Kosaku Yamada

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Kosaku Yamada (山田耕筰 Yamada Kōsaku?), (9 June 1886 - 29 December 1965) was a Japanese composer and conductor.

In many western reference books his name is given as Kósçak Yamada, a fanciful transliteration he apparently used in the West. Yamada was born and died in Tokyo.

After studying at the Tokyo Music School, he left Japan for Germany where he enrolled in the Berlin Hochschule and learnt composition, before going to the USA for two years.

Yamada left about 1600 pieces of music. Especially, songs (Lieder) amount to 700 pieces of music excluding songs for schools, municipalities and companies. They were performed and recorded by many singers which include Kathleen Battle, Ernst Haefliger and Yoshikazu Mera. His opera Kurofune (The Black Ships) is regarded as one of the famous Japanese operas.

As a conductor, Yamada made an effort to introduce many orchestral works to Japan. He was the first performer in Japan of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, Gershwin's An American in Paris, Mosolov's Iron Foundry, Sibelius' Finlandia, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, Johann Strauss II's An der schönen blauen Donau, and Wagner's Siegfried Idyll.

Contents

[edit] Major works

[edit] Opera

  • Ayame (1931)
  • Kurofune (The Black Ships) (1929-40)
  • Hsìang Fei (1946) (four acts, seven scenes with a proemnia)

[edit] Other stage works

  • Maria Magdarena after the drama of M. Maeterlinck (1916)

[edit] Orchestral

  • Overture in D major (1912)
  • Symphony in F major "Triumph and Peace" (1912)
  • The Dark Gate; symphonic poem (1913)
  • Sinfonia "Inno Meiji" (1921)
  • Nagauta Symphony "Tsurukame" for voice, shamisen and orchestra (1934)

[edit] Chamber

  • String Quartet No. 1 in F major
  • String Quartet No. 2 in G major
  • String Quartet No. 3 in C minor
  • Hochzeitsklange for piano quintet (1913)
  • Chanson triste japonaise for violin and piano (1921)
  • Suite japonaise for violin and piano (1924)
  • Variations on Kono-michi for flute and piano (1930)

[edit] Piano

  • Variationen (1912)
  • The Chimes of the Dawn (1916)
  • Les poèmes à Scriabin (1917)
  • Karatachi no hana [Karatachi-no-hana] for piano solo (1928)

[edit] Choral

  • Die Herbstfeier for mixed chorus and orchestra (1912)

[edit] Songs

  • Song of AIYAN (1922)
  • Lullaby from the Chugoku Area [Chugoku chihō no komoriuta]
  • Karatachi no hana [Karatachi-no-hana]
  • Pechika
  • Kono michi [This Road]
  • Akatombo [Red Dragonfly]
  • Yuu-in

[edit] Recordings

[edit] Bibliography

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