Kōichi Kishi

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Kōichi Kishi ( Japanese 貴志 康 一 , Kishi Kōichi ; born March 31, 1909 in Osaka Prefecture ; † November 17, 1937 ) was a Japanese violinist , composer and conductor .

Life

Kōichi Kishi was born as the oldest of eight children. He spent his childhood in Miyakojima , a district of Osaka. Numerous emigrants lived there , especially from Russia , and so Kishi came into contact with Western culture. Following his mother's example, he learned to play the violin. At the age of 18 he went to Europe to complete his training as a violinist at the Geneva Conservatory and the Berlin School of Music . He then studied composition with Paul Hindemith and conducting with Wilhelm Furtwängler . In the following time Kishi worked as a conductor, composer and violinist. In 1934, at the age of 25, he conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker , which performed his works, including a violin concerto played by Georg Kulenkampff . The Berlin newspapers praised Kishi as "worthy of admiration".

As a composer, Kishi took over the western, late romantic tradition and changed it “in his own way”. He, his father and his grandfather were deeply religious Buddhists. He composed the symphony of the life of Buddha ( 仏 陀 の 生涯 , Buddha no shōgai ) as program music , the only one of its kind from his works. He played a Stradivarius violin that had belonged to the British royal family since the early 18th century and is therefore called King George . The instrument obviously belonged to his mother. King George is now owned by the Habisreutinger Foundation .

In Germany, Kōichi Kishi was committed to making his homeland Japan known. He worked alongside his compatriot, the singer Hatsue Yuasa , in two short films in which Japanese culture was presented. In addition, he proposed to the UFA to found a German-Japanese film production company, which the Japanese government should support with one million Reichsmarks . But the UFA was not interested.

In 1937, Kishi died of a heart condition in Japan. He was 28 years old.

His home in Osaka is a listed building . When Yukawa Hideki was the first Japanese physicist to receive the Nobel Prize in 1949 , Kishi's work Taketori Monogatari was played at the banquet in Stockholm . The carillon at Miyakojima District Hall also plays this melody. On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Kôichi Kishi, an exhibition about his life and work was on view in the Japanese-German Center Berlin (JDZB) in spring 2009 . On March 10, 2009, a concert with works by Kishi took place in the Berlin Philharmonic .

Works

  • The Life of Buddha - Symphony in four movements
  • Japanese sketches for large orchestra ( 大 管弦 楽 の た め の 「日本 ス ケ ッ チ」 )
  • Japanese suite for large orchestra ( 大 管弦 楽 の た め の 「日本 組曲」 )
  • Ama no iwato ( 天 の 岩 戸 ) - ballet in two acts
  • Namiko - operetta
  • Kagokaki , Akai kanzahi - fourteen songs in total
  • Music for the films Kagami ("Mirror") and Haru ("Spring")

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Miyakojima Ward Official Web Site Osaka City. In: city.osaka.lg.jp. November 17, 1937, accessed March 31, 2017 .
  2. ↑ According to other sources, he grew up in Kobe . see [1]
  3. ↑ a b c d Kôichi KISHI - a Japanese musician. In: de.emb-japan.go.jp. April 17, 2009, accessed March 31, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b Gerda Laube-Przygoddy: Music of three cultures. Orchestral music of the 20th century in Europe, the United States of America and Japan. A synchronous comparison. Ars Una, Neuried 2001, ISBN 978-3-89391-124-0 .
  5. ^ Tokyo 2010 - present: Stradivari Ensemble. In: sarahintokio.blogspot.de. February 24, 2004, accessed March 31, 2017 .
  6. ↑ King George: Stradivari Quartet ¦ A declaration of love to music. (No longer available online.) In: stradivariquartett.com. May 2, 2015, archived from the original on April 1, 2017 ; accessed on March 31, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / stradivariquartett.com
  7. ^ Janine Hansen: Celluloid Competition: German-Japanese Film Relations, 1929–1945 . In: Roel Vande Winkel / David Welch (eds.): Cinema and the Swastika. The International Expansion of the Third Reich . Palgrave MacMillan, 2007, pp. 187 .
personal data
SURNAME Kishi, Kōichi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 貴志 康 一 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese musician and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Osaka prefecture
DATE OF DEATH November 17, 1937