Toshiro Mayuzumi


Toshiro Mayuzumi was a Japanese composer. He was known for his implementation of avant-garde instrumentation alongside traditional Japanese musical techniques. His works drew inspiration from a variety of sources ranging from jazz to Balinese music, and he was considered a pioneer in the realm of musique concrète and electronic music, being the first artist in his country to explore these techniques.
Over the span of his career, he wrote symphonies, ballets, operas, and film scores. Mayuzumi was the first Japanese composer to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score, for the 1966 film The Bible: In the Beginning.... He was the recipient of an Otaka prize by the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Purple Medal of Merit. John Huston called him a "modern Beethoven".
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Biography

Born in Yokohama, Mayuzumi was a student of Tomojirō Ikenouchi and Akira Ifukube at the Tokyo University of the Arts immediately following the Second World War, graduating in 1951. He then went to Europe where he attended the Paris Conservatoire national supérieur de musique, studying with Aubin and becoming familiar with the new developments of Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez, as well as with the techniques of musique concrète
He was initially enthusiastic about avant-garde Western music, especially that of Varèse, but beginning in 1957 he turned to pan-Asianism.
A prolific composer for the cinema, he composed more than a hundred film scores between Wagaya wa tanoshii in 1951 and Jo no mai in 1984. The best-known film with a score by Mayuzumi is The Bible: In the Beginning..., for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. As of 2025, he is one of only two Japanese-born composers to be nominated for a Best Original Score Oscar.
Mayuzumi was received a special award from the Suntory Music Award in July 1997.
He died in Kawasaki, Kanagawa at the age of 68 in April 1997.

Politics

Mayuzumi served as the chairman of the Nihon wo mamoru Kokumin Kaigi, an ultraconservative organization that supported constitutional revision. He was pivotal in its merger with the Nihon wo mamoru Kai to form the Nippon Kaigi, and was slated to become the organization's first leader, but passed away shortly before it was inaugurated.
Mayuzumi became the first representative of the Liberal Democratic Party's supporter organization, the Liberal National Congress, in 1977, and continued to serve as its representative until his death 20 years later.
When foreign minister and deputy prime minister Tsutomu Hata stated that " must tell children what their forefathers did in Asia before and during the war", Mayuzumi stated in response "It's deplorable that the prime minister of Japan would talk so carelessly. In the past, people have been more indirect about the war".

Works

Operas

  • Kinkakuji
  • ''Kojiki''

Ballet

  • Bugaku
  • Olympics
  • The Kabuki
  • ''M''

Orchestral works

Rumba Rhapsody Symphonic Mood Bacchanale Ektoplasm Tonepleromas 55 phonology Symphonique Nirvana Symphony for male chorus and orchestra Mandala Symphony Echigojishi Music with Sculpture Textures for wind orchestra Samsara Essay in Sonorities Essay for string orchestra Fireworks Ongaku no tanjō
  • Concerto for percussion and wind orchestra
  • Concertino for xylophone and orchestra Shu Tateyama ARIA in G for Solo Violin and Orchestra Capriccio for Solo Violin and String Orchestra Mukyūdō

Ensemble/Instrumental works

Sonata, for violin and piano
  • Twelve Preludes, for piano Hors d'œuvre, for piano
  • Divertimento, for 10 instruments
  • String Quartet
  • Sextet, for flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, horn, trumpet, and piano Pieces, for prepared piano and string quartet Mikrokosmos, for clavioline, guitar, musical saw, vibraphone, xylophone, percussion, and piano Bunraku, for violoncello solo
  • Prelude, for string quartet Metamusic, for saxophone, violin, and piano Shōwa Ten-pyō Raku, for gagaku ensemble Rokudan, for harp

Electronic music

Film scores

Home Sweet Home The Woman in the Rumor Street of Shame The Balloon The Unbalanced Wheel Enjō Stolen Desire Good Morning When a Woman Ascends the Stairs The Warped Ones