Ifukube: Sinfonia Tapkaara; Ritmica Ostinata; Symphonic Fantasia.

IFUKUBE: Sinfonia Tapkaara; Ritmica Ostinata; Symphonic Fantasia Ekaterina Saranceva, p; Russian Philharmonic/ Dmitri Yablonsky--Naxos 557587--60 minutes

Though Akira Ifukube (b 1914) is a bit of a cult figure in Japan, where his rhythmic, repetitious, and minimalist style have influenced even popular music, he was an amateur composer for much of his career. He spent his youth in Hokkaido, where he later worked as a forester in the mountains. There he discovered the folk music of that region and studied Western music theory and scores, particularly music by Ravel, Falla, and Stravinsky. It was the latter's Rite of Spring that induced him to compose pieces that combined Western music with local Ainu and Japanese sounds. One of them, Japanese Rhapsody, earned him a Tcherepnin Award in 1936. Later, he studied with Tcherepnin himself, who assisted him in publishing other works. For all his success, Ifukube remained a forester and amateur composer until after World War II, when he moved to Tokyo and turned professional. In that period he composed several major works, including scores for Japanese films. He also wrote a study of orchestration that is still in use in Japan and taught many of that country's famous composers.

These works are from Ifukube's postwar period. They display his interest in rhythm, tribal folk music, and his technique of stringing ideas along without much development--all in a style I call "classical primitivism". Ifukube openly rejected the avant-garde, so, despite their mid-20th Century origins, none of these pieces displays that kind of modernism. What they do show is a limited grip on Western music and its resources. For instance, instead of Rite of Spring's originality, variety, color, and subtlety, I hear only stomping rhythm, bombast, and repetitiveness. It becomes so oppressive after a while, ...