Foreword

Summary

This is the first English translation of Minoru Miki's influential Composing for Japanese Instruments, which is now in its sixth Japanese edition, and is also published in Chinese and Korean. This translation, by composer Marty Regan, who has worked closely with Miki on recent projects, is based on the third edition, published by Ongaku no Tomo sha in Tokyo in 1998. The translation has been edited by Philip Flavin, ethnomusicologist and scholar-performer of Japanese music.

This volume includes a comprehensive list of Miki's works for Japanese instruments, the author's Afterword, a Glossary of Terms, and a track listing of the recorded examples included with the book. Because Miki draws exclusively on his own work for demonstration in both printed and recorded examples, an appendix has been added that directs readers to selected works for traditional Japanese instruments, both by Japanese composers other than Minoru Miki and by non-Japanese composers. Of the vast number of compositions using Japanese traditional instruments, only the relatively few works available either in score or on recording are included.

Minoru Miki was born in Tokushima, on Shikoku island, in 1930. His hometown area is noted for the Awa odori (dance), and the traditional arts were also a part of Miki family life. His great-grandfather had been a chanter in bunraku, one of his grandmothers was a well-known shamisen player, and an uncle played the shakuhachi. A childhood during wartime prevented him from actually participating in traditional music, however, and it was not until after World War Two ended that Miki became involved in music-making. He enjoyed singing, and joined the men's chorus in high school.

Minoru Miki's formal education in music was in the Western tradition, as “music” in Japanese schools meant Western music. In the 1950s, Miki composed for piano, wind ensemble and percussion, and orchestra. In 1955 he graduated from the Tokyo National University of the Arts (known as Geidai) in composition. He, like others who were to become some of Japan's most famous and influential composers of the last half of the twentieth century, was a student of the late Akira Ifukube. By the time he graduated he had already received a prize in composition from the NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) for an orchestral piece, Trinita Sinfonica, performed by the NHK Symphony Orchestra in 1953.