Makoto Shinohara

Makoto Shinohara (篠原眞, Shinohara Makoto, December 10, 1931 – March 3, 2024) was a Japanese composer.

Biography

Born in Osaka, Japan, Shinohara studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts from 1952 to 1954, studying composition with Tomojirō Ikenouchi, piano with Kazuko Yasukawa [ja], and conducting with Akeo Watanabe and Kurt Wöss. From 1954 to 1960, he studied in Paris with Tony Aubin, Olivier Messiaen, Simone Plé-Caussade, Pierre Revel and Louis Fourestier. From 1962 to 1964 he studied at the Hochschule für Musik München and at the Siemens-Studio für elektronische Musik [de]; following this he studied with Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Gottfried Michael Koenig at the Rheinische Musikschule [de] in Cologne and then with Karlheinz Stockhausen from 1964 to 1965. He held a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service in 1966 and 1967 and won a scholarship from the Italian government in 1969. In 1971, he was awarded the Rockefeller Prize from the Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Center and in 1978 won a scholarship from the Dutch government.

Shinohara worked with electronic music at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht, at the electronic studio at the Technische Universität Berlin, at the Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York (1971–72) and at Studio NHK (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai) in Tokyo. In 1978 Shinohara was a visiting professor of composition at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.^[1]

From the 1970s onwards, he was best known for combining Western and traditional Japanese music, as well as versatile experimentation with Western acoustic and electronic music.^[2]

Shinohara died of stomach cancer on 3 March 2024, at the age of 92.^[3]

Works

Orchestral

1975 Egalisation for 24 instruments (piccolo, flute, alto flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone, tuba, piano, celesta, cembalo, harp, guitar, vibraphone, marimba, percussion, violin, viola, cello, and double bass)
1970 Visions for 3 flutes, 4 oboes, 4 clarinets, 4 bassoons, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 6 percussion, harp, celesta, 24 violins, 8 violas, 8 cellos, 4 double basses
1975 Visions II
c1977 Liberation for 20 string instruments
1992 Yumeji (Ways of Dreams) for an orchestra of Japanese and Western instruments and mixed choir
Solitude pour orchestra

Wind orchestra

1982/1985 Play for Nine Wind Instruments (flute, alto flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, and trombone)

Chamber music

1958 Sonata for violin and piano
1. Allegro moderato
2. Lento
3. Allegro brutale
1960 Obsession for oboe and piano
c1960 Kassouga for flute and piano
1968 Fragmente for tenor recorder
1970 Reflexion for solo oboe
1983/1993 Turns for violin and koto
1984 Tabiyuki (On travel) for mezzo-soprano and small ensemble (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, violin, viola, cello and double bass)
1986/1990 Evolution for solo cello
1990 Cooperation for 8 traditional Japanese and 8 Western instruments (English horn, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, percussion, piano, violin, and cello)
1993 Situations for alto saxophone and digital keyboard
2005 Turns for violin and koto
Consonance for flute, horn, vibraphone, marimba, harp and cello
Relations for flute and piano

Percussion ensemble

1962 Alternance

Keyboard

Elevation for organ
1963/1969 Tendence pour piano
1996 Undulation A for piano
The Bear who saw the Sea for two pianos

Music for traditional Japanese instruments

1972 Tatuyai (Fluctuation) for koto, percussion, and singer
1972 Tuyatai (Fluctuation) for sangen
1973 Kyudo A (In quest of enlightenment) for shakuhachi
1973 Kyudo B for shakuhachi and harp
1981 Jushichigen-no-Umare (Birth of the bass koto) for 17-Gen
1981 Nagare for Shamisen for shamisen, sangen, kin and gongs

Electronic music

1966 Memoires 4-channel electronic composition composed at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht
1974 Broadcasting
1979 City Visit for 4-channel tape
1980 Passage for bass flute and stereophony
To Rain and Wind for koto, percussion and live electronics
Personnage

References

^ Rea 2008.
^ Herd 2001.
^ 作曲家の篠原眞さん死去、９２歳…メシアンやシュトックハウゼンに師事 (in Japanese)

Sources

Herd, Judith. 2001. "Shinohara, Makoto." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
Rea, John. 2008. "Better Than a Thousand Days of Diligent Study Is One Day with a Great Teacher: Visiting Foreign Artist Residencies at McGill's Faculty of Music, 1975–1981". In Compositional Crossroads: Music, McGill, Montreal, edited by Eleanor V. Stubley. Montréal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 0-7735-3278-1

External Links

Makoto Shinohara discography at Discogs
Makoto Shinohara at IMDb

[FOOTNOTERea2008-1] Rea 2008.

[FOOTNOTEHerd2001-2] Herd 2001.

[3] 作曲家の篠原眞さん死去、９２歳…メシアンやシュトックハウゼンに師事 (in Japanese)

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