updated 26 February 2024
© DR

Toshi Ichiyanagi

Japanese composer and pianist born 4 February 1933 in Kobe; died 7 October 2022 in Tokyo.

His father a cellist and his mother a pianist, Toshi Ichiyanagi was exposed to avant-garde music from a young age. By twenty, he was working as a pianist at an American military base in Tokyo, where he performed Broadway musical comedies, waltzes, and jazz. He also introduced his neighbor Tōru Takemitsu to the works of Olivier Messiaen.

After receiving several awards in Japan, Ichiyanagi left to study at the University of Minnesota in 1952, while taking lessons at the Tanglewood Music Center with Aaron Copland. From 1954 to 1957, he joined the composition program at the Juilliard School. At the time, his ambition was to become a dodecaphonist composer, but the Juilliard School did not satisfy his expectations in this regard. He thus redirected his studies in search of modernist teaching. He found several composers who better fit his aspirations, such as Luigi Dallapiccola, Edgard Varèse, Goffredo Petrassi, Lukas Foss, and Stefan Wolpe.

At the same time, he found his place in the world of the underground New York art scene, where he met Yoko Ono, with whom he developed a strong artistic synergy. The pair married in 1956 before separating in 1962. During this period, Ichiyanagi gravitated around events of the Fluxus movement. He played pieces by La Monte Young at the AG Gallery in New York, where he met David Tudor, who introduced him to John Cage.

In 1958, he joined the New School for Social Research, where he became one of Cage’s protégés. Cage helped him become the improvisational pianist for Merce Cunningham’s dance company. Ichiyanagi was consequently tasked with organizing Cage’s 1960 tour of Japan, a cornerstone event in the spread of contemporary music in the archipelago. In 1966, Ichiyanagi and Takemitsu founded the Orchestral Space festival, with the aim of publicizing experimental music in Japan.

His mentor introduced him to many artists, including Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Jasper Johns, and the futurist Richard Buckminster Fuller. Conscious of the visual aspect of his work, Ichiyanagi developed his own system of notation. A derivative of the Western system, his was a graphic notation that earned him several exhibitions in galleries. Some of his scores are the property of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, such as IBM for Merce Cunningham, made from the first IBM computer cards. In 1962, Ichiyanagi organized the International Graphic Scores Exhibition at the Minami Gallery in Tokyo with Kuniharu Akiyama.

Another prominent feature of Ichiyanagi’s works lies in their interpretation by the performer. The notation leaves them ample freedom to make decisions concerning structure, pitch, density, color, and sonic activity. Ichiyanagi’s experiments began in 1959 with Music for Piano No. 2, followed by Music for Electronic Metronome (1960), and lasted his whole career until the Piano Concerto No. 6 (2016).

In 1989, Ichiyanagi formed the Tokyo International Music Ensemble – the New Tradition, led by his study of dialogues between Western and Eastern musical traditions. This ensemble was made up of a mix of Japanese and Western instruments and used Shōmyō, a Buddhist liturgical chant. For this project, Ichiyanagi wrote many pieces, such as Reigaku Symphony No. 2 (1989), The Way I and II (1990), Uncho Kuyo Bosatsu (1994), and Spiritual Sight (1996).

Ichiyanagi was artistic director of the Kanagawa Arts Foundation from 1996 to 2021. In the last years of his life, he developed an intense connection with Finland, where he founded the Japan–Finland Contemporary Music Society. He represented this bond in music in 2011 with his Fifth Piano Concerto, subtitled “Finland.”

Prizes and Awards

  • Officer of the Order of the Rising Sun, 2005
  • 33rd Suntory Music Award, 2002
  • Japanese Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, 1999
  • Grand Prix of the Nakajima Prize for activities as a composer, 1984
  • Otaka Prize for Circulating Scenery, 1984
  • Otaka Prize for Piano Concerto No. 1, “Reminiscence of Spaces,” 1981
  • Alexander Gretchaninov Prize, 1957
  • Serge Koussevitzky Prize, 1956
  • Elizabeth A. Coolidge Prize for Sonata, 1955
  • First place in the Mainichi Music Competition, composition, 1951 and 1949

© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2024

Sources

Schott, Washington Post, Kyoto City University of Arts : « Toshi Ichiyanagi, Oral History ».

Catalog sources and details

Compositions pour le cinéma

  • Saraba Natsu no Hikari (Adieu clarté d’été) (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1968)
  • Eros + Gyakusatsu (Eros + Massacre) (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1969)
  • Rengoku Eroica (Purgatoire Eroïca) (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1970)
  • Kokuhaku-teki Joyu-ron (Aveux, Théorie, Actrices) (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1971)
  • Kaigenrei (Coup d’État) (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1973)
  • Metastasis (film expérimental de Toshio Matsumoto, 1973)
  • Shikisokuzeku-Kusokuzeshiki (film expérimental de Toshio Matsumoto, 1974)
  • Jun (Hiroto Yokoyama, 1980)
  • Saya no Iru Toshizu (Seiji Izumi, 1986)

Catalog source(s)

Compositions pour le cinéma

  • Saraba Natsu no Hikari (Adieu clarté d’été) (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1968)
  • Eros + Gyakusatsu (Eros + Massacre) (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1969)
  • Rengoku Eroica (Purgatoire Eroïca) (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1970)
  • Kokuhaku-teki Joyu-ron (Aveux, Théorie, Actrices) (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1971)
  • Kaigenrei (Coup d’État) (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1973)
  • Metastasis (film expérimental de Toshio Matsumoto, 1973)
  • Shikisokuzeku-Kusokuzeshiki (film expérimental de Toshio Matsumoto, 1974)
  • Jun (Hiroto Yokoyama, 1980)
  • Saya no Iru Toshizu (Seiji Izumi, 1986)

Liens Internet

(liens vérifiés en février 2024).

Bibliographie

  • Emmanuelle LOUBET, « Rund um die ganz Welt. Toshi Ichiyanagi - von Japan aus gesehen », in MusikTexte 61, November 1995, p. 8-11.
  • Emmanuelle LOUBET, « The beginnings of electronic music in Japan, with a focus on the NHK studio: the 1970s », in Computer Music Journal, Spring 1998, vol.22, no.1. p. 49-55.

Discographie sélective

  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, Piano Media ; Time Sequence ; Cloud Atlas ; Inter Konzert ; Inexhaustible Fountain , Piano Poem, Ami Fujiwara : piano, dans « Piano Poem - Piano Works », 1 CD Camerata, 2021, CMCD-28377.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, String Quartet No. 0 ; String Quartet No. 1 ; String Quartet No. 2 “Interspace” ; String Quartet No. 3 “Inner Landscape” ; String Quartet No. 4 “In the Forest” ; String Quartet No. 5, dans « String Quartets », 2 CD Camerata, 2020, CMCD-15157~8.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, Computer Space ; Sound Material of Metastasis ; Title And Year Unknown ; For String #2, dans « Computer Space », 1 CD Edition Omega Point, 2019, OPA-023.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, « Sapporo », 1 CD Edition Wandelweiser Records, 2018, EWR 1801.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, Music for Piano No. 1 ; Music for Piano No. 2 ; Music for Piano No. 3 ; Music for Piano No. 4 ; Music for Piano No. 5 ; Music for Piano No. 6 ; Music for Piano No. 7, Takuji Kawai : piano, dans « Music for Piano », 1 CD Edition Omega Point, 2013, OPX-011.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, Inexhaustible Fountain ; Inter Konzert ; Piano Poem ; Time Sequence ; In Memory of John Cage ; Imaginary Scenes ; Paganini Personal, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Aska Iino : piano, dans « Piano Works », 1 CD Camerata, 2012, CMCD-28269.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, String Quartet ; Between Space and Time ; Trio Interlink ; Resonant Space ; Symphony No. 8 Revelation 2011, dans « Symphony No. 8 Revelation 2011 For Chamber Orchestra », 1 CD Camerata, 2012, CMCD-28257.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, Scenes No. 3 ; Cloud Figures ; Hoshi-No-Wa ; Time Sequence, dans « Cosmos of Toshi Ichiyanagi II », 1 CD Camerata, 2011, CMCD-50038.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, « Electronic Field », 1 CD Edition Omega Point, 2008, OPA-008.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, « オペラ横尾忠則を歌う: Opera “From The Works Of Tadanori Yokoo” », 4 CD Bridge, 2005, BRIDGE-028/031.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, Music For Tinguely ; Appearance ; Music for Living Space, dans « Music For Tinguely », 1 CD Edition Omega Point, 2005, OPA-005.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, The Way ; Still Time I ; Still Time II ; Still Time III ; Still Time IV, dans « 千年の響き », 1 CD Fontec, 2005, FOCD3160.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, Encounter, dans « 千年の響き », 1 CD Fontec, 2003, FOCD-9183.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, Music For Electric Metronomes ; For Strings, Music For Piano No. 4 & Music For Piano No. 6 ; Duet ; Parallel Music ; String Quartet No. 3 “Inner Landscape”, dans « Cosmos of Toshi Ichiyanagi III ~ 1960’s & 1990’s », 2 CD Camerata, 1999, 25CM-552-3.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, Violin Concerto “Circulating Scenery”, dans « The Min-On Contemporary Music Festival ‘83 », 1 CD Camerata, 1993, 32CM-295.
  • Toshi ICHIYANAGI, Paganini Personal ; Flowers Blooming In Summer ; Two Existence ; Scenes II ; Cloud Atlas I ; Cloud Atlas II ; Cloud Atlas III ; Cloud Atlas IV ; Cloud Atlas V ; Cloud Atlas VI, dans « Cosmos of Toshi Ichiyanagi I », 1 CD Camerata, 1988, 32CM-52.