Ikuma Dan

Ikuma Dan, around 1952

Ikuma Dan ( Japanese 團 伊 玖 磨 , Dan Ikuma ; born April 7, 1924 in Yotsuya (today: Shinjuku ), Tokyo Prefecture ; † May 17, 2001 in Suzhou , Jiangsu Province , People's Republic of China ) was a Japanese composer of classical music and an essayist .

Life

Dan Ikuma was born in 1924 as the son of businessman Inō Ikuma and his wife Michiko in the Tokyo district of Yotsuya and grew up in Harajuku . In 1931 he started school at the Aoyama Teachers Training College and began taking piano lessons at the age of seven. The following year, his grandfather, Baron Takuda Dan, CEO of the Mitsui Group , was murdered by the nationalist Goro Hishinuma. At the age of 13 he switched to middle school, which was part of Aoyama College. In the same year he moved to the district of Azabu (today: Minato ). From 1942 on he studied composition at the “Tokyo Conservatory” ( 東京 音 楽 学校 , today: Tokyo University of the Arts ). His teachers included Shimofusa Kan'ichi , Hashimoto Kunihiko , Hosokawa Midori and outside the conservatory also Yamada Kōsaku .

In 1944 he joined a military band , played the bass drum and, together with Akutagawa Yasushi, took over the editing of pieces of music. In 1945 he completed his composition studies and learned counterpoint and music analysis with Moroi Saburō . From 1946 on, Dan learned orchestration and conducting with Konoe Hidemaro . In that year he composed songs with texts by the poet Kitahara Hakushū . It was followed by Hana no machi ( 花 の 街 ) with a text by Ema Shōko (1913-2005). In 1948 Dan became a composer for the Japanese broadcaster NHK . During this time, in 1949, the romantic opera Yūzuru ( 夕 鶴 ) was created based on the play of the same name by Kinoshita Junji . This was followed by Symphony No. 1 and the world premiere of the opera Yūzuru in Osaka in 1952. In the following year, Dan founded the “Group of Three” ( Sannin no Kai ) together with Akutagawa Yasushi and Mayuzumi Toshirō , which gave five concerts in the following years which they performed their own compositions.

In the 1950s, Dan Ikuma was extremely productive in a variety of fields. He was musical director of Toho - film studios , composed more operas, most of which were premiered in Osaka, the Symphony No. 5 was created and he composed a large number of small works on different occasions such as the opening music. Summer Olympic Games in 1964 in Tokyo and 1959 "Festival march" ( 祝 典 行進 曲 , Shokuten kyōshinkyoku ) on the occasion of the wedding of Emperor Akihito and Michiko . In 1966, Dan was awarded the Japanese Academy of Arts Prize in the Western Music (Composition) category. The following year, his literary work was also recognized with the award of the Yomiuri Literature Prize for his essay Pipe no kemuri . In September 1996, he suffered a heart attack that forced him to stay in the hospital for a month. Three years later, in 1999, he was honored for his services as a person of special cultural merit .

Ikuma Dan died in 2001 at the age of 77 from heart failure in a hospital in Suzhou during a trip to China on the occasion of a friendship visit under the auspices of the "Society for Sino-Japanese Cultural Exchange" .

family tree

Hatoyama Yukio

Hatoyama Kiichirō 鳩 山 紀一郎

Hatoyama Kazuo 鳩 山 和 夫

Hatoyama Ichirō

Hatoyama Iichirō

Hattori Kintarō 服 部 金太郎

Hattori Genzō 服 部 玄 三

Eiko

Hatoyama Yasuko 鳩 山 安 子

Hatoyama Taro

Hatoyama Kunio

Katō Kōtarō 加藤 厚 太郎

Hatoyama Jirō 鳩 山 二郎

Fumiko? 富 美 子

Hatoyama Emily 鳩 山 エ ミ リ

Ueno Suesaburō 上 野 季 三郎

Ishibashi Shōjirō 石橋 正 二郎

Hanako

JK Baird

Sasaki Yukitada 佐 々 木 行 忠

Risa

Yonago? 米 子

Ishibashi Kan'ichirō 石橋 幹 一郎

Ishibashi Kan 石橋 寛

Michiko 美智子

Saeko / Akiko? 朗 子

Dan Naoki 團 名 保 紀

Dan Inō 團 伊 能

Dan Ikuma

Dan Norihiko 團 紀 彦

Dan Haruka 團 遥 香

Sumi

Chieko 知 恵 子

Dan Takuma 團 琢磨

Ogura Fusazō 小 倉房 蔵

Shinobu? 忍

Ogura Shigekatsu 小 倉 重 勝

(Kaneko) Yoshiko 芳子

Mei

Saitō Ryōei

Saitō Kiminori 齊藤 公 紀

Makita Tamaki 牧 田 環

Dan Katsuma 團 勝 磨

Dan Marina 團 ま り な

Works (selection)

In the course of his life, Dan Ikuma composed seven operas, six symphonies, a large number of songs and choral pieces, as well as more than 200 pieces of film music.

Operas

• Yūzuru (about: "The Silver Heron"), opera in one act and two acts, text by Junji Kinoshita , (first performance: Ōsaka, 1952)
• Kikimimizukin ( 聴 耳 頭巾 , something like "The Listening Hood"), opera in 3 acts, text by Junji Kinoshita (first performance: Ōsaka, 1955)
• Yōkihi ( 楊貴妃 ) ( Yang Guifei ), opera in 3 acts, text by Jirō Osaragi (first performance: Tokyo, 1958)
• Hikarigoke ( ひ か り ご け , for example: "The luminous moss"), opera in 2 acts, text by Takeda Taijun (first performance: Ōsaka, 1972)
• Chanchiki ( ち ゃ ん ち き ), opera in 2 acts, text by Mizuki Yōko (first performance: Tokyo, 1975)
• Susanoo (素 戔 嗚 ), Opera (1994)
• Takeru ( 建 ・ TAKERU ), opera (world premiere: Tokyo, 1997)

orchestra

• Symphony No. 1 in A (1948-49 / 56-57)
• Symphony No. 2 in B flat major (1955-56 / 88)
• Symphony No. 3 (1960)
• Symphony No. 4 (1965)
• Symphony No. 5 (1965)
• Symphony No. 6 "Hiroshima" for soprano, nōkan , shinobue and orchestra, text by Edmund Blunden (1985)
• Shokuten kyōshinkyoku ( 祝 典 行進 曲 , "festival march") for wind orchestra (1992)
• Symphony No. 7 - unfinished

Concertante

• Fantasia all'antica for 2 violins and string orchestra (1988)

Chamber music / singing

• Fantasia No. 1 for violin and piano (1973)
• 3 novelettes for piano (1983)
• Fantasia No. 2 for violin and piano (1983)
• Fantasia No. 3 for violin and piano (1984)
• Sonata for flute and piano (1986)
• Sonata for 4 bassoons (1988)
• Hana no machi ( 花 の 街 )

Nursery rhymes

• Six children's songs ( 六 つ の 子 供 の う た , Muttsu no kodomo no uta ) for piano and voice (1945)
• Otsukai ari-san ( お つ か い あ り さ ん )
• Zō-san ( ぞ う さ ん )
• Yagi-san yūbin ( や ぎ さ ん ゆ う び ん )
• Katatsumuri ( カ タ ツ ム リ )

Film music

• Samurai (1954)
• Samurai II: Ichijōji no kettō ( Duel at Ichijoji Temple ) (1955)
• Samurai III: kettō Ganryūjima ( Duel at Ganryu Island ) (1956)
• Death rays from space ( Sekai Daisensō , The Last War ) (1961)
• Muhōmatsu no isshō ( The Life of Wild Matsu or Rickshaw Man ) (1958)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 團 伊 玖 磨 . In: 日本 大 百科全書 (ニ ッ ポ ニ カ) at kotobank.jp. Retrieved April 20, 2015 (Japanese). 
2. ↑ Ikuma Dan. Toho Kingdom, 2015, accessed April 22, 2015 . 
3. ↑ 服 部 玄 三 . In: 歴 史 が 眠 る 多 磨 霊 園 . Retrieved April 22, 2015 (Japanese). 
4. ^ William D. Hoover: Dan, Ikuma . In: Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan . Scarecrow Press, 2011, pp. 55 (English).
5. ↑ Karsten Steiger: Dan, Ikuma . In: Opera discography: directory of all audio and video recordings . 2nd Edition. De Gruyter, 2008, p. 109 .
6. ↑ ^{a b} Dan Ikuma. In: operone. Retrieved April 22, 2015 . 

Web links

• Rob Barnett: Dan Ikuma. Music Web International, accessed April 18, 2015 .