June 2009: ‘’Japanese Futurist Music and Poetry’’ in Rome
‘’Japanese Futurist Music and Poetry’’
June 9th, 2009
Japan Cultural Institute, Rome
Festival Mediterranea
It was not easy getting together all the pieces written by these young Japanese composers
active during the 1920s and 1930s in Tokyo. Yoshiko was deep inside the archives searching music magazines published during those years and in contact with the heirs through the Nihon Kindai Ongakukan-Japanese Center for Modern Music. The concert that we organized for the Festival Meditteranea, whose theme for this year was Futurism (commemorating the 100th anniversary of the publication of Marinetti’s Manifest), was based on a concert that took place in January 2000, organized by the fantastic Professor Seiji Choki, to whom we are really grateful.
Normaly it is said that composers started to work on experimental music only after the Second World War, but as the music critic Akiyama stated in the seventies, from the late twenties young composers who were influenced directly or indirectly by the Futurist movement and other new schools in Germany and in France presented their innovative works in concerts. One of them is Giichi Ishikawa, who studied composition in the States (Pacific University) and played in 1925 for the first time in Japan the works of Pratella in a concert. He never declared himself as a Futurist, but his piano works such as ‘‘Vortice’’ or ‘‘A Hundred Dollar Bill Rhapsody’’ do recall Futuristic themes. Noboru Ito (Novol Ito) was influenced by Haba and Schoenberg, and is said to have called himself as a Futurist according to Yasuji Koyose. His almost mystic arias seem to challenge the musical ‘authority’ constructed by his maestro Kosaku Yamada. Shunsuke Kurashige and Tadashi Ota is decisively French (where he studied) but with such Japanese beauty.
As you can see by the titles of the works that we presented in the concert the composers were interested in doing research on innovative European techiniques, through which they would created authentic Japanese music. Goro Ishii is known to have studied popular music of the Tohoku region and in fact the rhythm of the final piece in the concert was inspired by the mokugyo, a wooden bell used when reciting the sutra.
The Futuristic Manifest was introduced in Japan by Ogai Mori in 1909 but did not take the form of a movement in art and poetry until the 1920s. The idea of Futurism helped young artists rebell against ‘official’ art imposed by the government. The arrival of the Russian Futurist Burliuk was indeed stimulating.
We mixed Tai Kanbara and Renkichi Hirato's poetry with the music in the concert and projected these fantastic Japanese oil paintings done in the twenties. The hall was full and the concert was a success, thanks to all those who collaborated. I would really like to thank Filippo Bettini, organizer of the Festival Mediterranea and the Japan Cultural Institue, who decided to adopt this project and of course Satoko Kawabata and Erika Misumi, two courageous musicians who decided to resurrect these pieces completely forgotten by Japanese music history.
Program:
Poesia:
Renkichi Hirato (1893-1922)
Hich?? -Il volo degli uccelli- 1921
Musica:
Giichi Ishikawa (1887-1993)
Uzumaki -Il vortice -
(p) 1933
Poesia:
Renkichi Hirato (1893-1922)
Ch??b?? -La cucina-
Musica:
Giichi Ishikawa (1887-1993)
Asa no kondate -Menu’ della prima colazione-
(p) 1935
I Misoshsiru -Zuppa di miso-
II Mugimeshi -Riso bollito con orzo-
III Takuan -Sottoaceti ‘takuan‘ -
Poesia:
Renkichi Hirato (1893-1922)
M??j?? -La bestia-
Musica:
Tadashi ??ta (1901- ?)
Kumo -Nuvole- (dal Genshi no uta -Canto primordiale-)
(p) 1931
Mitsurin -Giungla- (dal Genshi no uta - Canto primordiale-)
(p) 1931
Shunsuke Kurashige (1906- 2000)
Okera -Grillotalpa- (dal Konch??fu -Lo spartito degli insetti-)
(p) (v) 1929 [testo di Tsuneo Osada (1902-1977)]
Poesia:
Tai Kanbara (1898-1997)
Mahiru no gaid?? (ongakushi)
-Strada cittadina a mezzogiorno (poema musicale)- 1917
(apparse trascritta in alfabeto in:
<<Noi. Rivista internazionale del Futurismo>>, anno I, agosto 1923.)
Manatsu (k??kirittaishi)
-Pieno estate (poema plastica del secondo periodo)- 1917
Musica:
Noboru It?? (1903-1993)
Taiy?? ni utau shiteion A O oyobi hanagoe nite n
-Canto al sole, vocalizzo in ‘a’ ‘o’ e humming in ‘n’-
(p) (v) 1930
Poesia:
Tai Kanbara (1898-1997)
Sankaku -Il triangolo- 1924
Musica:
Noboru It?? (1903-1993)
Seppun no ato ni -Dopo il bacio-
(p) (v) [testo di Rof?? Miki (1889-1964)] 1930
Shunsuke Kurashige (1906- 2000)
Seienfu -Lo spartito dell’odio blu-
(p) (v) 1931 [testo di Joan Tomita (?)]
Gor?? Ishii (1903-1978)
Aiyoku -Il desiderio
June 9th, 2009
Japan Cultural Institute, Rome
Festival Mediterranea
It was not easy getting together all the pieces written by these young Japanese composers
active during the 1920s and 1930s in Tokyo. Yoshiko was deep inside the archives searching music magazines published during those years and in contact with the heirs through the Nihon Kindai Ongakukan-Japanese Center for Modern Music. The concert that we organized for the Festival Meditteranea, whose theme for this year was Futurism (commemorating the 100th anniversary of the publication of Marinetti’s Manifest), was based on a concert that took place in January 2000, organized by the fantastic Professor Seiji Choki, to whom we are really grateful.
Normaly it is said that composers started to work on experimental music only after the Second World War, but as the music critic Akiyama stated in the seventies, from the late twenties young composers who were influenced directly or indirectly by the Futurist movement and other new schools in Germany and in France presented their innovative works in concerts. One of them is Giichi Ishikawa, who studied composition in the States (Pacific University) and played in 1925 for the first time in Japan the works of Pratella in a concert. He never declared himself as a Futurist, but his piano works such as ‘‘Vortice’’ or ‘‘A Hundred Dollar Bill Rhapsody’’ do recall Futuristic themes. Noboru Ito (Novol Ito) was influenced by Haba and Schoenberg, and is said to have called himself as a Futurist according to Yasuji Koyose. His almost mystic arias seem to challenge the musical ‘authority’ constructed by his maestro Kosaku Yamada. Shunsuke Kurashige and Tadashi Ota is decisively French (where he studied) but with such Japanese beauty.
As you can see by the titles of the works that we presented in the concert the composers were interested in doing research on innovative European techiniques, through which they would created authentic Japanese music. Goro Ishii is known to have studied popular music of the Tohoku region and in fact the rhythm of the final piece in the concert was inspired by the mokugyo, a wooden bell used when reciting the sutra.
The Futuristic Manifest was introduced in Japan by Ogai Mori in 1909 but did not take the form of a movement in art and poetry until the 1920s. The idea of Futurism helped young artists rebell against ‘official’ art imposed by the government. The arrival of the Russian Futurist Burliuk was indeed stimulating.
We mixed Tai Kanbara and Renkichi Hirato's poetry with the music in the concert and projected these fantastic Japanese oil paintings done in the twenties. The hall was full and the concert was a success, thanks to all those who collaborated. I would really like to thank Filippo Bettini, organizer of the Festival Mediterranea and the Japan Cultural Institue, who decided to adopt this project and of course Satoko Kawabata and Erika Misumi, two courageous musicians who decided to resurrect these pieces completely forgotten by Japanese music history.
Program:
Poesia:
Renkichi Hirato (1893-1922)
Hich?? -Il volo degli uccelli- 1921
Musica:
Giichi Ishikawa (1887-1993)
Uzumaki -Il vortice -
(p) 1933
Poesia:
Renkichi Hirato (1893-1922)
Ch??b?? -La cucina-
Musica:
Giichi Ishikawa (1887-1993)
Asa no kondate -Menu’ della prima colazione-
(p) 1935
I Misoshsiru -Zuppa di miso-
II Mugimeshi -Riso bollito con orzo-
III Takuan -Sottoaceti ‘takuan‘ -
Poesia:
Renkichi Hirato (1893-1922)
M??j?? -La bestia-
Musica:
Tadashi ??ta (1901- ?)
Kumo -Nuvole- (dal Genshi no uta -Canto primordiale-)
(p) 1931
Mitsurin -Giungla- (dal Genshi no uta - Canto primordiale-)
(p) 1931
Shunsuke Kurashige (1906- 2000)
Okera -Grillotalpa- (dal Konch??fu -Lo spartito degli insetti-)
(p) (v) 1929 [testo di Tsuneo Osada (1902-1977)]
Poesia:
Tai Kanbara (1898-1997)
Mahiru no gaid?? (ongakushi)
-Strada cittadina a mezzogiorno (poema musicale)- 1917
(apparse trascritta in alfabeto in:
<<Noi. Rivista internazionale del Futurismo>>, anno I, agosto 1923.)
Manatsu (k??kirittaishi)
-Pieno estate (poema plastica del secondo periodo)- 1917
Musica:
Noboru It?? (1903-1993)
Taiy?? ni utau shiteion A O oyobi hanagoe nite n
-Canto al sole, vocalizzo in ‘a’ ‘o’ e humming in ‘n’-
(p) (v) 1930
Poesia:
Tai Kanbara (1898-1997)
Sankaku -Il triangolo- 1924
Musica:
Noboru It?? (1903-1993)
Seppun no ato ni -Dopo il bacio-
(p) (v) [testo di Rof?? Miki (1889-1964)] 1930
Shunsuke Kurashige (1906- 2000)
Seienfu -Lo spartito dell’odio blu-
(p) (v) 1931 [testo di Joan Tomita (?)]
Gor?? Ishii (1903-1978)
Aiyoku -Il desiderio
