Kosaku Yamada

Kosaku Yamada

Kosaku Yamada in Manhattan in 1918
Born (1886-06-09)June 9, 1886
Tokyo, Japan
Died December 29, 1965(1965-12-29) (aged 79)
Tokyo, Japan
Cause of death Heart attack
Education Tokyo Music School

Kosaku Yamada (山田 耕筰 Yamada Kōsaku, 9 June 1886 – 29 December 1965) was a Japanese composer and conductor.[1][2]

Name

In many Western reference books his name is given as Kôsçak Yamada. During his music study in the Imperial German capital of Berlin from 1910 to 1913 he hated the times when people laughed at him because his "normal" transliteration of his first name "Kosaku" sounded like the Italian "cosa" meaning "what" or "thing" + the German "Kuh" meaning "cow"; which resulted in his choosing a somewhat fanciful transliteration of Kôsçak Yamada ever since.

Biography

Yamada was born in Tokyo on 9 June 1886.[1]

After studying at the Tokyo Music School, he left Japan for Germany where he enrolled in the Berlin Hochschule and learnt composition under Max Bruch and Karl Leopold Wolf and piano under Carl August Heymann-Rheineck, before returning to Japan.[3] He travelled to the United States in 1918 for two years. During his stay in Manhattan, New York City he conducted the temporarily-organized orchestra, members of the New York Philharmonic and the New York Symphony, soon before their amalgamation.[4]

Yamada left about 1,600 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 most 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.

Jacques Ibert's Ouverture de Fete was dedicated to the Japanese emperor and government for the 2,600th National Foundation Day in 1940 and premiered under the baton of Yamada.

Yamada died at his home in Tokyo of a heart attack on 29 December 1965.[1]

Major compositions

Operas
Other stage works
Orchestral works
Chamber works
Works for piano
Choral works
Songs

Recordings

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Kosaku Yamada, 79, Composer In Japan". New York Times. January 1, 1966.
  2. ↑ Slonimsky, Nicolas (1978). "Yamada, Kōsçak". Baker's Biographical dictionary of musicians (6th ed.). New York: Schirmer Books. p. 1925. ISBN 0-02-870240-9.
  3. ↑ Yamada, Kosaku (1999). Jiden wakaki hi no kyōshikyoku (in Japanese). Tokyo: Nihon Tosho Sentā. p. 150. ISBN 978-4-8205-5762-3.
  4. ↑ "Japanese Conducts Own Native Works. Koscak Yamada Shows His Skill in Modern Orchestral Tints in Carnegie Hall. His Poetic Songs Also Sung by Clarence Whitehill. Countryman Lauds Japan's Past in the War". New York Times. October 17, 1918.

Bibliography


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