Armed with over 2,000 years of history, Japan has been able to develop its own musical language, with forms of expression that are linked tightly to theatre and dance. The country's recent westernisation has contributed to the emergence of a new style which takes on board both Japanese roots and outside influences. This album offers a selection of choral works composed after 1950, in a period when many Japanese composers were gradually liberating themselves from outside influences.
That was the case with Toshio Hosokawa (born in 1953) who started out writing in the "western avant-garde style", before taking inspiration from the traditional music of his homeland. The Lotus, based on the Buch der Lieder by Heinrich Heine which Schumann set to music, uses a vocal ensemble and light, discreet percussion, Japanese singing bowls and wind chimes.
Töru Takemitsu (1930-1996) is thought of as one of Japan's greatest composers, both at home and around the world. While few, his choral works are very evocative and call up childhood memories, and the "sakura" (cherry blossom) of the popular songs that he arranges in his own style. His music possesses a fascinating subtlety.
Michio Mamiya (born 1929) turned early in life to the study of folk music, in the manner of Bartók and Kodály. He collects and transcribes the songs of the oral tradition, which he then works into his music. Finally, Jô Kondô (born 1947) takes inspiration from the great Flemish polyphonists like Johannes Ockeghem, setting modern Japanese literary texts to music. His complex music at once reinforces and hides the ambiguities of the poem, with constant changes in rhythm and a polytextuality inherited from western medieval music. © François Hudry/Qobuz