"Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters" Film Score - Philip Glass

Performed by The Kronos Quartet

I - Mishima / Opening: 0:00
II - November 25: Morning: 2:47
III - 1934: Grandmother & Kimitake: 6:59
IV - Temple of the Golden Pavilion ("Like some enormous music"): 10:37
V - Osamu’s Theme: Kyoko’s house: 13:39
VI - 1937: Saint Sebastian: 16:39
VII - Kyoko's House ("Stage blood is not enough"): 17:46
VIII - November 25: Ichigaya: 22:49
IX - 1957: Award Montage: 25:04
X - Runaway Horses ("Poetry written with a splash of blood"): 29:02
XI - 1962: Body Building: 38:11
XII - November 25: The Last Day: 39:40
XIII - F-104: Epilogue from Sun And Steel: 41:10
XIV - Mishima / Closing: 43:08

In 25th November, 1970, Yukio Mishima, in the ritual act of Seppuku, knelt on a carpet and plunged a dagger into his abdomen. Mishima had sacrificed his own life, a gesture of defiance against the violation of his country’s dignity. Mishima designed his life as a drama; in his books he plotted out his life down to the last chapter. A twentieth century writer of the highest acclaim, Yukio Mishima generated more than 30 novels, in addition to numerous plays and movies. He was truly a renaissance man and was not only Japanese, but a world figure. Produced by two of the world’s greatest film-makers; George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola and directed by Paul Schrader, Mishima is a haunting, lyrical story of a tortured modern man.

Fascinated by Glass's biographical operas, Schraeder thought on him as the ideal composer to compose a distinct and coherent score that would unite the film’s disparate elements and propel it forward. Schraeder gave him the script and all the materials by and about the film in order to attract Glass to the project. Philip responded enthusiastically and after several pre-production meetings and a trip to the Tokyo locations, wrote a score from the script as he would from a libretto.

Schraeder edited the film to this temp score, altering it as necessary: cutting, expanding and repeating cues. I then played the edited film and score for Philip. He rewrote the music to fit the film’s now-precise specifications and recorded it with a full orchestra. In keeping with the original concept, Glass has re-edited the score as a distinct musical entity. His Mishima equally serves the film and stands alone.

Paralleling the three different visual styles of the film, Glass uses different ensembles: The black-and-white biographical flashbacks are accompanied by a string quartet, whereas the realistic footage from Mishima's last day is accompanied by a string orchestra and percussion, and the stylized scenes from his novels with a large symphonic orchestra.

The first section accompanies the opening credits, consists of a large crescendo based on the "Mishima" theme; an heroic motif that impregnates the whole work and unifies the contraadictory nature of the writer on a single musical idea: nobly majestic in one side but also deeply tragic on the other one.

The second section accompanies the moments in which Mishima gets ready the last details for the state coup. The music is tense and strongly rhythmic, with blows of snare drum and the timpani along with the dramatic impulse of the strings.

The third section accompanies a flashback of the infancy of Mishima, back in the imperial Japan of 1934. The string quartet, influenced slightly by japanese folk music, presents a background for the tense and suffocating relationship of Mishima (Kimitake) with his grandmother, being raised on the traditional japanese aristocratic values.

The fourth section accompanies a dramatization of Mishima's "Temple of the Golden Pavilion". Based on a real even of 1950, Mishima portrayed an acolyte's obsession for the beauty of the "Kinkaku-ji", who destroyed it to live free and in peace. In coherence, the music adquires a more lyrical and mystical tone, culminating with a brilliant variation of the "Mishima" theme.

The fifth section is Osamu's theme from the dramatization of Mishima's "Kyoko's House". The appearance of the guitar introduces us to the dynamic music of the new generations (such as Osamu) that have nothing to do with the culture and values of Mishima's generation, represented by the tragic theme of the violin in conflict with the cheerful music of the guitar.

The sixth section accompanies a new flashback in which Mishima remembers one of his most vital experiences of his childhood: the discovering of Guido Reni's Saint Sebastian painting in a book (Mishima hints that it was her first erotic experience). Meanwhile the music doesn't clearly match the scene's mood, it is a continuation of the music of the third section, with Mishima suffocated by the presence of his grandmother.

[Description continued in the comment section]

Picture: An edited version of the cover of the film.

Sources: https://philipglass.com/films/Mishima/ musical analysis done by myself