Akira Ifukube: Piano Suite (1933)

Akira Ifukube [伊福部昭] (1914~2006)

ピアノ組曲

Piano Suite

00:00 1. BON-ODORI, Nocturnal dance of the Bon-Festival 「盆踊」
04:07 2. TANA-BATA, Fête of Vega 「七夕」
08:26 3. NAGASHI, Profane minstrel 「演伶」
12:42 4. NEBUTA, Festal Ballad 「佞武多」

Mieko Takizawa, piano
Recorded: September 3, 1991 at Narimasu Act Hall

Ifukube finished his elementary school days in Otofuke, a pioneer village in Hokkaido, and then went to Sapporo to enter Sapporo Second Junior High School. He already enjoyed playing the violin, and made friends one after another who were art lovers. One of them was Atsushi Miura, who later became a music critic. Miura suggested to Ifukube that if he was interested in music, he should compose music, and Ifukube began to study on his own.

On the other hand, Ifukube and Miura sent many fan letters to foreign musicians they liked after listening to their SP records. Spanish composer Ernesto Halffter, Russian conductor Fabian Sevitsky, who was active in the U.S., and American pianist George Copeland, who had lived in France and Spain for a long time and was a friend of Debussy, were surprised to receive letters from young Japanese music fans in the Far East, and sent replies, which led to correspondence. After that, Copeland said he would like to play Japanese music if there was any. So Miura incited Ifukube to write a piano piece for him. The result was the "Piano Suite." The composer was nineteen years old at the time. He was a student at Hokkaido Imperial University. The score was sent to Copeland, but due to the Spanish Civil War and other factors, contact was lost, and it is not clear whether Copeland played the piece or not.

Two years later, in 1935, Ifukube's first orchestral work, "Japanese Rhapsody," won the first prize at the Tcherepnin Prize Competition organized by the exiled Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin to introduce Japanese works to the world. The "Piano Suite" was also published by Cherepnin in Europe and the United States, and Tcherepnin, who was an excellent piano player, performed excerpts of it in his recitals. In 1938, it was chosen as the official program for the Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale), and was officially premiered by Gino Gorini. Gino Gorini was a composer and pianist who was an excellent disciple of Malipiero, one of the most famous Italian composers of the 20th century, and was entrusted with premiering his master's piano concerto.

The entire work consists of four pieces.

The first piece, "Bon Odori," is an intense dance piece with flutes and drums of the Bon dance.

The second piece, "Tanabata," is a tranquil lento of a nursery song sung on Tanabata in Hokkaido, which is freely transformed.

The third piece, "Nagashi," is a scherzo-like piece that imitates the way a Tsugaru jongara bushi performer from Aomori travels around Hokkaido, talking and singing on the streets.

The fourth piece, "Nebuta," is a frenetic march based on Ifukube's impressions of the Aomori Neputa Festival that he witnessed when he was in junior high school. The title "倭武多" is used the kanji a phonetic equivalent, based on the legend that the origin of the Neputa Festival. The legend is said that in the ancient times when Sakanoue no Tamuramaro was sent to the eastern part of Japan by the Yamato Imperial Court as a conqueror of the Emishi ("barbarians"), and when he tried to conquer the Emishi, he was unintentionally surrounded by the Emishi forces, then, he played the flute and drum to make it look like he had a large force, forcing the Emishi to retreat.
　
All tunes are sketches of songs, talks, and dances that have been alive in the lives of the Japanese people.

by Morihide Katayama from "Extra Issue of Bungei: Akira Ifukube," Kawade Shobo (2014)

　伊福部は、北海道の開拓村の音更で小学校時代を終えると、札幌に出て札幌二中に入った。彼はすでにヴァイオリンを嗜んでおり、音楽好き、芸術家好きの友人たちが次々とできた。その中に、のちに音楽評論家となる三浦淳史がいた。三浦は伊福部に、音楽に興味があるなら作曲をやらなくては駄目だと意見し、伊福部は独学でその勉強を始めた。
　その一方、伊福部と三浦は、SPレコードを聴いた気に入った海外の音楽家に、さかんにファンレターを送った。スペインの作曲家、エルネスト・ハルフテル、アメリカで活動していたロシア系の指揮者、フェビアン・セヴィツキー、フランスやスペインに長く暮らし、ドビュッシーの友人でもあったアメリカ人ピアニスト、ジョージ・コープランドなどは、遥か極東の日本の若い音楽ファンから手紙が来るのに驚き、返事を寄越し、文通に発展した。うち、コープランドは日本の曲があったら演奏したいと言ってきた。そこで三浦は、伊福部を煽動してピアノ曲を書かせた。そうして出来たのが《ピアノ組曲》である。そのとき作曲家は十九歳。北海道帝国大学の学生になっていた。譜面はコープランドに送られたが、その後、スペイン内戦などがあって連絡が途絶え、コープランドが弾いたかどうかはよく分からない。
　それから二年後の1935年、伊福部は処女管絃楽曲《日本狂詩曲》で、亡命ロシア人の作曲家、アレクサンドル・チェレプニンが日本の作品を世界に紹介すべく催したチェレプニン賞コンクールで第一席を獲得し、広く世に出た。《ピアノ組曲》もチェレプニンによって欧米で出版され、ピアノが上手だったチェレプニンは、自分のリサイタルで抜粋演奏。1938年にはヴェネツィア国際現代音楽祭の公式演奏曲目に選ばれ、ジーノ・ゴリーニによって正式に初演された。ゴリーニは、20世紀イタリアを代表する作曲家のひとりのマリピエロの高弟で、師匠のピアノ協奏曲の初演を任されるほどだった、作曲家兼ピアニストである。
　全体は四曲からなる。
　第一曲〈盆踊〉は、盆踊りの笛と太鼓をあしらった、強烈な舞曲。
　第二曲〈七夕〉は、北海道で七夕に唄われていたわらべうたを自由に変容させての、静謐なレント。
　第三曲〈演伶〉は、青森から来て北海道を旅する「津軽じょんがら節」の芸人が街頭で語り唄う様を模した、スケルツォ風の音楽。
　第四曲〈倭武多〉は、伊福部が中学時代に見物した青森のねぷた祭りの印象にもとづく、狂熱的な行進曲。倭武多とは、ねぷた祭りの起源が、古代に大和（倭）朝廷から坂上田村麻呂が征夷大将軍として東国に遣わされ、蝦夷征伐を試みたとき、蝦夷の軍勢に不覚にも包囲されたので、笛太鼓を打ち鳴らして手勢を多く見せかけ、蝦夷を退却させたという故事にあるとの言い伝えにもとづく、当字である。
　いずれも、日本の民衆の生活の中に息づいてきた歌や語りや踊りを写した音楽ということになる。
（片山杜秀、『文藝別冊 伊福部昭:ゴジラの守護神・日本作曲界の巨匠』（河出書房、2014）より）