Hisatada Otaka
尾高尚忠[1]
Hisatada Otaka conducting (1942)
Born(1911-09-26)26 September 1911
Tokyo, Japan[2]
Died(1951-02-16)16 February 1951[2] (aged 39)
Japan
Occupation(s)Conductor, Composer
ChildrenTadaaki Otaka, Atsutada Otaka, Michiko Otaki

Hisatada Otaka (Japanese: 尾高尚忠; 26 September 1911 – 16 February 1951) was a Japanese composer and conductor. He was the conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra from 1942 to 1951.

Otaka was born in Japan and studied in musical arts early, however he dropped out of high school and moved to Vienna for 6 years for conducting and composing, during his studies in Vienna he became friends with Andrzej Panufnik and started composing works. In 1940, Otaka moved back to Japan where he would take the role as an active conductor for the NHK Symphony Orchestra, become a music teacher and compose most of his significant works such as his Symphony and Cello Concerto, however his life came to an abrupt end at the age of 39, leaving an unfinished Flute Concerto rewrite which one of his students, Hikaru Hayashi, would take on and complete.

When Otaka died he left behind three children, all of whom play his work regularly particularly the youngest son Tadaaki Otaka. In 1953, the NHK Symphony Orchestra created the Otaka Prize, which is named after Hisatada Otaka for his role in helping the orchestra. Otaka had written one of the first Japanese cello concertos and the first Japanese flute concerto, the latter being played regularly as Otaka's most famous work.

Life

Early life, studies in Vienna

Hisatada Otaka was born in Tokyo on 26 September 1911, the youngest of 11 children, he was the 6th son of Jiro Otaka, a Japanese banker, businessman, however Jiro Otaka would die in 1920, when Hisatada Otaka was 9 years old.[3][4] Otaka studied at the Tokyo Prefectural Fifth Junior High School. After graduating there, Otaka decided to choose a career path in music and studied at the Seijo High School (which would become Seijo University), however he dropped out.[4] To continue his music studies Otaka moved to Vienna to study music briefly from 1931 to 1932, he studied under Helda Janbert for piano, Richard Stehl for music theory. After the short stay, Otaka moved back to Japan to study composition with Klaus Pringsheim and piano with Leo Sirota. However, this too was short as he moved back to Vienna in 1934 to study composition with Joseph Marx, and conducting with Felix Weingartner, from his 6-year stay in Vienna (1934 - 1940), Otaka would be an active conductor and composer.[5] In 1937, Otaka won a Japanese-European music competition for his first Japanese Suite,[6] he was awarded by Felix Weingartner.[7]: 457  In 1939, Otaka controversially conducted the Berlin Reichsorchester, as Otaka played Japanese pieces, this was seen as a symbol of Nazi-Japan relations,[8][9] although Otaka never had an incident like this later on. At some point after 1936, Otaka and his wife Misao (who also played the piano) met and became friends with Andrzej Panufnik,[10][11] who also came to Vienna to study conducting under Weingartner. The Panufnik and Otaka family would stay close and remain in contact, as Otaka's son, Tadaaki Otaka would perform Panufnik's works regularly.[10]

Return to Japan

Hisatada Otaka conducting the Japan Symphony Orchestra, Lazare Lévy at piano. (1950)

In 1940, the Otakas left and moved to Japan, where Hisatada would live for the rest of his life. Initially he was assistant to Joseph Rosenstock, who was the conductor of the Japan Symphony Orchestra (also known at the time as the Nippon Symphony Orchestra, later known as the NHK Symphony Orchestra), and made his Japanese conducting debut in January 1941.[12]: 240–242  In 1942 Otaka became a conductor of the orchestra, alongside Rosenstock, and Kazuo Yamada.[13][2][note 1] Otaka was highly respected as a conductor until his sudden death in 1951,[2][5] after which, he was succeeded by Kurt Woss.[15]: 68 

Besides conducting, Otaka also composed prolifically, and had taught Hikaru Hayashi,[16] Kan Ishii,[17]: 22  and Kikuko Kanai.[17]: 23  Among Otaka's compositions are his first symphony ("Society for the Construction of the Bell Tower of Peace"),[18] Cello Concerto (1944),[19] Flute Concerto, and Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra (1943).[20]

Death and legacy

On 16 February 1951, Hisatada Otaka died at the age of 39, from what Andrzej Panufnik says was overwork.[11]

Due to his significant contributions to, and long stay with, the Japanese Symphony Orchestra, the Otaka Prize was created in his honour.[21] After his death, the orchestra's name changed to the NHK Symphony Orchestra because of funding received from the Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation).[22]

Hisatada Otaka's youngest son, Tadaaki Otaka, conducts his father's work regularly, along with the works of Andrzej Panufnik.[23][10]

Hisatada's other children, Michiko Otaki and Atsutada Otaki, also play his work. Such as the piano duet piece Midare.[24]

Personal life

Hisatada Otaka married Misao Otaka sometime before 1940. According to Panufnik, they were already married when they would invite Panufnik to their house in Vienna, and they left Vienna for Japan in 1940.[25]

When the couple moved to Japan, they had a daughter and two sons. Michiko Otaki (in or after 1940), the daughter, is a pianist.[26] Atsutada Otaka (1944), the elder son, is a musicologist and a composer.[27] Tadaaki Otaka, (1947), the younger son, is a popular Japanese conductor, a permanent conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra since 2010, the first Japanese person to win the Elgar Medal, and musical director of the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra.[28]

When Hisatada Otaka died in 1951, the couple's children were still very young (Tadaaki being only 4 years old), and therefore Misao was left as a widowed mother.

Selected compositions

  • Japanische Suite No. 1 (Nihon Kumikyoku)[6] (Op. 12; 1936)[29]
  • Sinfonietta for Strings (1937)[2]
  • Japanische Suite No. 2 (Op. 18; Premiered 2 December 1939)[30]
  • Midare Capriccio for 2 pianos (Op. 11 1939;[31][32] rev. 1947?)[33] (Premiered 2 December 1939)[30][note 2]
  • Sonatine for piano (Op. 13; 1940)[34]
  • Piano Trio (1941)[35]
  • Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra (1943)[20]
  • 2 String Quartets
    • String Quartet No. 1 (1938)[20]
    • String Quartet No. 2 (1943)[20]
  • Cello Concerto (1944)[19][note 3]
  • Poem for Soprano and Orchestra (Circa. 1944)[12]: 242 
  • Symphony No. 1 Society for the Construction of the Bell Tower of Peace[37] (incomplete or partially lost)[note 4] (Op. 35; 1948[35]-1949)[18]
    • Movements:[38]
      • Maestoso - Allegro appassionato
      • Adagio assai sostenuto, molto espressivo ‒ Andante con moto, ma sempre sostenuto ‒ Adagio sostenuto
  • Flute Concerto (Op. 30a 1948; 30b 1951)[39]: 14 [note 5]
  • Concerto for Piano and String Symphony (????)[41]

The most popular of Otaka's work is his flute concerto, which is played and recorded commonly, and was supported among his peers.[12][42]

Style

Otaka's style reflects much of his teachers in the 1930s, showing Viennese and German styles.[35] Although unlike his teacher Joseph Marx, Otaka stayed within the zone of tonality, going with more traditional later Romantic styles, rather than the growing atonal or modern styles.[23] Many of his pieces like the Cello Concerto, Midare, Symphony No. 1 - The Construction of the Bell Tower of Peace still keep in tune with his original Japanese-music style and culture.[32] As such, Otaka's pieces result in a combination between eastern Japanese styles, and older tonal Germanic-Viennese style, even during his early studies in Vienna, Otaka showed Japanese traditional music, such as in his Japanische Suites, where Otaka made his pieces deliberately to "find new means of expression for the Japanese spirit... into the western tonal language", which was different compared to some of his peers who wrote only focusing on the European musicality.[7]: 457 [36]

Flute concerto

However, the flute concerto Op. 30 is written in a specific French romantic style, although with distinct sections Japanese themes, it is written differently than many other concert works by Otaka, seemingly independent from the style of his teachers from Germany and Vienna, The Guardian said the piece had a "jazzy inflection" during the slower movement of the concerto, due to the French style and structure many French flautists performed the piece such as Jean-Pierre Rampal and Emmanuel Pahud[43] and was popular in France.[23][42]

References

  1. ↑ "Hisatada Otaka's Profile - Discogs". Discogs.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Otaka, Hisatada | Encyclopedia".
  3. ↑ National Diet Library. "『人事興信録 第5版』" (in Japanese). p. 39.
  4. 1 2 富樫康 (1956). 日本の作曲家 (in Japanese). 音楽之友社. p. 120. (From page 120: "尾高尚忠 Histada Otaka 渋沢栄一の外孫にあたる彼は,学者肌の銀行家を父に持ち, 11 人兄弟の末子として明治 44 年 9 月 26 日,東京に生れた。両親共義太夫をたしなむ程度であったが,父は彼が幼少の頃他界した。彼の兄朝雄は東大法律学教授 東京府立第五中学卒業後,成城高等学校文科に入学して開放的な生活に入った彼は 18 歳の時,単なる音楽愛好家たることに満足 ...")
  5. 1 2 Joanne Miyang Cho (2021). Musical Entanglement between Germany and East Asia. Springer International Publishing. p. 82. ISBN 978-3-030-78209-2.
  6. 1 2 Julia Krejsa, Peter Pantzer (1989). Japanisches Wien. Herold. ISBN 978-3-7008-0384-3.
  7. 1 2 Hans-Joachim Bieber (2014). SS und Samurai: Deutsch-japanische Kulturbeziehungen 1933–1945 (in German). Iudicium (Iudicium Verlag). ISBN 978-3-86205-043-7. (From German to English (translation via Google Translate, with minor edits) "Hisatada Otaka: Contemporary Japanese Musician. In 1937 Otaka had won a competition for the best Japanese composition, which was announced by Felix Weingartner after his tour of Japan, and had been Josef Marx's student in Vienna since 1937. To promote contemporary Japanese music, a composition competition has been held in Japan every year since 1931, financed by Tokyo Nichi Nichi and Mainichi and supported by the Ministry of Education. Some composers tried to compose entirely in the western way, others like Konoe and Otaka in European music ,, to find new means of expression for the Japanese spirit Otaka by transcribing old Japanese music into the western tonal language as it were, like Konoe in his arrangement of old Japanese court music, which was often on his program...")
  8. ↑ Unknown (1939). Germany and You. Stangen Verlag.
  9. ↑ Frédéric Sallée (2017). Sur les chemins de terre brune (in French). Fayard. ISBN 978-2-213-70001-4.
  10. 1 2 3 Beata Boles (5 July 2017). The Life and Works of Andrzej Panufnik. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-351-54291-3.
  11. 1 2 Andrzej Panufnik (1987). Composing Myself. Methuen. ISBN 978-0-413-58880-7.
  12. 1 2 3 NHK Symphony Orchestra (1977). NHK交響楽団50年史 1926-1977 - NHK Symphony Orchestra 50 Years History 1926-1977. 日本放送出版協会 (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). (Originally Japanese, English translation most likely by the University of California on September 24, 2010)
  13. ↑ Nihon Gaiji Kyōkai (1942). Contemporary Japan. Vol. 3. Foreign Affairs Association of Japan. This year, it was again renamed the Nippon Symphony Orchestra with Kazuo Yamada, Hisatada Otaka and Rosenstock selected as its conductors. (Volume 3; Part 3)
  14. ↑ The Strad. Vol. 77. The Strad. 1966. p. 9.
  15. ↑ Siegfried Borris; Detlef Foljanty (1967). Musikleben in Japan in Geschichte und Gegenwart (in German). Bärenreiter. ISBN 978-3-7618-0160-4.
  16. ↑ Maurice Hinston, Wesley Roberts (3 December 2013). Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire, Fourth Edition. Indiana University Press. p. 480. ISBN 978-0-253-01023-0.
  17. 1 2 Michael Herman. Stephen Ellis (ed.). "Asian Symphonies - Discography" (PDF). MusicWeb International.
  18. 1 2 橫浜開港資料館 (Yokohama Archives of History Museum) (2004). ドン・ブラウン・コレクション書籍目錄 (in Japanese and English). 橫浜開港資料館. p. 366.
  19. 1 2 Adventures of a Cello. University of Texas Press. April 2018. p. 308. ISBN 978-1-4773-1786-0. (Originally published February 2011, revised version (this version) April 2018)
  20. 1 2 3 4 Charles J. Hall (2002). Chronology of Western Classical Music. Vol. 1. ISBN 978-0-415-94216-4.
  21. ↑ C. Wade, Bonnie (13 January 2014). Composing Japanese Musical Modernity. University of Chicago Press. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-226-08549-4.
  22. ↑ Kodansha International Staff (2002). The Japan Book: A Comprehensive Pocket Guide. Kodansha International. p. 147. ISBN 4-7700-2847-4.
  23. 1 2 3 Glyn Pursglove (2 April 2013). "Unpretentious Intelligence in Otaka's Conducting". Seen and Heard.
  24. ↑ Luciana Galliano (November 2002). Yogaku. Scarecrow Press. p. 207. ISBN 978-1-4616-7455-9. (Originally in Japanese, translation to English by Martin Mayes)
  25. ↑ In Andrzej Panufnik's autobiography Composing Myself (1987), he says in page 71, "... my closest friend was the Japanese Hisatada Otaka ... He and his enchanting wife, Misao, often invited me to their flat so that we could work together. Misao was a fine pianist, so she and I would play together from a piano reduction while Hisatada conducted us; then it would be my..."
  26. ↑ "MICHIKO OTAKI". Naxos.
  27. ↑ INC, SANKEI DIGITAL (February 21, 2021). "作曲家の尾高惇忠氏死去". 産経ニュース. (This reference was taken from the Atsutada Otaka article.)
  28. ↑ "Tadaaki OTAKA". Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra.
  29. ↑ "Otaka - Japanische Suite for Orchestra".
  30. 1 2 Manfred Permoser (2000). Die Wiener Symphoniker. Lang. p. 135. ISBN 978-3-631-36827-5.
  31. ↑ Maurice Hinston (2001). Music for More than One Piano. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-11306-1. (Originally published in 1981)
  32. 1 2 3 Frederic Ming Chang, Albert Faurot (1976). Team Piano Repertoire. Scarecrow Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-8108-0937-6.
  33. ↑ Niklaus Aeschbacher cond. NHK Symphony Orchestra (1957)
  34. ↑ Unknown (1986). The New Schwann. Vol. 38. ABC Schwann Publications. p. 179. (Volume 38, issues 3-4)
  35. 1 2 3 Don Michael Randel (1996). The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 657. ISBN 978-0-674-37299-3.
  36. 1 2 Lev Solomonovich Ginzburg (1983). Herbert R. Axelrod (ed.). History of the Violoncello. Vol. 4. Translated by Tanya Tchistyakova. Paganiniana Publications. p. 384. ISBN 978-0-87666-597-8. (Originally Russian, translated to English)
  37. 1 2 Praying for world peace we offer this musical composition: First symphony, first movement (Catalog record). 1949. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  38. 1 2 NHK Symphony Orchestra, Morihide Katayama (September 2006). "The 157th Subscription Concert in the NHK Hall - NSO 80th Anniversary Phamplet" (PDF) (in Japanese and English). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2009.
  39. 1 2 3 Daniel Ryan Gallagher (2019). Flute Repertoire from Japan: An Analysis of Twentieth-Century Flute Sonatas. Ohio State University.
  40. ↑ Gianni Lazzari; Emilio Galante (2003). Il flauto traverso (in Italian). EDT Publishers (Italy). p. 248. ISBN 978-88-7063-494-5.
  41. ↑ Vietnam Economic Times (1994). Vietnam Economic Times. Vietnam Economic Times. p. 108. (Volume 113-118, published in 2003; The book mentions the piano concerto being played in Ho Chi Minh City, conducted by Thanh Nam, the concert also featured Tran Vuong Thach's flute concerto and ballet.)
  42. 1 2 Rian Evans (31 March 2013). "BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Otaka – review". The Guardian.
  43. ↑ Irem Çatı (October 2019). "Through the month with Emmanuel Pahud". Concerti.

Notes

  1. ↑ Although Otaka wasn't a permanent conductor, as the NHK orchestra would not have any permanent conductors until 1951, he was one of the most frequent conductors of the orchestra.[14]
  2. ↑ Based on a 17th-century koto piece of the same name.[32]
  3. ↑ One of the first Japanese Cello concertos.[36]
  4. ↑ The symphony must contain more than 2 movements, because at the end of the 2nd movement it is labelled with attacca, meaning without pause, continue to the next movement, implying that there are more movements, either lost or not created, this is supported due to the recent discovery of the 2nd movement in 2006, which premiered on the 2nd or 3rd of September 2006 by the NHK Symphony Orchestra with conductor Yuzo Toyama.[38] The symphony has no relation to the Japanese Peace Bell as that was created after Otaka's death, however was made with a description of "Praying for world peace.", referencing to WWII, and the Nagasaki and Hiroshima Bomb.[37]
  5. ↑ The flute concerto was originally completed in 1948 for chamber orchestra as Op. 30a, when it was finished it was the first Japanese flute concerto.[40] In 1951, Hisatada Otaka started a rewrite for a bigger orchestra, but was left incomplete since Otaka's death that year, however his student, Hikaru Hayashi, completed the work in 1951 as Op. 30b.[39]: 116  Otaka's son, Atsutada Otaka, made an arrangement of the work in 2001.[39]: 16 

Further reading

  • Nicolas Slonimsky; Laura Kuhn; Dennis McIntire (2019). Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians.
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