Toshiro Mayuzumi
Showa Tenpyoraku
Victor (Japan) 1971
VX-53 (LP) Original pressing, gatefold jacket
sleeve : EX(slightly faded)
media : EX/EX(slight surface noise in some parts)
An album released in 1970 by Toshiro Mayuzumi, a leading Japanese composer/contemporary musician of the post-war era who introduced musique concrète, electronic music, and avant-garde music to Japan in the early 1950s and himself released numerous compositions influenced by them. From Toshiba Records' "Contemporary Japanese Music Series." This work, commissioned by the National Theatre in 1970 and premiered by the Music Department of the Imperial Household Agency, challenges the musical style of Gagaku, Japan's classical music. It is based on and expands upon an orchestral arrangement using traditional Gagaku instruments such as sho, hichiriki, biwa, koto, and kakko, but finds common ground between the harmonic structure of the sho's aitake and the tone cluster, a mainstream of contemporary music in the latter half of the 20th century, thus reinterpreting Gagaku under an entirely new concept. Like Toru Takemitsu's "Autumn Garden," this is a masterpiece that wonderfully sublimates the heterogeneity of ethnic/traditional music into a world of sound.
A1: Jo Tōgaku
B1: Ha Rinyūgaku
B2: Kyu Jo-buki