Ifukube Akira (1914-2006; 伊福部昭) was a Japanese nationalistic composer of classical music who is perhaps best known among the general public for his film scores for the Godzilla movies.
Ifukube was born in a small village in northeastern Hokkaido, on the fringe of Japan, where his father was mayor. The population was half Japanese, half Ainu. Ifukube studied both violin and shamisen, and was impressed by the improvisational music of the aboriginal Ainu population. The violin would remain his favorite instrument. Later, when he went to secondary school in Sapporo, he had a deeper encounter with Western classical music and especially fell in love with Stravinsky and De Falla (he never felt close to classical composers as Mozart and Beethoven, whom he considered as too different culturally). It was Le Sacre du Printemps that motivated him to deepen his knowledge of European music. In 1932, Ifukube also befriended Hayasaka Fumio, a self-taught composer who was of the same age, and their talks about music were mutually stimulating. Later, Ifukube and Hayasaka would form the core of a group of nationalistic composers - "nationalistic" in the sense that they tried to develop a Japanese music tradition different from the European one; to this group also Ifukube's pupil Mayuzumi Toshiro can later be added. Interestingly, for non-Japanese music fans these Japanese, national-style works are often more interesting than the music of composers who closely followed the European tradition - just as in modern painting, the Japanese style Nihonga painters working on paper or silks with mineral pigments or Chinese ink are often more fascinating than the Yoga Western-style oil painters.
Ifukube was born in a small village in northeastern Hokkaido, on the fringe of Japan, where his father was mayor. The population was half Japanese, half Ainu. Ifukube studied both violin and shamisen, and was impressed by the improvisational music of the aboriginal Ainu population. The violin would remain his favorite instrument. Later, when he went to secondary school in Sapporo, he had a deeper encounter with Western classical music and especially fell in love with Stravinsky and De Falla (he never felt close to classical composers as Mozart and Beethoven, whom he considered as too different culturally). It was Le Sacre du Printemps that motivated him to deepen his knowledge of European music. In 1932, Ifukube also befriended Hayasaka Fumio, a self-taught composer who was of the same age, and their talks about music were mutually stimulating. Later, Ifukube and Hayasaka would form the core of a group of nationalistic composers - "nationalistic" in the sense that they tried to develop a Japanese music tradition different from the European one; to this group also Ifukube's pupil Mayuzumi Toshiro can later be added. Interestingly, for non-Japanese music fans these Japanese, national-style works are often more interesting than the music of composers who closely followed the European tradition - just as in modern painting, the Japanese style Nihonga painters working on paper or silks with mineral pigments or Chinese ink are often more fascinating than the Yoga Western-style oil painters.
Ifukube studied forestry at Hokkaido University and taught himself composition in his free time. His first composition - at the age of 19 - was the Piano Suite of 1933 (later orchestrated as "Japan Suite" in 1991; also a version for 20-stringed Koto exists; the Suite was dedicated to the American pianist George Copland). Ifukube was the first composer to use Japanese folk music in compositions based on European techniques. In this first work there is an extensive use of ostinati (short motives repeated over and over again), a technique that would characterize all Ifukube's work. Ifukube used a scale that was basically pentatonic, to which he would add one or two notes not used by the melody. To create a harmonic texture he would often use double musical lines, simple counterpoint or canonic sections.
In 1935 followed the Japanese Rhapsody for orchestra which won first prize in an international contest for young composers organized by the Russian emigre-composer and pianist Alexander Tcherepnin. It consists of two parts, Nocturne and Fete, and was performed in Boston in 1935, conducted by Fabien Sevitzky. Tcherepnin was so fascinated by Ifukube's style, that during his Japan visit he went especially to Hokkaido to meet him. There is an interesting contrast between the graceful folk tunes and the "Aboriginal" quality called up by the ostinati, the doubling of the melody and the use of open fifths in the harmony. The music is very rhythmic, with a prominent place for the percussion section.
After graduation, Ifukube worked as a forestry officer and lumber processor. One frequently played work from this time is Triptyque aborigene for chamber orchestra (Dozokuteki sanrenga, 1937). This piece was inspired by Akkeshi Forest where Ifukube worked as a ranger. There are three movements: Payses (the hard-working women of the countryside); Timbe (the name of a lonely cliff); Pakkai (an Ainu drinking song). The work is written in a naive style and combines the energy of folk music with the structural and instrumental patterns of European music.
During the war years, Ifukube composed the Symphony Concertante for piano and orchestra (1941), in which he "wanted to create something mechanical and energetic. I was caught up in the idea of combining the sounds of modern iron and steel with ethnic energy as an expression of the sentiment of the times, not to glorify war in any way. I was also influenced by the futuristic works of Prokofiev, Mosolov, Honegger, and Varèse." After the first performance in 1942, the score and parts were thought to have been destroyed in an air raid on Tokyo, and Ifukube therefore recycled themes from the concerto in his "Sinfonia Tapkaara" (1954/1979) and "Ritmica Ostinata" (1961), using sketches that had been left behind. In 1992, however, a set of parts was discovered in the NHK archives, and the "Symphony Concertante for piano and orchestra" was given a second chance.
Another war time composition was the Ballata sinfonica (1943). The Ballata is in two parts, an Allegro Capriccioso in fast dance rhythm and an Andante Rapsodico resembling a dirge. In September of that year Ifukube entered the work into the Victor Orchestral Contest and it was made into a gramophone record by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra under Yamada Kazuo.
After the war, Ifukube moved to Tokyo where he started teaching music at the precursor of the present Tokyo University of the Arts in Ueno.
Works from the immediate postwar years include the following:
- the ballet Salome (1948), based on Oscar Wilde's play of the same name, and composed to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Kaitani Ballet Company. This was Ifukube's first postwar ballet music for orchestra. In addition to Middle Eastern scales, the composer used a rhythmic motive throughout the piece, a "fate motive." The ballet was well received, there were nearly 180 performances.
- the Rhapsodia Concertante per Violino et Orchestra (Violin Concerto No. 1; 1948). Akira Ifukube's relationship with the violin began when he was a boy, and the fact that he was quite skilled at the time is evidenced by the virtuoso writing of the solo parts. The concept of this work is that it is written in a style similar to gypsy violin music, with a more Asian sensibility, in contrast to the overly sophisticated violin concertos of the West. Therefore, it requires a completely different technique from Western music, and is quite difficult to play.
- Music for "Japanese Drum Deer Dance" adapted for concert (1951). Deer dance" is a local performing art of the former Sendai and Southern Morioka domains. It is performed by dancers wearing ornaments representing the head of a deer, who dance as if they are jumping around. Choreographer Eguchi Takaya studied local deer dances together with Ifukube. It is full of Ifukube's robust music.
At this time, Ifukube also composed his first film score – over the next 50 years, 250 more would follow. Most famous is the music he wrote for various Godzilla and other Toho monster movies, starting with the original Godzilla in 1954. Ifukube was introduced to Toho by his friend and colleague Hayasaka Fumio. Ifukube also created Godzilla's typical roar (a leather glove striking the loosened strings of a double bass) as well as its threatening footsteps (by striking an amplifier box). In 1971 Ifukube stopped writing film music, but he was lured back in the nineties to do more scores for the new Godzilla films then being made. The music of his kaiju scores found a concert home in three Symphonic Fantasies, composed in 1954 and 1983. Especially the first Fantasy is very effective.
Listen to it in the performance by an anonymous orchestra conducted by John DeSentis.
Also in 1954, Ifukube wrote the Sinfonia Tapkaara in three movements, an homage to the wide land of Hokkaido. Tapkaara" means "to stand up and dance" in Ainu language, danced by the tribal leader on rituals and feasts, often expressing gratitude for the blessings of nature. Akira Ifukube says that he was motivated to compose this piece by his empathy and nostalgia for the Ainu people with whom he interacted as a boy. The work was also dedicated to Miura Atsushi, a music critic and youth friend of Ifukube. This work is partially based on the "Concerto-style Symphony for Piano and Winds" which was thought to be lost in the fires of the war.
The first movement starts with a Lento molto introduction, leading to an Allegro, its second theme presented by trumpet over clarinet, harp and strings, sounding like a primitive lullaby as found in Ainu traditional music. The ABA-form Adagio has a first theme that suggests traditional pentatonic scales. The third movement, Vivace, vividly evokes an Ainu celebration.
In 1961 followed Ritmica Ostinata for piano and orchestra, another work based on the lost "Concerto-style Symphony for Piano and Winds." As the title says, this concertante work persistently uses ostinato. It also uses metres of five and seven beats, reflecting literary tradition as in haiku and waka, where lines have either 5 or 7 syllables. The solo part is treated non-pianistically, almost like a Japanese koto or biwa. The work is in Rondo form, with an Allegro framing slower sections.
Next two further works were written for Ifukube's favorite instrument, the violin: in 1978, a second violin concerto, and in 1985 a violin sonata.
One of Ifukube's most ambitious works was Gotama the Buddha for mixed chorus and orchestra (Shaka, 1989). The songs are in Pali, the ancient Indian language in which the oldest Buddhist texts were written. This was a difficult work to write, because of its extended form - Ifukube had to find his own solution for the construction of such a longer work, as he never employed the "European" sonata form.
Ifukube also wrote for traditional Japanese instruments, in the first place the twenty-stringed Koto. A good example is the Eclogue Symphonique pour Koto a vingt cordes et Orchestre (1982). Also short works Ifukube wrote for the lute or the guitar were transposed for the koto.
In 1975, Ifukube became President of the Tokyo College of Music. In 1987 he retired to become president of the College's ethnomusicology department. He trained younger composers as Mayuzumi Toshiro and Akutagawa Yasushi and also published extensively on music theory.
Characteristics of Ifukube's music:
In 1935 followed the Japanese Rhapsody for orchestra which won first prize in an international contest for young composers organized by the Russian emigre-composer and pianist Alexander Tcherepnin. It consists of two parts, Nocturne and Fete, and was performed in Boston in 1935, conducted by Fabien Sevitzky. Tcherepnin was so fascinated by Ifukube's style, that during his Japan visit he went especially to Hokkaido to meet him. There is an interesting contrast between the graceful folk tunes and the "Aboriginal" quality called up by the ostinati, the doubling of the melody and the use of open fifths in the harmony. The music is very rhythmic, with a prominent place for the percussion section.
After graduation, Ifukube worked as a forestry officer and lumber processor. One frequently played work from this time is Triptyque aborigene for chamber orchestra (Dozokuteki sanrenga, 1937). This piece was inspired by Akkeshi Forest where Ifukube worked as a ranger. There are three movements: Payses (the hard-working women of the countryside); Timbe (the name of a lonely cliff); Pakkai (an Ainu drinking song). The work is written in a naive style and combines the energy of folk music with the structural and instrumental patterns of European music.
During the war years, Ifukube composed the Symphony Concertante for piano and orchestra (1941), in which he "wanted to create something mechanical and energetic. I was caught up in the idea of combining the sounds of modern iron and steel with ethnic energy as an expression of the sentiment of the times, not to glorify war in any way. I was also influenced by the futuristic works of Prokofiev, Mosolov, Honegger, and Varèse." After the first performance in 1942, the score and parts were thought to have been destroyed in an air raid on Tokyo, and Ifukube therefore recycled themes from the concerto in his "Sinfonia Tapkaara" (1954/1979) and "Ritmica Ostinata" (1961), using sketches that had been left behind. In 1992, however, a set of parts was discovered in the NHK archives, and the "Symphony Concertante for piano and orchestra" was given a second chance.
Another war time composition was the Ballata sinfonica (1943). The Ballata is in two parts, an Allegro Capriccioso in fast dance rhythm and an Andante Rapsodico resembling a dirge. In September of that year Ifukube entered the work into the Victor Orchestral Contest and it was made into a gramophone record by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra under Yamada Kazuo.
After the war, Ifukube moved to Tokyo where he started teaching music at the precursor of the present Tokyo University of the Arts in Ueno.
Works from the immediate postwar years include the following:
- the ballet Salome (1948), based on Oscar Wilde's play of the same name, and composed to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Kaitani Ballet Company. This was Ifukube's first postwar ballet music for orchestra. In addition to Middle Eastern scales, the composer used a rhythmic motive throughout the piece, a "fate motive." The ballet was well received, there were nearly 180 performances.
- the Rhapsodia Concertante per Violino et Orchestra (Violin Concerto No. 1; 1948). Akira Ifukube's relationship with the violin began when he was a boy, and the fact that he was quite skilled at the time is evidenced by the virtuoso writing of the solo parts. The concept of this work is that it is written in a style similar to gypsy violin music, with a more Asian sensibility, in contrast to the overly sophisticated violin concertos of the West. Therefore, it requires a completely different technique from Western music, and is quite difficult to play.
- Music for "Japanese Drum Deer Dance" adapted for concert (1951). Deer dance" is a local performing art of the former Sendai and Southern Morioka domains. It is performed by dancers wearing ornaments representing the head of a deer, who dance as if they are jumping around. Choreographer Eguchi Takaya studied local deer dances together with Ifukube. It is full of Ifukube's robust music.
At this time, Ifukube also composed his first film score – over the next 50 years, 250 more would follow. Most famous is the music he wrote for various Godzilla and other Toho monster movies, starting with the original Godzilla in 1954. Ifukube was introduced to Toho by his friend and colleague Hayasaka Fumio. Ifukube also created Godzilla's typical roar (a leather glove striking the loosened strings of a double bass) as well as its threatening footsteps (by striking an amplifier box). In 1971 Ifukube stopped writing film music, but he was lured back in the nineties to do more scores for the new Godzilla films then being made. The music of his kaiju scores found a concert home in three Symphonic Fantasies, composed in 1954 and 1983. Especially the first Fantasy is very effective.
Listen to it in the performance by an anonymous orchestra conducted by John DeSentis.
Also in 1954, Ifukube wrote the Sinfonia Tapkaara in three movements, an homage to the wide land of Hokkaido. Tapkaara" means "to stand up and dance" in Ainu language, danced by the tribal leader on rituals and feasts, often expressing gratitude for the blessings of nature. Akira Ifukube says that he was motivated to compose this piece by his empathy and nostalgia for the Ainu people with whom he interacted as a boy. The work was also dedicated to Miura Atsushi, a music critic and youth friend of Ifukube. This work is partially based on the "Concerto-style Symphony for Piano and Winds" which was thought to be lost in the fires of the war.
The first movement starts with a Lento molto introduction, leading to an Allegro, its second theme presented by trumpet over clarinet, harp and strings, sounding like a primitive lullaby as found in Ainu traditional music. The ABA-form Adagio has a first theme that suggests traditional pentatonic scales. The third movement, Vivace, vividly evokes an Ainu celebration.
In 1961 followed Ritmica Ostinata for piano and orchestra, another work based on the lost "Concerto-style Symphony for Piano and Winds." As the title says, this concertante work persistently uses ostinato. It also uses metres of five and seven beats, reflecting literary tradition as in haiku and waka, where lines have either 5 or 7 syllables. The solo part is treated non-pianistically, almost like a Japanese koto or biwa. The work is in Rondo form, with an Allegro framing slower sections.
Next two further works were written for Ifukube's favorite instrument, the violin: in 1978, a second violin concerto, and in 1985 a violin sonata.
One of Ifukube's most ambitious works was Gotama the Buddha for mixed chorus and orchestra (Shaka, 1989). The songs are in Pali, the ancient Indian language in which the oldest Buddhist texts were written. This was a difficult work to write, because of its extended form - Ifukube had to find his own solution for the construction of such a longer work, as he never employed the "European" sonata form.
Ifukube also wrote for traditional Japanese instruments, in the first place the twenty-stringed Koto. A good example is the Eclogue Symphonique pour Koto a vingt cordes et Orchestre (1982). Also short works Ifukube wrote for the lute or the guitar were transposed for the koto.
In 1975, Ifukube became President of the Tokyo College of Music. In 1987 he retired to become president of the College's ethnomusicology department. He trained younger composers as Mayuzumi Toshiro and Akutagawa Yasushi and also published extensively on music theory.
Characteristics of Ifukube's music:
- Embraces various Japanese and Oriental musical traditions, rejecting the European tradition.
- Repetition and development of simple motifs. This was influenced by the music of the Ainu. The melody undergoes rich ornamentation called melisma.
- Use of folk melody. Many of the works use melodic techniques similar to the Japanese pentatonic scale.
- Rejection of tertian chords. This is due to his dislike of Western sound. The result is a harmonic progression that is free from functional harmony, and drone (sustained bass) elements are often present.
- Emphasis on rhythm. Western music had fallen into a cul-de-sac as a result of its neglect of rhythm, and the restoration of rhythm was advocated by Ifukube.
- Emphasis on ostinato. Although his teacher Tcherepnin instructed him to avoid ostinato because it was "the Achilles' heel of modern music," he positioned ostinato as an important writing technique in Asian music and incorporated it into his compositions. In a commentary on Ainu music, Ifukube stated that "repetition itself has an important meaning.
- Rejection of the sonata form. In light of the Japanese sense of beauty, Ifukube disliked the mechanical reproduction of themes; even when he repeats a theme, there is no repeat in the narrow sense of sonata form.
- Ifukube rejected the avant-garde trends of the late 1940s and 1950s, and continued to compose in what was a rather reactionary style; there is also no development in his music over the years.
- His music can get rather monotonous due to all those repetitions, ostinatos and emphasis on a hyperactive percussion section.
- This is even more true for his larger works which suffer from lack of structure. His small pieces, like the "Triptyque aborigene" are in fact his best music.
- Harmonization and instrumentation are rather crude. I miss techniques that make art music interesting, such as counterpoint.
- In too many works (piano concertos, violin concerto) the march from Godzilla (or something very much like it) pops up ad nauseam.
- When I first heard Ifukube's music it seemed interesting because it is so different, but after hearing several pieces, fatigue and saturation set in, because the same "trick" is endlessly repeated.
Japanese Music: Akutagawa Yasushi - Hayasaka Fumio - Ifukube Akira - Matsudaira Yoritsune - Mayazumi Toshiro - Miyoshi Akira - Moroi Saburo - Takemitsu Toru - Yamada Kosaku - Yashiro Akio
Classical Music
Classical Music