Toshiro Mayuzumi: Japan’s musique concrète pioneer
Musique concrète is simultaneously one of the most important and overlooked musical movements of the 20th century. Originally developed by French composer Pierre Schaeffer during the 1940s, the style uses raw sound recordings or non-musical instruments to create a sound collage. Musique concrète had a colossal impact on experimental and avant-garde music scenes, but also on movements like krautrock, and the techniques employed by many concrète composers were not dissimilar to those later used by hip-hop samplers.
One of the greatest aspects of musique concrète composition is that it can effectively be incorporated into any musical style, ranging from early electronica to traditional orchestral compositions. A key figure in the movement, who figured out the adaptability of musique concrète very early on, was the celebrated Japanese composer Toshiro Mayuzumi, whose extensive work within avant-garde composition remains incredibly influential on the landscape of experimental music to this day.
Just as musique concrète was being developed in Europe, Mayuzumi commenced his musical education in Japan during the 1940s, following the end of World War Two. While at the University of Arts in Tokyo, the budding musician got the chance to study under iconic composers Tomojirō Ikenouchi and Akira Ifukube, who both played a major role in soundtracking Japanese cinema. These years were essential in fostering a deep adoration of Japanese orchestral music, which would follow Mayuzumi throughout his career.
During the 1950s, the Yokohama-born composer made the pilgrimage to Europe, where he studied at the Paris Conservatory under Tony Aubin and discovered the inventive world of musique concrète. Mayuzumi was infatuated by this defiant new style and would dedicate himself to the discovery and mastery of Western avant-garde composition, which, by that point, had not really reached the area of East Asia. Hence, Mayuzumi returned to the island of Japan during the late 1950s and quickly set about blending the innovative new techniques he had learned in Paris with pan-Asian classic composition.
Arguably, Mayzumi’s magnum opus arrived only a few years later, with the writing of Nirvãna-Symphonie in 1957, which was performed in 1958 by the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. Blending influences of Japanese music, both new and old, including ancient Buddhist chants and the distant tones of kabuki theatre, with the revolutionary new sounds of musique concrète experimentation, the album was unlike anything that audiences had heard before.
Within the liner notes of the record, eventually released in the US in 1962 and featuring cover artwork from a young Yoko Ono, Mayuzumi shared, “Through recent work in concrete music and electronic music, I had developed a deeper interest in new timbres and new sounds. [Nirvãna-Symphonie] was based on the idea of creating musical structures out of the sound energy, along the line advocated by Edgard Varèse.”
The influence of Varèse is certainly present within the composition, but Mayuzumi might be at risk of downplaying his own impact when it comes to Nirvãna-Symphonie; it is an undisputed masterpiece of experimental composition, going on to influence everything from krautrock to its cover artist, Yoko Ono. Mayuzumi would continue to compose incredible works in the decades that followed, over one hundred of them constructed for film soundtracks, but he never quite recaptured the magic of Nirvãna-Symphonie.
Tragically, as Mayuzumi’s life progressed, his compositions became less of a focus for him, opting instead to pursue a life in hard, right-wing conservatism that forever tarnished his otherwise impressive legacy. His involvement in ultranationalist organisations like ‘Nihon wo Mamoru Kokumin Kaigi’ (‘National Conference to Defend Japan’) was particularly heartbreaking for many fans, especially given that all his best work was born from a blending of cultures and musical backgrounds. Nevertheless, those early efforts like Nirvãna-Symphonie remain essential listening for those pursuing experimental music.
