Contemporary Japanese Art Music

Come and enjoy a concert of selected works of contemporary Japanese composers for guitar and flute in the galleries of the Mathers Museum. Light refreshments will be served after the concert. FREE AND OPEN TO PUBLIC. Sponsored by the East Asian Studies Center and the William Hammond Mathers Museum of World Cultures.
Performers: Daniel Quinn, Guitar
Paolo Bortolussi, Flute
Date: Friday, October 8, 1999
Time: 12:00-1:30 p.m.
Place: Mathers Museum of World Cultures (601 East Eighth Street), Exhibition Hall


Program:
08' Ryo Noda Nagare (1974)
10' Toru Takemitsu Itinerant (1989)
13' Mao Yamagishi Ki and two Ritsu (1973)
12' Toru Takemitsu Toward the Sea (1981)
10' Kazuko Hara Preludio, Aria E Toccata (1971)
18' Tohru Aki Noon City Suite (1989)

Listen to samples!
To be able to listen to them, you need the RealPlayer.
1. Nagare
2. Itinerant
3. Ki
4. Ritsu #1
5. Ritsu #2
6. The Night
7. Moby Dick
8. Cape Cod
 9. Preludio
10. Aria
11. Toccata
12. Tiger Lilies
13. Skully's Landing
14. Other Voices
15. The Little Blue Flower of Forgetfulness
16. The Far Away Room


Background:
Contemporary music from Japan for guitar and flute reveals different musical styles and forms. Since the opening of Japan in 1868 to western influences, many Japanese composers have taken to writing in the western art music tradition. After the Second World War, many composers found the need to combine traditional music elements with the western art music traditions to create a uniquely Japanese sound.
Works by Noda and Yamagishi reflect the post-war Avant Garde ideology that explored the possibilities of combining new sounds from instruments and indeterminate forms. The new sounds from western art music were combined with traditional Japanese elements in many different ways to create individual composers' styles. Synthesis of these elements forms the music of great composers such as Takemitsu. Other composers such as Hara and Aki do not overtly use Japanese elements, however these sounds still appear in their works.
According to Quinn and Bortolussi, their performance of these works will help to people understand the music that has been composed in Japan within the general framework of contemporary art music.

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Last updated: 12/12/99
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