Hachimura, Yoshio 1938 - 1985

Author: Nakatsuji, Maho
Last updated:April 25, 2018
Author: Nakatsuji, Maho
Born in Tokyo on October 10, 1938 (Showa 13). His father was a high school mathematics teacher, and his mother was an elementary school music teacher. When he was seven years old, the Pacific War ended, and he heard the "Imperial Rescript on Surrender" at a small temple in Matsuida, Gunma Prefecture, where he had been evacuated. He began learning the violin at the age of nine and attended the "Children's Music Class" (now an affiliated facility of the Toho Gakuen School of Music), where he was taught solfège by Minao Shibata and Yoshiro Irino. He later studied piano and composition under Minosuke Matsumoto. After graduating from Komaba High School, he entered the composition department of the Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Music, in 1957. Yoshio Hachimura's "Opus 1" is assigned to Improvisation for Piano (1957), which employs atonality and indeterminacy. He presented works such as Shigarami I (1959), based on the Joruri play Katsuragawa Renri no Shigarami, and An Hour for Each Breath (1960), influenced by P. Boulez. From around 1963, he assisted Toru Takemitsu with his engraving work. He completed Seishin-fu in 1969 and Shigarami II in 1970. In 1975, he received the Fukuyama Prize and was selected by the International Society for Contemporary Music for The Logic of Delusion for Orchestra and Piano, which premiered that year. He passed away on June 15, 1985, at the age of 46, leaving La Folia unfinished.
Yoshio Hachimura, who left behind passionate and emotional works, was keenly aware of the tactile sensation of sound. He believed that music was something driven by the "emotional energy" that sound possesses at that very moment, and that each moment should always be expressed in the "present tense." For Hachimura, composition was an act of seeking expression that penetrated the deep psyche through an inner urge.
Author : Nakatsuji, Maho
Last Updated: April 25, 2018
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Author : Nakatsuji, Maho
Yoshio Hachimura was born in Tokyo on October 10 in 1938. His father was a high school teacher of mathematics and his mother was a music teacher in an elementary school. The Pacific War ended when Hachimura was seven years old, and he listened to the Imperial Rescript on Surrender at a small temple in Matsuida, a region of Gunma prefecture, where he and a group of people had been evacuated. At the age of 9, Hachimura began to learn the violin and studied solfege under Minao Shibata and Yoshirō Irino at the Music School for Children (now a part of Tōhō Gakuen Daigaku). He also studied piano and composition under the tutelage of Taminosuke Matsumoto. After graduating from Komaba High School, Hachimura was admitted to Tokyo University of Arts. Hachimura’s Opus 1 is “Improvisation for Piano” (1957), which made use of principles of atonality and indeterminacy. Hachimura subsequently composed “Shigarami I” (1959), a piece based on the traditional jōruri piece “Katsuragawa Renri no Shigarami”, and “Hitoiki goto ni Ichi-jikan (Every Breath, One Hour)” (1960), a piece influenced by P. Boulez. From around 1963, Hachimura also assisted Tōru Takemitsu in making fair copies of scores. Hachimura finished composing “Seishin-fu” in 1969 and “Shigarami II” in 1970. “Sakuran no Ronri (The Logic of Insanity)”, which was premiered in 1975, was awarded the Fukuyama Prize and the piece was later awarded a prize by the National Contemporary Music Association. On June 15 in 1985, Hachimura passed away at the age of 46, unable to complete “La Folia”. Hachimura paid strong attention to the sense of touch of sounds and he left behind an oeuvre suffused with an emotional and subjective character. To Hachimura, music was indeed that thing which is being moved by the emotional energy possessed by sound in a given moment; a music which, from moment to moment, always should speak in the present tense. Composition for Hachimura represented thus an act which, by way of inner desires, seeks to reach a piercing expression of man’s emotional depth.
Works(3)
Piano Solo
Various works (2)