Joji Yuasa - 2006 - Music For Theatrical Drama

Joji Yuasa 

2006

Music For Theatrical Drama 

舞踊劇のための音楽
Edition Omega Point 

Obscure Tape Music Of Japan – Vol.4

Oen (A Woman Named 'En')
01. Pt. 1 2:00
02. Pt. 2 1:21
03. Pt. 3 2:00
04. Pt. 4 2:06
05. Pt. 5 7:02
06. Pt. 6 2:31
07. Pt. 7 1:15
08. Pt. 8 5:02
09. Pt. 9 1:35
10. Pt. 10 3:17
Mittsu No Sekai (Three Worlds)
11. Mittsu No Sekai 21:42

Oen (A woman named En) composed 1963 for tape.
Mittsu no sekai (Three worlds) composed 1959 for orchestra and tape.

This is volume 4 of Omega Point's newly reissued Obscure Tape Music of Japan series, featuring two early works of music concrète composed for theatrical drama by legendary Japanese composer Joji Yuasa. The sounds on this recording, especially of "Oen" is so experimental and strange, but this music was not for avant-garde theater. "Mittsu No Sekai" contains elements of a mechanical beat (suggestive of a machine civilization) that could be the precursor to industrial music. Composed for the Tokubei Hanayagi Dancing Troupe for the play Three Worlds (1959), the piece was constructed from orchestral composition and tape sound: music concrète. As the composer explains, "While my engagement in the work of music concrète started in 1953 in the earlier time of tape music, the instrumental section of this work is my first composition for orchestral music. Most of the section was composed with the twelve-tone technique; however, one may find some shadows of Edgard Varèse and Olivier Messiaen." "Oen" was composed for A Woman Named "En" (1963) and is a work of music concrète for a theatrical drama with choreography. "All the metamorphosed sound made from concrète sounds are used and combined for the tragic story of a woman in the Edo era, named 'En' who was put in prison for forty years. This work aims not only at depicting the situation, but also at lighting up the heroine's dark passion, her conscious and subliminal mind, and the psychological dimension."