Hiroaki Zakōji

Hiroaki Zakōji ( Japanese 座 光寺 公 明 , Zakōji Hiroaki ; born January 20, 1958 in Tokyo Prefecture ; † January 29, 1987 ibid) was a Japanese composer and pianist .

Life

Zakōji grew up in Hokkaidō and studied composition under Masanobu Kimura when he was a high school student there. He attended the Art Institute of Nihon University in Tokyo, where he studied composition under Kiyohiko Kijima and piano under Midori Matsuya . He also learned composition under Roh Ogura in Kamakura .

In 1982 he organized the music ensemble "Tokyo Shin-Wagaku Consort", which regularly played his own contemporary music as well as works by other young composers. In 1985 he was presented at the IGNM concert by the International Society for New Music in Basel . In April 1986 he returned to Basel, where his “Piece III” for piano, Op. 36 was listed. He also traveled to Spain and Denmark and wrote a noteworthy essay for a music journal. His pieces Composition II (Op. 11) and Composition III (Op. 13) were broadcast on a Spanish radio station. In June 1986 he was one of the finalists in the Buddhist international music competition in Tokyo and his Op. 18, "Continuum", was premiered by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. A few days after his 29th birthday, he died of sudden cardiac arrest on January 29, 1987 in Tokyo.

In his short life of only 29 years, Zakōji left 38 works.

The English composer James Stevens wrote:

“His work was unique in that, despite its essentially contemporary nature, it owed nothing to any particular fashion or manner and it was consequently outside the mainstream of contemporary composers. Its material was the product of an excellent inner ear and it was treated with 'Mozartian' integrity. It also represented traditional Japanese concepts. Hiroaki was able to compose for strings, synthesizers, symphony orchestras or traditional instruments in the same way. "

Cello Chamber Concerto (for Cello and Orchestra), Op. 29a, was performed in the Orient Occident concert at the Teatre Lliure in Barcelona , together with a work by Tōru Takemitsu and a work by Yun I-sang , in April and Mail 1992.

In January 2008, some of Hiroaki's earlier works (Scherzo, Andante1, Adagio, Movement) were digitized and recorded by the Spanish composer Llibert López Pascual . Scherzo was broadcast on the Italian radio station Radio Fermo Uno in February 2008 .

character

Since Hiroaki grew up in Hokkaidō , in the northern part of Japan, where the climate is cold and harsh, he seems to have acquired a tough and patient character. He loved nature and the snow. He loved skiing. He worked very hard and was special, as was his talent, and he was very warm and loving.

His character was contradictory. He was tough, but at the same time sensitive and tender. He was both introverted and extroverted. On the one hand, he had a very contemplative nature, which is reflected in many of his works. He was interested in Buddhism and also in the subject of "death", which was rather unusual for a young man his age. On the other hand, he was a very sporty person who loved skiing. He had the highest degree of the SAJ (Ski Association of Japan) and worked in winter as a ski instructor in the mountain resort of Utsukushi-Gahara in Nagano . He was a joyful young man who liked to joke. His sense of humor and unique character made him many friends.

He was very progressive in his way of thinking. He was only in his twenties, but conversed with much older composers almost like his own. He was very mature and at the same time he was pure and innocent like a child. He was international, interested in traveling and performing abroad, yet he was patriotic and a nationalist who loved his country and its people. His interest in ancient Japanese mythology and history, Kojiki and Nihonshoki , prompted him to write the work “ Ame no Uzume ” (op. 4). He was also interested in traditional Japanese music, gagaku , and wrote the essays "Traditional Japanese Instruments" and "Inquiry into Traditional Japanese Music and Its Transformation in My Work".

His favorite color was black, his favorite city was Kamakura , and his favorite novelist was Ryunosuke Akutagawa . When he died, he left a notebook in which he composed his last work, the opera “The Spider Thread”. By the way, it was very neat and well organized. When he died, all of his scores were found to be in a clean condition, as if he had foreseen his sudden death.

He had love and compassion for those around him and made many friends through his sense of humor and unique character. Almost 300 people paid tribute to him at his funeral. He was a huge phenomenon. His sudden death was a tragedy beyond compare; many people complained and wept over the loss of this young, rare talent just as it was peaking.

Works

Orchestral pieces

• Sinfonietta for Strings, Op. 3 (1979)
• “Conversion” (for orchestra), Op. 7 (1980)
• “Meta Polyphonie” (for orchestra), Op. 10 (1981)
• “Captured in Time” (for orchestra), Op. 32 (1982)
• “Continuum” for orchestra - (Original title: “Zeit-Raum Continuum”)

(Premiere: International Buddhist Music Competition in Tokyo 1986)

Concerts

• Piano Concerto, Op. 21 (1983)
• Cello Chamber Concerto (for Cello and Orchestra), Op. 29a (1985)
• Cello Concerto, Op. 29 b (1985)

Chamber music

• Sonata for flute and piano, Op. 2 (1979)
• “ Ame no uzume ” (for soprano, piano, percussion and 7 wind instruments), Op. 4 (1980)
• Chamber Symphony, Op. 5 (1980)
• Composition I “Stille von inne” n (for flute, violin, piano), Op. 8 (1981)
• String Quartet (unfinished), Op. 9 (1981)
• String Quartet, Op. 12a (1981)
• Prelude and Fugue for String Quartet, Op. 12 b (1981)
• Composition III “Ke” (for Shakuhachi and Koto ), Op. 13 (1981)
• “Zeit in Zeit” for two marimbas, Op. 17 (1982)
• Prelude for Strings, Op. 20 (1982)
• Piano trio (for piano, flute, violin), Op. 23 (1983)
• Quintet (for flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano), Op. 24 (1983)
• Composition V (for flute and harp), Op. 26 (1983)
• Monody (for flute and piano), Op. 31 (1985)
• Suite for Traditional Instruments (for Traverso, Va.da.Gamba and Harpsichord), Op. 34 (1986)
• Composition VI (for Shakuhachi , Koto , piano), Op. 37 (1986)
• Morphology (for 2 pianos), Op. 38 (1986)

Solo pieces

• Composition II “Myou” (for solo flute), Op. 11 (1981)
• Composition IV “Holy Dance” (for percussion), Op. 14 (1982)
• Variations for Solo Cello, Op. 16 (1982)
• Mono-Morphology I “Fujyu” (for flute and shakuhachi ), Op. 22 (1983)
• Mono-Morphology II (for guitar), Op. 27 (1983)
• Piano piece I, Op. 28 (1985)
• Piano piece II, Op. 30 (1985)
• “Aya” (for solo koto ), Op. 35 (1986)
• Mono-Morphology III (for solo oboe), Op. 33 (1986)
• Piano piece III, Op. 36 (1986)

Vocal pieces

• Three songs based on poems by Chuya Nakahara (for soprano and piano), Op. 1 (1978)
• “Death and Smile” (for baritone and piano), Op. 6 (1980)
• Two songs sung by Prince Karu, (Ten, Pf), Op. 15 (1982)
• “From the Abyss of Death” (for voice and piano), Op. 19 (1982)

Choir pieces

• “Totenfeier” (for choir and orchestra), Op. 25 (1983)
• Invention (1985)

Web links

• Publications by JFC Japan Federation of Composers: Op.27 Mono-morphology II (1983) - engl. ( Memento from October 12, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
• Works are deposited: Tokyo Nippon Kindai Ongakukan - Documentation Center for Modern Japanese Music - engl.
• Memory of Hiroaki Zakoji - engl.
• James Stevens