Yamada: Symphony In F Major, 'triumph And Peace'

Description

K??s?ºak YAMADA (1886-1965) Overture in D major Symphony in F major 'Triumph andPeace'Symphonic Poem 'The Dar Gate'  Symphonic Poem 'MadaraNo Hana'K??s?ºak Yamada belongs to the group of the firstfully-fledged composers that Japan produced. He was also a prominent conductor,organizer, and leader of the Japanese music world. As a great pioneer, heplayed a definitive r??le in helping Western music take root in Japan. In the1860s, after 250 years of isolation, Japan restored extensive contacts withWestern civilization, including music. Military bands were formed and in 1879Ongaku-Torishirabe-Gakari, a national research centre of Western music (laterto become the Tokyo Music School), was founded. Japanese traditional musiciansunder the Emperor started to learn Western music, and Japanese people wereeager to make up for lost time in every field.Yamada was born in these surroundings on 9th June 1886, thesixth of seven children. His father was formerly a samurai of lower grade inthe Mikawa district (today's Aichi Prefecture), but the end of Japanesefeudalism, with the collapse of the shogun regime, involved the disappearanceof the samurai class. Yamada's father started his new life as a speculator inTokyo, which brought him a large amount of money and a life of debauchery, butit did not last long, and soon after K??s?ºak was born, the family moved toYokosuka, where his father started a bookstore. In this naval city, as theSino-Japanese War drew near, Yamada was enchanted by military bands marchingaround the city, and he tirelessly followed them. He also became familiar withhymns sung in church, as his mother's side of the family was devout Protestantand it is said that his family had a harmonium. Yamada's starting-point as amusician was these sounds of military bands, melodies of hymns, and the timbreand harmonies of the harmonium.Yamada's life in Yokosuka was brief, as the family lost everythingin a fire, returning to Tokyo when the boy was seven years old. In poverty, hisbrother left the family and his father died of cancer when Yamada was nine.Immediately after that, he was sent to a dormitory school (a night school withprinting facilities), which was run by a clergyman in Sugamo, in the northernpart of Tokyo. In this school he started a life of work, studies and hymns,dreaming of becoming a composer, but heavy work had a serious effect on hishealth, which forced him to spend two years in Kamakura, attended by hismother. After recovering from illness, he worked as an errand-boy in ShimbashiStation and when he was fourteen, he went to Okayama, in the West of Japan,where his thirteen-year-older sister lived. His sister had married anEnglishman, Edward Gauntlet, who had come to Japan through his keen interest inthe Orient and was teaching English at the Sixth High School of Okayama, one ofthe leading schools in Japan. This brother-in-law was from a well-connectedfamily and was an amateur musician and an organist for the Anglican Church.Playing ins