guitars
Villon, le rire du moyen age
Casa 1008
Casa 1007
129
1998
G solo
G solo
1968
1998
G solo
G-orch, mandolin
-orch
1985
1993
1960
1997
G, harmonica
G, orch
2G
G, rec, vla, vlc,
marimba, mixed
choir
Higo, Ichiro (1940-)
Elegia per koto e chitarra
1985
G, koto
Hinohara, Hidehiko (1964-)
E suseri-bime cosi canto…
1998
G, mezzo
1972
1972
G solo
G solo
Hirai, Kozabura (1910-)
Cradle
Naryoma
Yuikago
ZG
ZG
Hirai, Takeichiro (1937-)
Narayama
Yurikago
ZG 160
ZG 171
Hirota, Hamachidori
Japanese song
ZM 86
1976
G, string orch
Hirayoshi, Takekuni (1936-1997)
El vent de Catalunya
Preludio E Fantasia
Concerto for guitar and orch
Casa 1016
JFC 8201
1991
1970
1980
G, string quartet
G solo
G, orchestra
Hisada, Noriko (1963-)
Phase for Guitar
Tre
1997
G solo
Hisatome, Tomoyuki (1955-)
Arabesco Magico
Unpub
1990
G solo
Honma, Masao (1930-)
For Guitar
JFC 8907
1988
G solo
1995
1996
G solo
G, fl
G solo
Hori, Kiyotaka
Barcarola
Horikoshi, Ryuichi (1949-)
Through the looking glass
The legend of winter forest
Horie, Haruyo (1944- )
Sonatina
Pulled from pocket
For Hirokazu Sato
Snail Press
Snail Press
Snail Press
Horikoshi, Ryuichi (1949-)
Through the looking glass
Legend of winter forest
1991 G solo
1992-4 G solo
G solo
1995
1996
130
G solo
G, fl
Hosokawa, Toshio (1955-)
Renka I
Schott
Ichinose, Tonika (1970-)
Blooming colors
Ifukube, Akira (1914-)
Toka
Kugoka
Toccata
ZG 238520
ZG 238520
ZG 138
Ideta, Keizo (1955-)
3 Strucke
Iida, Masanori (1930-)
La riviere; 3 Folios
Waves
L’eau et La Femme
La dia Logue
Ikebe, Shin-Ichiro (1943-)
Tu Sens La Terre et laRiviere
Au fond D’un Soir…
JFC 8513
ZG 35
Ikeda, Satoru (1961-)
Kizuta, Gansaku “le pont mirabeau”
1986
G, soprano
1998
elec-G
1968
1969
1970
G solo
G solo
G solo
1984
G solo
1979
1989
1983
1983
G solo
G, madolin
G, soprano, 2 perc
2G
1994
2000
G, fl, vln,vla, vcl
G, fl, perc
1989
G, fl, bariton, harp,
perc
Imai, Shigeyuki (1933-)
Metamorphose Flamenco
1993
Illusiones de ‘Chorau-Ji Templo”
1994
Metamorfosi Concertante Sulla “Siguiriya Gitana”
1993
Metamorfosis de la Siguiriya
1994
Inagaki, Seiichi (1935-)
Schnell Voruber schweben slle (A. von Platen) 1988
G, Pf, perc
10 G
G, Orch
G -ensemble
G, fl, vlc
Irino, Yoshiro (1921-1980)
7 Inventions
Casa 1001
Ishida, Hidemi
Memory without memories
Pastime Music
Unpub
Unpub
1978
2G
G solo amplified
Ishida, Ichiro (1909-)
Cinq pieces a l’historiette
ZG
1969
G solo
131
1967
G, fl, clar,
bassoon,
vibraphone, vln, vcl
L’Autumne
Three short pieces for guitar
Three preludes
Sonata for 2 guitars
Ishii, Maki (1936- )
Charaktere op. 8
Funf Elemente
ZG 149
ZG
1969
1971
1972
1972
G solo
G solo
G, fl
2G
Moeck
Casa 1011
1967
ZM
1965
G, fl, ob, pf, vln
G, 2 pic, per, vln,
vla, vcl
G, orch
Ito, Hideo (1932-)
Melancolia gitana
Sakura flamenco
ZG 107
ZG 109
1968
1968
G solo
G solo
Ito, Minoru (1947-)
Sonatos for guitar
JFC 145
1976
G solo
Ito, Ohsuke (1911-)
Akidesu ne Okaasan!
Nihon Shinjin 1990 G, voice
Japanische Suite I
Iwamura, Mitsuoki (1929-)
Hatshepsut Ji
G solo
Kainuma, Minoru
Satonoaki
ZG
Kajitani, Osamu
For Two
GG 321
G solo
2000
Kamimoto, Toshihiro (1953-)
Voices on the field II “Ones who flap the Wings”
1990
Todokanai Ototachi
1988
Kaneda, Shigenari (1942-)
Attempt III
Sueno de Mexico
Introduction and Rhapsody
Live
Gen
GG 257
Teeta isoytak
Kaneko, Shin-ichi (1937-)
Lexington –Ave. 51st
Staten Island
Isis
Kaneto, Yutaka (1931-)
132
2G
G, recorder
3G
1995
1980
1977
1995
G solo
3G
G solo
G, fl
4 G, soprano,
double- bass
G solo
1990
1990
1987
G, db
G, soprano sax
G solo
Five Impromptus
Duet
1990
1983
G solo
G, shakuhachi
Kanno, Yoshihiro (1953-)
Quicksand
1992
2G
Kato, Yumiko (1968-)
Opera “yoritomo”
1997
G, pf, fl, vln, vlc,
perc, shino, shami,
17 string koto, 38
singers, mixed choir
G, fl
1984
1985
G, Synth, pf, perc,
bass-guitar
elec-G, synth
1970
2G
Kawasaki, Etsuo (1959-)
The Missing Angels
Twelfth Night by Women
1993
1993
G, Synth, solo voice
String quar, fl, rec,
G, lute, 3 trp, tuba,
perc, hpsd
Kimura, Masanobu (1941-)
Preludes 6-10
Ricecare
Astrerisk I op.77
Casa 1031
Tientos de Nagasaki op. 236
12 etudes op. 149
Print-temps op. 168
Sign from the white birth op. 169
Concerto consort op. 177
1984
1987
1976
1992
1985
1986
1986
1986
G solo
G solo
G solo
2G
G solo
G sop-rec, cem
G, cem
G, perc, recensemble
G, cem
G, 2 rec
Here is a tableland, It’ starry tonight
Kataoka, Yoshikazu (1933-)
Parade
Nakaniida-style Bach
Kawagoe, Mamoru (1932-)
“Mai” for two guitars
Casa 1019
4 movements on the picture of Migisgi Kotaro 1988
Canon op.106
1988
Kihara, Fukuko
Mr. N. S.
2000
2G
Kikuchi, Masaharu (1938-)
3 paraphrases for children’s song
1981
Kitazume, Michio (1956-)
Blue cosmic garden
The ring twinkles…
G, 2 alto recorders,
Gamba
1985
1987
G solo
G, pf, vln,vla, vlc
133
Kino, Seiichiro (1946-)
Genki NoEngine Mawasoyo
Kiyofuji, Takeji (1924- )
Hisho waltz
Kobashi, Minoru (1928-)
Jyo, Ha, Kyu ,
Guitar Duet
“UI”
Banka
G, children’s chorus
Casa 1018
1967
G, vln
JFC 8206
1981
1982
1983
1980
G, strings
2G
G solo
2G
Kobata, Ikuro (1951-)
Sinfonia
1991
Kiritorareta Mado no auu Fukei
1983
Sequentia II
1983
4 palattes
1984
Hikari wa ryushi to narite taiki no nakani tadayou
1984
G-orchestra
G solo
2G
G, fl
2G
Kobayashi, Arata (1929-)
A motto (with one’s whole heart) and Shiguseigan
1991 G, fl, 2 vln, vla, vlc,
Soprano,
harpsichord
Divertimento
1981 G, perc, fl, clar, pf,
contra bass, elec
keyboard
Dialogue
1993 fl, 10-string G
Prelude et Fugue
1977 4 G
Kobune, Kojiro
Collected works
Insenpo; Odori
Uta
Arabesque
Essay (fukucho-shugi)
Essay (mucho junionshugi)
Nocturno
Nocturno; Essay no. 3
Sonata
Suite; Dorian mode
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
Kohei, Mukai
Four Poems op. 8
Breeze, path and…
Kojima, Yuriko (1962-)
134
1969
1969
1969
1969
1969
1969
1969
1969
1969
1969
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
1992
1992
2G
G, fl
Music for Alto flute and guitar
Lunar Distance
Moment
Kondo, Jo (1947-)
Winsen dance step
In early Spring
Knots
1993
1995
1997
G, alto fl
G, cl, fl, vib
G, dat tape
1995
G, fl, vibra
1977
2 G, elec pf, 7
cowbells
G, vln, bongo
G solo
G, fl
G, harp
G, vln, ob, bassoon,
pf, 2 perc
2 G, banjo, harp,
harmonica, taishokoto
Spacing inaudible
Calamintha
Dithyramb
Duo
Isthmus
1972
2000
1996
1982
1985
Pass
1974
Kondo, Tsuneo (1912-)
Fantasia Kamakura
Fantasia Kyoto
Fantasia Nara
Acacia Avenue
Dahlia
Gladiolus
Hydrangea
Moon light cherry blossom
Ranunculus op. 69-3
Romanza no. 1
Wild Goose
ZG 195
ZG 194
ZG 193
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
1973
1973
1973
1969
1969
1969
1969
1969
1969
1969
1969
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
1990
1988
1992
2G
2 G, 2 alto G, bass
G, elec db guitar
G, fl, cl, b
-cl, bsn, trb, 2
marimba, perc, ob
G, 2 sopranos, pf
Kono, Hidetake (1931-)
Guitar concerto
1972
G, orch
Koshino, Hiroyuki (1961-)
The time of a dream for napping in spring
1998
G solo
Konishi, Nagako (1945-)
Serenade
Estranger
Ode for the Eleven
ACA
Vase for Lamentation
Kozawa, S.
Crysalis no. 1
Puget
135
1994
Kubo, Mayako (1947-)
Le Mie Passacaglie
Auf den Saiten
Sieben Spiele
Kurauchi, Naoko (1963-)
Aria
Lavande
Triptych
Yosomono no Uta
BH 8215
1984
2G
G, string quar
1991
1995
1999
1997
G solo
G solo
G solo
G, pf, singer, mixed
choir
G, pf, singer, mixed
choir
NM 2303
JFC0009
Aria of the hat
1997
Kurimoto, Yoko (1951-)
Puer Aeternus
June End Songs
JFC 8403
A plan of 4x4
Prism in Winter, Prism in Spring
1981
1982
1982
1990
Kurokami, Yoshimistu (1933-)
“Our Native Town”
1982
Cranes of Hiroshima
1983
Trio for guitars “8 paraphrases by the international”
1983
Kushida, Tetsunosuke (1935-)
The seasons
1989
Sinfonia
Kuwahara, Yasuo (1946-)
Eclogue
Beyond the Rainbow
Blue blowing II
Makino, Katori
Intermittences IV
Vox dilecti mei
1990
1991
V&F 1106
GBE
GBE
Mamiya, Michio (1929-)
Moon freezing
Sacred Spells
Unpub
Four visions “tomb o the fireflies”
136
1989
G, clar
G, recorder
G, fl, vlc
G solo
G solo
G, shino, singer
3G
G, mandolin-orch,
Narrator
G, shamisen,
shakuhachi, koto,
mandolin-orch,
jushichi-gen
G, mand
G ensemble
G, mandolin
1984
2G
2 G, voice
1991
1979
1987
G, nokan
G solo
G, clar, elec-pf, hp,
strings, pan-fl,
celesta
Matsudaira, Yori-Aki (1931-)
Undulations
Grating
Spectra
Transient
Colorization
Canon XXIX & VIII
Tre Media 410
Theme and variations
1986
1998
1979
1974
1992
1997
1997
Matsudaira, Yoritsune (1907-)
Sonatine pour Guitare
“Katsura”
ZG 173
ON
Petite piece pour guitare et harpe
G solo
G solo
amp G, 2 on tape
G, armonium, perc
G, clar, perc, pf
G, mandolin, clar,
vln, vla, vlc
G, mandolin, clar,
vln, vla, vlc
1973 G solo
1957-67 G, voice, fl, harp,
perc
1986 G, hp
Matsunaga, Michiharu (1927-)
Timescape in a Dream
Unpub
2001
Let the Foam of a wave Survive a little longer 1989
The Wavering of Time
1993
Sai-Hyo (chromatic ice)
1979
Yuna
1986
G solo
G, vlc
G, clar, mand, fl,
harp, vln, vlc
G, 5 cow bells,
Recorders
G, 2 ten-rec, bass
-rec, great bass-rec
Matsumoto, Teiho
Etude no 1
Etude no 2
Nocturn
Valse(homage to Chopin)
Valse II
Casa 1021
Casa 1022
Casa 1023
Casa 1020
Casa 1028
1975
Mayazumi, Toshiro (1929-)
Ectoplasme
Microcosmos
Peters
Peters 6332
1954
1957
Orch (w/G)
G, vibr, xil, perc, pf,
clavioline, musical
saw
Mikami, Jiro (1961-)
3 stray thoughts
In-ei
1991
1992
G solo
G, fl
Miki, Minoru (1930-)
Tomurai no Uta
1967
2G
Mimura, Yoshiaki (1951-)
137
1971
1975
1976
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
Three songs from the deep
Kari No Doji
Summer leaf music
La folia
1982
1994
1982
1987
G solo
G, erhu
G, fl
G, digital delay
Minami, Satoshi (1955-)
2 Intermezzo
JFC 9002
The Rossingol Made in Japan op 29
1987-9 G,vln, fl, pf
1994 G, fl, ob, clar, vln,
vcl, pf, perc
Epilogue (from: “of the Garden of Joyful Intellection”) op. 15-7
Symphony op. 8
Fragment of “hi no sono yume no hana”
Gekkaso
Yume no hana op. 15-2
1992 G solo
1983 elec G, voice, 2 elec
Keyboard
1985 G, pf, fl, clar, hrn, 2
vln, 2 perc
1986 G, ob, vlc, fl
1987 G, vln
Minemura, Sumiko (1941-)
Suite “afterglow” etc.
Guitar suites “floating cloud” etc.
1995
1997
G solo
G solo
Mise, Kazuo (1947-)
Nocture
Poem
1989
1990
G, clarinet
G solo
Miyagi, Michio (1894-1956)
The sea in springtime
ZG 44
1977
Pierrot G105 1929
Miyake, Haruna (1942-)
"Sonnet"
Casa 1012
Music for piccolo, flute and guitar, ZM 1777
10 Canciones Populares Japonesas Casa 1027
1969
1968
G solo
G, fl
G solo
G, pic, fl,
G solo
Miyata, Masao
Promenade
Sovenire
ARM
ARM
Miyazaki, Shigeru
Consolazione
Unpub
1989
G, fl
Miyoshi, Akira (1933-)
Epitase
ZG 209
Epitase for Guitar and Percussion
Protase “de loin a rien”
ZG 208
Cinq Poems
Constellation Noire
1977
1975
1974
1985
1989
G solo
G, perc
2G
G solo
G, 2 vln, vla, vlc
138
G solo
G solo
Mizobuchi, K.
Due Elegie
1974
G solo
Mori, Ikue
Blue Seeds
1991
G, vln, voice
1977
G solo
Mori, Kurodo (1950-1997)
Anamorphose
ZG 211
Mori, Junko (1948-)
Sho Shishu
Autumn Mist
An April Idyll
Meditation
Song in the Songless
Twilight
Nightfall
1984
1998
1991
1983
Spring Dawn
In the wood of flowers
1983
1985
Guitar concertino “Nightfall”
1985
Echo
1988
Munakata, Kazu (1928-)
3 compositions
Run hard melos!
Appealing water
Los Colors Misticos
Requie
Chieko-sho
Panegirico a Van Gogh
Fantasia – sen I
Fantasia – sen II
Fantasia – sen III
3 situations
Romance
The Water I
The Water II
?
Cradle-song
Goodby’s Gone
Appealing water II
JFC 8208
Murakumo, Ayako (1949-)
Polymorph II
139
G solo
G, fl(or shaku)
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G, fl, 2 ob, bsn,
strings
G, vln or vla
G, db, mand
-ensemble
G, fl, 2 vln, vla, vlc
or db
G, fl, clar, vln, db,
soprano
1981
1982
1982
1980
1980
1991
1979
1977
1979
1978
1979
1979
1982
1987
1977
1984
1985
1987
G ensemble
G, vlc, pf, baritone
G, niko
G solo
G, vln
G, narrator
G solo
G, shakuhatchi
G, Shimbue
G, Shakuhatchi
12 G
3G
G, Erhu
G, Erhu
2 G, narration
G, orch
G harmonica
G, erhu
1989
G, recorder
Prelude
Music for guitar and flute
1985
1985
G solo
G, fl
Naito, Akemi (1956-)
Winter Shadow for Guitar
Secret song for Guitar
1994
1979
2G
G solo
JFC 202
Nagasawa, Katsutoshi (1923-)
Ode to spring
G, fl
Nagata, Tetsuo
Solo Guitar works 1-85
G solo
Naka, Yukichi (1903-)
Koiji Kaigan
Tasogare
ON
TOS
Nakabayashi, Atsumasa (1927 -)
Danza no. 1
1989
1996
G, voice
G, ob, tenor
Casa 1013
1970 G solo
UME 22036
G solo
Danza no. 2
ZG 38
1976 G solo
UME 22144 1976 G solo
Danza no. 3
ZG 39
1977 G solo
Danza no. 4
ZG 40
1979 G solo
Jota castellana
ZG 188
G solo
Passacaglia para omenaje a A. Barrios M ZG 62 1979 G solo
Suite Espanola
Casa 277
1969 G solo
Bolero
ZG 42
1968 G solo
Camino del naranjito
ZG 188
G solo
Viento Mordaz
Casa 237
1967 G solo
UME 22038
collected works
GG 196
1998 G solo & duets
Historia de un Pais del sur
Casa 242
G solo
UME 22037
Himno a la guitarra
Casa 289
5G
Isabiri
ZG 199
1973 G solo
Tobenai yoru; tema
ZG 88
1977 2 G
Tobenai yoru, dan-ni tema; Ereji ZG 88
1977 2 G
UME 22039
La Campanita del Pueblo
UME 22184
G solo
Suite Pictorica Latino America
GG 129
G solo
Suite Pictorica Espanola
UME 22035
G solo
Suite Pictorica Sudamerica
UME 22040
G solo
ON
Melody of Japan by guitars
Suiseisha 402609 vol I
ON
Melody of Japan by guitars
Suiseisha 402609 vol II
ON
Prelude
1990 G solo
140
Nakada, Kazutsugu (1921-2001)
Suite for three guitars
Nakagawa, Nobutaka
Japanese Songs arr. v I
Japanese Songs arr. v II
GG 107
GG 35
Nakajima, Yoshifumi (1944-)
Shiki Kamikochi
1994
3G
1995
1982
G solo
G solo
1991
G, fl, vln, vlc,
harpsichord
1995 G, cl, pf, string
Quartet, soprano,
female choir
Kamigami no Sobo
Nakagawa, Toshio (1958-)
Conotation
1985
Nakamura, Akikazu (1954-)
In Paranowhite II
Magnetic Fantasy
Phosphorescence
1993
1994
Dorian in blue sea
1995
2 G, hp
G, Pf, Shaku
G, db, 2 perc, b solo
G, db, perc, shaku,
koto, B solo
G, koto, shaku,
perc, elec bass
Nakamura, Hitoshi (1967-)
Falsetto
1995
G solo
Nakamura, Setsuya (1950-)
Yoh and Toh
Yoh and Toh (revised)
Crossroad of light
1986
1987
1983
G solo
G solo
2G
1978
4G
G, fl, clar, bsn, trbn,
vln, pf, marimba
G, 30 string koto
G solo
Nakamura, Shigenobu (1950-)
Lyric for 4 guitars
Seven Desirable Events
JFC 8102
Songs of four season
The dream in the dream
1980
1997
Nakamura, Yushitake (1944-)
2 little pieces
Fantasia in “Yakabushi”
“Futoki hone wa” “Ko ka haha ka”
Opera “hora kikoete kuruyo”
Okawa no
ImageIII
1981
1982
1985
1985
1987
1988
141
2G
2G
G, alto
G, fl, pf, vlc,
soprano, alto,
female choir
G, alto
G solo
Nakano, Jiro (1902-1999)
El camino del campo
Arai Boeki
G solo
Lluvia de Mayo
G solo
Un Mosquito que Queda
G solo
Juego de Pelotilla
G solo
Canto de la Peregrina
G solo
Le tour de reclame etincelant
G solo
La danse de Boufura
G solo
Sei pezzi improvisi
G solo
Preludio (Enramada de Jardin)
G solo
Tema e Variazioni (su Arie popolari coreane)
G solo
Sentimento de Otono
G solo
Uno Fiore
G solo
La Iglesia sobre la colina
G solo
IX Variations prises pour leur theme dans la chanson Francais
G solo
Una Gaviota
G solo
Dal Cassa di vecchio giocattli
G solo
Canto de Primavera tarde
G solo
Komageta
G solo
Variations sur un thema de Mozart
G solo
30 variations (thema Paganini)
Berben
1956 G solo
Minuetto
G solo
Malinconia
G solo
A L’ecole Maternella
G solo
Le Crepuscule
G solo
Nakata, {Naohiro b 1939-?}
1977
G solo
1984
G solo
Unpub
Unpub
Unpub
1995
1997
G, clarinet, vibra
G, fl
2G
Narita-Yoshida, Kazuko (1957-)
Monanthe
Ainsi les Reveries S’Evanouissent Unpub
Parenthese I
1985
1985
1985
G solo
G ensemble
elec-G
Nawata,
Modern Japanese Guitar solo and Ensemble
1979
G solo, ensemble
Nihashi, Jun-ichi (1950-)
Five Images
7 Portraits
2000
1999
G quartet
G & violin
Nakayama, Yoshinori (1931-)
Sho Shishu
Nakazawa, Hisanawa
Phonoherdron
Beneath the Sky
Pouring Particle III
ZG 15
GG 194
GG 151
142
Tarantus
Chaccone
Unpub
Unpub
Niimi, Tokuhide (1947-)
Melos II
ZG 56
Nikura, Ken (1951-)
Warp and woof or night and morning
Warp & woof II
Nishimori, M.
La Nomeolvides
ARM
Nishimura, Akira (1953-)
Pipa
ZG590134
G solo
G, vlc, mandolin
1999
G, fl
1987
1992
2G
G solo
G solo
1989
3G
Ninomiya, Hiroshi (1950-)
Vocal Suite “Hyakunin-isshu”
1981
2 G, soprano
Nishida, Koshiro (1958-)
Grey birds
1982
1984
G, fl, perc, elec
keyboard, singer
G, fl
dim…on dim…
Noda, Teruyuki (1940-)
Intermezzo
Kokiriko Variations
Concerto for Guitar
Rhapsodie Adriatique
Casa 1030
GG 149
ZG 238600
GG 101
1978
1996
1986
1994
G solo
G, fl
G, orch
G, orch
Noda, Ryo (1948-)
Nagare
A.L. 25426
1974
G, fl
HL 24674
1982
HL
1990
1986
G solo
G, fl, pf, marimba,
Vibra
G elec, instruments
2 elec-G, 2 synth,
chamber ensemble
Casa 1010
Casa 1009
TO 7269
1960
1961
1964
G solo
G, 2 vln
2G
1990
G, wadaiko
Nodaira, Ichiro (1953-)
Arabesque IV
The Ways
La cord du feu
Texture du delire
Noro, Takeo (1925-1967)
Composition I&II
Impromptu op 11
Meet op.13
Odaira, Koichi (1960-)
Yuhaky no Kkyoku
143
(Japanese -perc),
perc, Shakuhachi,
Sho
Ogura, Shun
Preludio No. 4
Arm
Oguri, Takayuki (1909-1945)
Four pieces
ZG 169
G solo
1972
G solo
Ogawa, Takashi (1960-)
Elegie pour la style d’un inconn DYOZ 176
Quatre Images
Cahiers
1995
1994
G solo
G solo
Ohmae, Satoshi (1943-)
Spacing for guitar, op. 119
Festone II op. 85
2002
1993
Double-talk no. 9 op. 34
Stripe: Double-talk No. 11 op. 42
Shimmers: Double-talk no. 14 op. 55
Osaka 83
1981
1983
1984
1983
Trailing away (cross –stitch version)
1988
G solo
G, mand, vibra,
perc
2G
2G
G, Mandolin
G, perc, rec, 30
string koto
G, 2 rec, perc
Ohno, Masao (1943-)
Guitar Suite “Journey” op. 30
1980
G solo
Okabe, Fujio (1947-)
Paesaggio III
Paesaggio VI “yu”
A Paean for Swans
Kumishi Chieko-sho
Three songs
Boku ga moeteshimau
1982
1985
1994
1993
1993
1987
G solo
G, shakuhachi
Fl, G
G, nar
G, shakuhachi
G, nar
Okada, Kyoko (1932-)
Kazeno Tabi
1985
G, alto
Okawara [Ohcawara], Yoshie (1903-1935)
Matsumushi flower
Arm A018
Song of Hydranga
Arm A018
Dance of Oriental Popy
Arm A018
Mongolia in the evening
Arm A018
Bolero Amaryllis
Arm A018
1930
1930
1930
1930
1930
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
1929
1929
1929
G solo
G solo
G solo
La Samiseno
Danza Grotesca
Nocturne
Unpub
Arm AO82
Arm AO82
Arm AO82
144
El Insecto
Luz de Calle
Arm AO82
Arm AO82
1929
1929
G solo
G solo
El Prologo
Kasasagi
Hikibune
Iri-hi
Aka ku nutta
Yamabatake no
Benkei – basi
Arm AO83
Arm AO83
Arm AO83
Arm AO83
Arm AO83
Arm AO83
Arm AO83
1930
1930
1930
1930
1930
1930
1930
G, voice,
G, voice,
G, voice,
G, voice, obligato
G, voice, obligato
G, voice, obligato
G, voice
Etude
Legend
Koen
Preludio
Dream
Hymn for Kreisler
Arm
Arm
Arm
Arm
Arm
Arm
Heilige Nacht
Arm
Okasaka, Keiki (1940-)
Intrada (jo)
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
1930
G solo
Unpublished 1985
G solo
Okazaki, Mitsuharu (1935-)
Sho
1989
G, 3 voices
Ono, Tadasuke
Yoima
ZG
Osawa, Kazuko (1926-)
NEN
Casa 1033
1980
G solo
Otai, Tsuyoshi (1932-)
Sho
Casa 1026
1974
2G
Ozaki, Toshiyuki (1946-)
Unendliche Sehensucht
1982
G solo
Saegusa, Shieaki (1942-)
Suite “Hannyaharamitta”
1983
G, synth, vocoder,
elec-bass, drums,
latin perc, fue
(shino, ryu, nokan)
G, soprano,
harmonica
Utau
Saito, Takeo (1904-1982)
Collected works
Chant d’ automne
G solo
1985
ZG
ZG
145
1970
1969
G solo
G solo
Danza Populare
Improvisation
Music for Guitar
Nocturne
Poeme
Prelude
Rhapsody
Scherzo
Shukaku ondo
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
ZG
Kyoekishosha
ZG
JFC 7205
1969
1969
1970
1969
1969
1969
1938
1969
1972
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
Sasaki, Shigeru (1945-)
Impressionen Japanischer Volkslieder Ricordi-IT 2583 G solo
Sasaki, Tadashi
Sakura-lullaby
Two Japanese Songs
Dam 147
GG 266
1998
1999
G solo
G & violin
Sato, Hirokazu (1966-)
Sonatine no. 2
Pierot
March
Berceuse
A simple song
Petit Sicilienne
La coquette
Scherzino
Marionetto
Merry-go-round in sorrow
Un principe piccino qui passa
Rondino
Duex Valses
Gavotte
12 preludes
When I was twenty
Cherry Blossoms
May song
Wedding march
Spring Waltz
Romance to the stars
In a summer garden
September rain
Summer Serenade
Under the autumn sky
Menuet sentimental
The Song of Advent
Christmas Song
Autumn minuet
New Years Song
A winters days story
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 169
GG 226
GG333
GG333
GG333
GG333
GG333
GG333
GG333
GG333
GG333
GG333
GG333
GG333
GG333
GG333
GG333
1996
1996
1996
1996
1996
1996
1996
1996
1996
1996
1996
1996
1996
1996
1996
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
2G
4G
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
146
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
2002
Winter etude
The arrival of spring
GG333
GG333
Satoh, Ai (1947-)
Kyanbas no Naka no Shiki
Satoh, Masami (1952- )
Mother Tree
GG 67
Naturally
Shade
GG59
GG64
2002
2002
G solo
G solo
1996
G, mezzo soprano
1988
G solo, G & string
quartet
G solo
G solo
Satoh, Toyohiko (1943-)
Tombeau de Mr. D. Philips Tree
G solo
Sawa, Tsunehiko
Preludio
Reimeisha
Sawaguchi, Chuzaemon
Danza
Volslied
ARM
ARM
1925
G solo
Sendo, Sakuzo
Asura
Buddha (part 3)
Three Dialogues
When I rise above the world
1980
1978
1976
1979
G, perc
G, voice, tape
G, fl
G, vln, vla
Senshu, Jiro (1934-)
Variations on Green Sleeves
Sonatine: drawing in the wind
1983
1986
G, fl
G (11 string)
Sei, Ichiji (1899-1963)
Windmill laughs
TAS
Sekiguchi, Masaki
Aberdeen
Unpub
Shibata, Minao (1916 -1996)
The story of Mini-nashi-hooichi
Candelabra
Kwaidan
G, harp, synth
1989
G solo
1981
G, pf, koto, singer
G, koto, voice
Shida, Shoko
Aya
2000
2 G, fl
Shimazu, Takehito (1949-)
Ist Herr Daruma…..? II
1994
G, fl, perc
147
Shimizu, Tamaki (1915-)
Scherzo
Cancion de Cuna
Variations on a Scottland Air
Casa 1002
Casa 207
Casa 233
Shimomaki, Y.
Fantaisie for duex guitares
Unpub
Shimoyama, Hifumi (1930-)
Dialogo for two guitars
Dialogo no 2 for two guitars
Dialogo no 3
Homage to “N”
Gamma
Music for torquato tasso
1968
G solo
G solo
G solo
2G
ESZ 6869
ESZ 7235
1965
1970
1984
1988
1990
1997
2G
2G
2G
G solo
G, 3 strings
G solo
Shiomi, Mieko (1938-)
As it were floating granules
JFC7509
1975
G, 6 clar, 2 vln, tape
Shiraishi, Akio (1920- )
Improvisation and four pieces
Casa 1017
1971
G solo
Casa 1014
1970
1983
G solo
G, fl, perc
1993
G ensemble
Shishido, Mutsuo (1929- )
Prelude and Toccata
Pour les trios timbres
Shono, Hiroshia (1957-)
Au Cours Des Jours
Sugano, Hirokazu (1923- )
Variazioni
Canti, Nordici
Casa 1003
GG
1966
1969
G solo
G solo
Sugiyama, Haseo
Defune
ZG 83
1976
G solo
1992
G, harpsichord
Sumi, Atsuki (1948-)
Spanish Pantalets
Susuki, Iwao (1932-)
Concerto
Unpub
Suzuki, Haruyuki
The Art of Repetition
Souvenir
Strand
Osmosis-floating
G, orch
1995
1996
1998
1998
148
G solo
G, pf
G, 2 fl
G, fl, pf, cb, nar,
tape
Suzuki, Hideaki (1938-)
Poem
1980
G, chamber orch
Suzuki, Iwao (1932-)
Idyllic Suite
GG344
Two pieces after “Kojiki”
GG344
Capriccio
GG344
Ancient Dance from Gagaku
GG344
Aria and Dance in ancient style GG344
Okinawa
GG344
Variations on Gagaku “Etenraku”GG344
Minyo
GG344
Reminiscences of a Flower
GG344
Fantasia for guitar and orchestra GG344
Danza misteriosa
Danza Caprichios
1954
1956
1956
1954
1965
1966
2002
1955
1995
1962
1985
1985
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G, voice
G solo
G solo
G solo
Suzuki, Kazuhito (1967-)
A room
1998
G, fl
Suzuki, Satoshi (1941-)
To Chihiro
1983
G, nar, female
Chorus
Suzuki, Shozu [Shoko ?]
Roving Coyote Rising Moon Unpub
1994
2 G, fl [G, banjo, fl?]
Suzuki, Seiichi
Sakura Sakura Variations
ARM
G solo
Taira, Yoshihisa (1938 -)
Penombres I
Monodrame III
Luisances
TR001672
1981
TR
Rideau Rouge
2 G,12 strings
Takahashi, Isao (1907 -)
Zwei Etuden
Die Gitarre
1931
G solo
ZG 200
1968
1974
1979
G solo
G, voice
G solo
Takahashi, Yuji (1938 -)
Metatheses 2
John Dowland Returns
Chained hands in Prayer
ZG 213
G, perc, ondemartenot
Takano, Mari (1960 -)
Are you going with me?
Unpub
Takano, Yoshinaga
Two Fantasias
Maekawa-sha 1974 G, Koto
149
2G
Takei, Morishige (1890-1949)
Collected works
ZG 24-157
Ricordi d’ infanzia
Passeggiatta capestre
Omaggio al grande chitarrista Tarrega
Minuetto in E
Impromtu
Gioia d’ oggi
Danza d’ Insetti
Spirit of falling leaves
La caduta della pioggia op.11 ZG
ARM
Piccola danza
I Petali
Ossevrando la collina primavera
Tramonto
Verso il fiume
Romanza
Scherzo
Capriccietto
Quattro preludio
Ricordo di un sogno mattino
Atomostera di neve
Con la magnolia
La sorgente d’ acqua
Nube d’ autunno
Finestra e pioggia
La giornata di una fanciulla
Romanza senza Parola
La rute di legno
Davanti alla lanterna
Pezzettino per tre cordi basse
Fiume “Tone”
La crabe ermite
La mattinata serena valzer
Invocazione al Budda
Rosso di tramonto
Ombra-Habanera
Fantasia d’ autunno
Brushwood fence
Variazioni sul tema “Kojo-no-Tsuki”
La pulce
La filatrice
Siepe d’ inverno
Osmanthus fragrans
Intorno al braciere
L’ infanzia
The floating cloud
150
1964
1919
1919
1921
1921
1924
1924
1927
1927
1924
1956
1924
1928
1941
1941
1941
1941
1941
1941
1941
1941
1942
1942
1942
1942
1942
1942
1943
1943
1943
1943
1944
1944
1944
1944
1944
1944
1944
1944
1944
1945
1945
1945
1945
1946
1946
1946
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
Caleidoscopio
Due preludi
Ricordo di torino
The broken pane
Silver scale
Le vin
Capriccietto no. 2
Soir
Farfalla che nell’ acqua cade
Fiore giallo
Album facil
Contemplando le stelle
An album for children
Autumn tints
Haiku poem by Kiyo
Le danze dei frutti, suite
Minuetto dell’ uva
Bolero della melogranata
Pavana della fragola
Nebbia mattuttina
Morning-glory
Takemistu, Toru (1930-1996)
Folios
Equinox
Song Arrangements
In the Woods
All in Twilight
Torward the sea
Ring
Stanza I
1946
1946
1946
1946
1945
1947
1947
1947
1947
1947
1947
1948
1949
1941
1946
1948
1948
1948
1948
1943
1942
Schirm 50403300
Salabert 17208 1974
SJ 1090
1993
ZG 1001-12 1977
SJ 1099
1995
Schott 1051 1988
Schott 1007 1981
ON 20/7
1962
Salabert
1961
UE15118
1969
Valeria
UE 15116
Bad Boy
Bad Boy (arr Norio Sato)
To the Edge of Dream
Stanza I
SJ 1129
SJ 1074
Schott 1022
UE 15118
Crossings
Salabert
Spectral Canticle
Vers l’arc-en-ciel, Palma
Arc
Cassiopea
Dream Window
Gemeaux
Schott
SJ 1054
Salabert
Salabert
Schott 1044
Salabert
151
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G, voice
G, voice
2G
2G
2G
2G
3G
G, voice
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G, alto fl
terz-G, lute, fl
terz-G, lute, fl
G, harp, pf, cel,
vibra,female voice
1965 vln, vcl, gt, elec org,
2 Pic
1961 3 G
1992 2 G
1982 G, orch
1969 G, harp, celesta,
vibra,voice
1970 Orch (w/G), 12
voices
1995 G, vln, orch
1984 G, ob, orch
1963-66 pf, orch (w/G)
1971 Perc, orch (w/G)
1985 orch (w/G)
1972 ob,trb, 2 orch (w/G)
Music of Tree
Peters 6655 1961 orch (w/G)
Quadrain
1975 orch (w/G)
A marvelous Kid (film score 1961) (transcription by Norio sato)
SJ 1129
2000 3 G
12 songs for guitar
SJ 1095
1977 G solo
A boy named Hiroshima
SJ 1129
1987 2 G
Takeoka,
Takemura, Jiro
Kajimichi
ZG 124
1975
ZG 1
G solo
G solo
Tamura, Fumio (1968-)
Christ Lag In Todesbanden
G solo
Tanaka, Masaru (1946-)
Horizontal modes
1982
G, fl (sax), perc,
contra bass, drs (?)
Tanaka, Satoshi (1956-)
Labyrinth
1994
Nocturno de san Il defenso
1994
Introduction and three poems by Ujo Noguchi 1997
G solo
G solo
G, nar
Tanaka, Tusunehiko
Mondenschein auf dem schloss, vantion ARM 1958
G solo
Tanaka, Yoshifumi
Eco lontanissima
G solo
Unpub
1999
Tanba, Akira (1932-)
Concerto pour Guitare electrique et orchestra 1988
Teraoka, Etsuko (1947-)
Chatty Curtain
1992
Toda, Kunio (1915-)
“Triptychon”fur bariton blockflote in f and guitar
T 0852
1967
Togawa, Yoichi (1959-)
Tamayuri
1997
Tojo, Tashiaki
Sakura
ZG 46
Tominaga, Saburo (1916 -1988)
152
elec G, orch
G, pf, 3 soprano,
mezzo, 2 tenors,
glockenspiel, bell
G, baritone, block fl
G, harmonica
G solo
Inori
1982
G, vln
1990
1997
G solo
G solo
G solo and duo
Tomiyama, Siyoh (1961-)
Collected works v1
Inishie Matsuri op. 8
Prelude and Fugue op. 21
Let it be scattered op. 15
GG217
GG 217
GG217
GG217
Collected works v2
Seven Deams op 14
GG218
1997
G, fl
Song and Dance no.1
Unpub
Meditative Desert
Unpub
Longing (6 theme and Vari)
Unpub
Elegy
Unpub
Variations on a chorale like Bach's op. 1
Guitar
Unpub
Doukei
Unpub
Life...or once upon a day
Unpub
Terpsichord for 6 strings
Unpub
Jazz story
Unpub
Four Little pieces
Unpub
It's all an illusion
Unpub
1992
1993
1992
1996
1987
1997
1990
1997
1991
1992
1995
G, fl
G, fl
G, fl
G, fl
G duo
G duo
G, recorder
G, Ocarina
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
Tsujii, Eisei (1933-)
Naphtha
ON
1967
G, fl, vcl
Tsukamoto, Yasuhiko
Epithalamium
Sonata “Wind”
ZG 8
Unpub
1976
2001
G solo
G solo
Tsukatani, Akihiro (1918 - 1995)
Three movements
4 pieces Facile
ZG 644550
ZG 644550
1989
1989
G solo
G solo
Tsurumi, Sachiyo
Toy
Unpub
1998
2G
Ueda
1972
G solo
GG 156
1999
2G
Ueda, Masanao
Ume
Prelude
Allegro
Etude
Prelude
Nocturn
Jonokyoku
Ueda, Susumu
15 songs (2nd part by Sor)
153
Ueno, Masatoshi (1947-)
37 chains
1989
G, mandolin, harp
G solo
G, orch
Watanabe, Urato (1909 - 1994)
Hanketsu
Three Movements
ZG 52
JFC 7209
1962
Watanabe, Kazumi (1953-)
Astral Flakes
GG124
1980 G solo
Yocoh, Yuquijiro (b 1925)
Variations on the theme of Sakura GG293
G solo
Cinco variaciones sobre un tema”Feliz Ano Nuevo”
GG293
1975 G solo
La Pimpinela
GG293
1975 G solo
Cancion de Cuna sobre una melodia de Matvei Blantel
GG293
G solo
Fantasia sobre Mikuma-river
GG293
1948 G solo
Sueno sobre de un arbol
GG293
1977 G solo
Regalo del ano Nuevo
GG293
1965 G solo
Sueno tranquilo
GG293
1985 G solo
Romanza sin palabras
GG293
1965 G solo
Sol Poniente
GG293
G, voice
Guardando
GG293
G, voice
Cancion de abuela
GG293
1972 G, voice
Carrilludas rojos
GG293
G, voice
Sonatine – dedicado a mi mama GG293
2G
Yamada, Izumi (1952-1999)
Memory of delicate time II
1997
G solo
Yamagishi, Mao (1933-)
Trio for Flute, Violin and Guitar
Sonnet II
Ki and 2 Ritsu
Casa 1029
Kanae II
5 Taras
For flute and guitar
1982
1976
1989
1992
1985
G, fl, vln
G, harmonica
G, fl
G, fl, vlc
G solo
G, fl
Yamaguchi, Yasuko (1969 -)
Sesam, Offne Dich!
Unpub
1994
G solo
Yamamoto, Hiroyuki (1967-)
Variation on Bach
Unpub
1994
G solo
Yamamoto, Kizo
Edisbd
ZG 25
154
G solo
Yamamoto, Shigehiro (1944-)
Torso
Five eyes on Basho
Ku no inori
ON 30/7
1972
1990
1986
G, fl, vibra, vlc
G, fl, 2 perc
G, clar, db
Yamashita, Kazuhito (1961-)
Kusorin “Imaginary Forest”
GG217 or 32 1982
G solo
Yamashita, Takeo
Shichinin
ZG
G solo
Yamashita, Toyoko
Le paradis des enfants
Unpub
G, fl
Toccata und Bolero fur 2 Gitarren
2G
Ameisenmarsch fur Gitarre-chor Unpub
G ensemble
Kleine Marchen fur Gitarre
Unpub
G solo
Klein Stucke nach Altjapanishche volksleider for gitarre
1983 G solo
Sech Miniature aus einem italienschen Bilderbuch
1986 G solo
Sonate fur gitare solo
G solo
Ameisenmarsch fur 3 Gitarren
3G
Hepaihoi for three guitars
3G
Cancion y danza clasica fur gitarre und klavier
G, pf
Sonate fur gitarre und klavier
G, pf
An dem Marchenbuch “Kosmos”
G, pf, fl, vln, vlc
Das goldene und das silberne glochen
G, fl, Soprano
Ernnerung fur Sopran und Gitarre
G, Soprano
Yanada, Tadashi
Jogashima
ZG 7
G solo
Yatabe, Hiroshi
Scherzo
G, voice
Yanagisawa, Tsuyoshi (1929-)
Music no. 1 & no. 2
1983
G- ensemble
1972
G solo
Yokota, Sennosuke (1929-)
Kimagurena Yoru no event
1983
G, pf, nar,
accordian, mixed
choir, 13 string
koto, marimba
Yoshida, Hitoshi (1953-)
Serenade
1990
G solo
Yatsuhashi, Kengyo
Rokudan
ZG 45
155
Yoshida, Junichi (1950-)
Locus 2
TAS
1981
G, banjo
Yoshida, Kozo
Wagamichi
ZG 130
1970
G solo
Yoshida, Mineo (1953-)
In Chokaison is my mountain home GG216
Yoshimatsu, Takashi (1953- )
Around the Round Ground
Four Little Dream songs
Litmus Distance
Tender Toys
Sky color tensor
Wind color vector
Water color scalor
Two little pieces
Adam Hearts Club Duo, op 70.
Guitar concerto “Pegasus Effect”
Forgetful Angel II
Digital Bird Suite op. 15
Yocoh, Yuquijiro (1925-)
Sakura theme and Vari
Yuasa, Joji (1929-)
Mutterings
GG222
1997
GG222
GG 034
GG
GG141
GG141
GG141
GG141
GG245
1997
1980
1985
1992
1991
1993
1994
1998
1985
1979
GSP 04
GG mag
ERI
G solo
G solo
1993 G solo
Schott
1988
G, instruments
1988
elec-G, elec-bass, pf,
synth, perc, female
choir
1983
G solo
Yuyama, Akira (1932-)
Oasis, Nagasaki
Zakohji, Hiroaki (1958-1987)
Mono-morphology II op.27
G, fl, voice
JFC8706
156
G solo & wind
chimes
G solo
G solo
G solo & duets
G solo
G solo
G solo
G solo
G duo
G, orch
G, harmonica
G, fl
Bibliography
Aki, Tohru, Japan Federation of Composer: Catalogue of Publications 1991, ‘Noon City
Suite’ (Tokyo, The Japan Federation of Composers).
Burt, Peter, The Music of Toru Takemitsu, (United Kingdom: Cambridge University
Press, 2001)
Coldwell, Robert, “The Early Guitar and Biographies of Important Guitarists in
Japan,” http://home.earthlink.net/~coldwell/japan/j-intro.html;
Internet; accessed 1 March 2002.
Cooper , Michael S.J., The Southern Barbarians: the first Europeans in Japan, (Tokyo,
Japan: Kodansha International Ltd., 1971).
Rodrigues The Interpreter; An Early Jesuit in Japan and China, (New York:
Weaterhill, 1974).
Dan, Ikuma, “ The Influences of Japanese Traditional Music on the Development
of Western Music in Japan,”The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan 8,
no. 3, Dec 1961
Eppstein, Ury, The Beginnings of Western Music In Meiji Era Japan, (United
Kingdom: Edwin Mellen Press, 1994).
Friedman, Ken, The Fluxus Reader, (Great Britain: Academy Editions, 1998).
Gaultieri, Guido, Relationi dell Ventura de gli Ambasciatori Giapponesi a Roma, fino
alla Partita di Lisbona, (Milan, 1587).
Grunfeld, Frederic V., The Art and Times of The Guitar: An Illustrated History of
Guitars and Guitarists (London: Macmillian Company, 1977).
Hane, Mikiso, Modern Japan: a historical Survey, 2nd ed., (San Francisco: Westview
Press, 1992).
Hara, Kazuko, Japan Federation of Composer: Catalogue of Publications 1984, ‘Yugato
Eika’ (Tokyo: The Japan Federation of Composers).
Harich-Schneider, Eta, A History of Japanese Music, (London: Oxford University
Press, 1973).
Hawks, Francis L., D.D.L.L.D., Narrative of The Expedition of an American Squadron
to the China Seas and Japan performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under
the Command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy, by Order of the
Government of the United States. (Washington: Beverly Tucker, Senate
Printer, 1865)
157
Herd, Judith Ann, “Change and Continuity in Contemporary Japanese Music: A
Search for a National Identity,” (Ph. D. diss., Brown University, 1987).
Homma, Masao, Japan Federation of Composer: Catalogue of Publications 1989, ‘For
Guitar’ (Tokyo: The Japan Federation of Composers).
Ifukube, Akira, Music for Guitar, (Tokyo: Zen-on 1995).
Kanahele, George S., Hawaiian Music and Musicians; an Illistrated History,
(Honolulu, University press of Hawaii, 1979)
Kohno, Masaru ‘Interview with Masao Kohno,”Interview with Andrea Tacchi,
1998, Classical Guitar 20, no. 3, November 2001, 24
Malm, William P., “The Modern Music of Meiji Japan,”in Tradition and
Modernization in Japanese Culture, ed. Donald H. Shively, (New Jersey:
Princeton University Press, 1971).
Miyoshi, Akira, Epitase, (Tokyo: Zen-on 209, 1975).
Morgan, Robert P., Twentieth-Century Music, (New York: W.W. Norton
Company, 1991).
Ohtake, Noriko, Creative Sources fir the Music of Toru Takemitsu, (England: Scolar
Press, 1993).
Pilgrim, Richard B., “Intervals (Ma) in Space and Time: Foundations for a
Religio-Aesthetic Paradigm in Japan,”Japan: in Traditional and Postmodern
Perspectives, (New York, State University of New York Press, 1995).
Program, 41st Tokyo International Guitar Competition 1998, (Tokyo: Japan
Federation of Guitarists).
Sato, Hirokazu, Collected works of Hirokazu Sato, (Tokyo: Editions Gendai Guitar,
1996).
Schwartz, Werner, Guitar Bibliography: an International Listing of Theoretical
Literature on Classical Guitar from the Beginning to the Present, (New York,
1984).
Shigeo Kishibe, The Traditional Music of Japan, (Tokyo, The Japan Foundation,
1982).
Shiomi, Mieko, Japan Federation of Composer: Catalogue of Publications 1975, ‘As it
Were Floating Granules’ (Tokyo, The Japan Federation of Composers).
Susita, Murao, “A Brief History of Moreshige Takei,” from Japanese Melodies for
Guitar, music by Takei, Zen-on guitar library, (Tokyo: 1965).
158
Trautmann, Frederic With Perry to Japan: a Memoir by William Heine translated, with
an introduction and annotations by Frederic Trautmann, (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1990).
Tsukamoto, Yasuhiko, Epithalamium, (Tokyo, Zen-on music, 1976).
Turnbull, Harvey, The Guitar from The Renaissance to the Present Day, (Westport,
CT: Bold Strummer, 1974).
Walworth, Arthur, Black Ships off Japan, The story of Perry’s Expedition, (New York:
Alfred A Knopf, 1946).
Watanabe, Shuko, “Tradition and Synthesis: Influences on the Solo Piano Works
of 34 Japanese composers Surveyed,” (DMA diss., University of
Maryland, 1992).
Wataru, Uenami, Orientation Seminars on Japan: 20, The Characteristics of
Japanese Postwar Music, (Tokyo, The Japan Foundation, 1985).
Waterhouse, David B., Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, s.v. “Western Music,”
(Tokyo: Kodansha Ltd., 1983).
Wiley, Peter Booth, Yankees in the Land of the Gods, Commodore Perry and the
Opening of Japan, (New York: Viking Penguin Press, 1990).
Wen, Andy Young-Run, “Improvisation I and Pulse 72+, By Ryo Noda: an Analytical
and Interpretive Study,” (DMA diss., University of Georgia, 1995).
Yoshimatsu, Takahashi, Wind Color Vector, (Tokyo: Edition Gendai Guitar 1995).
Yoshihiro, Tamaki, Article on Ifukube, http://www1.nisiq.net/~ytama/history.html; Internet; accessed 1 March 2002.
159
Daniel Quinn, Guitar Music By Japanese Composers, D.M. diss., Indiana University,
2003
Abstract
The guitar had two beginnings in Japan. The first was when the
Portuguese sailors and Jesuit missionaries brought the instrument in the late
sixteenth century. There is ample evidence that this instrument was a relative of
the lute, vihuela, or gittern. However no music from this period exists for the
guitar as all foreign influence was forced out or destroyed in the early
seventeenth century.
Westerners and the guitar returned to Japan during the reign of Emperor
Meiji in the 1860’s. This was a time of sweeping changes and reforms to bring
Japan up to date with the Western world. All Japanese were to receive eight
years of education, including Western music. The first guitar works by Morishige
Takei in 1919 shows the first stages of assimilation through imitation. He
adopted European and Latin American conventions such as Habanera rhythms,
Romantic ideals of multiple tempos, and portamento devices used by Francisco
Tarrega. The first guitar compositions that adopt the new trends of blending
traditional Japanese and Western music are by Yosie Okawara and Takayuki
Oguri in the 1930’s. This was a period when composers in Japan were looking
past just simply splicing together two ideas and were looking to the formation a
new national music.
Following World War II the guitar had many more performers, makers,
and publishers. Japan quickly adopted all the newest currents in Western
composition including twelve-tone and indeterminate forms. Where in the
prewar period most composers were set on creating a new national music, in the
post war era individuality and originality became the main goal of composers.
Publishers such as Casa de la Guitarra and Zen-on published a vast array of music
that seems to cover most of these new trends. Before the war composers began to
explore the harmonic vocabulary of the Sho. From the 1960 to the present this
sound has permeated the tonal vocabulary of many Japanese composers. In the
1950’s composers where exposed to the music of John Cage who showed them a
new way of exploring the traditions of Japan. The aesthetic idea of Ma, silence
that joins sound with the other, were explored by many composers and can be
seen in works by Noro, R. Noda, and Takemitsu. While Composers, such as
Homma, explored the formal design of Jo-Ha-Kyu (introduction-buildingrushing). From the 1980 to the present Gendai Guitar has published many new
works for the mass of guitarists in Japan, in simple, easy to understand harmonic
languages by composers such as Sato and Yoshimatsu. On the other hand the
Japan Federation of Composers has continued with new ideas in the realm of
contemporary music.