Today, at around half past 11 in the morning, I was listening to NHK FM in the car when some interesting Japanese music came on. It sounded like an ensemble of a low-pitched twenty-string koto and a thirteen-string koto, with properly composed harmonies rather than the usual Japanese-music practice of a secondary accompanying part. Intrigued, I looked it up online and found that the program seemed to be “One Hundred Japanese Music Selections.”
At around half past 11, I believe it was Takashi Yoshimatsu’s selections from “Subaru”: “May Dream Song,” “Memory of a Prelude,” “Romance in the Past Tense,” and “November Dream Song.” Looking at the program schedule before and after it, there were works by Akira Nishimura and others, so it seemed to be quite an interesting program.
I thought that Japanese music in the future would be built on tradition while also receiving influences from contemporary Western music.
One Hundred Japanese Music Selections
– Contemporary Japanese Music –
“Secret Water Metamorphosis: for flute and twenty-string koto” — Akira Nishimura, composer
(16 minutes 55 seconds)
(twenty-string koto) Nanae Yoshimura
(flute) Kohei NishikawaSelections from “Subaru”: “May Dream Song,” “Memory of a Prelude,”
“Romance in the Past Tense,” “November Dream Song” — Takashi Yoshimatsu, composer
(8 minutes 30 seconds)
(twenty-string koto) Nanae Yoshimura
ditto Noriko Tamura“Kira” — Masakuni Kineya, composer
(7 minutes 05 seconds)
Tomoko Sunazaki“Trio” — Toshio Funakawa, composer
(first koto) Tomoko Sunazaki
(second koto) Minako Yoshida
(seventeen-string koto) Ichiro TakahataFrom “Gaku,” third movement — Tadao Sawai, composer
(3 minutes 00 seconds)
(koto) Tomoko Sunazaki