Who is tomita

What were they doing? In those works, you not only reinterpret existing works of classical music on the synthesizer, but also incorporate various other sounds. Well, record companies tend to They wanted a series of classical music arrangements. He insisted on doing a similar series. Regarding those concrete sounds and that transceiver noise you talked about, did you always want to incorporate other sounds?

Yes, I did. Because noise is normally shunned in music. But those noises are When sound is transmitted, it picks up a lot of noise. They just happened to turn out that way. I was engrossed in my work back then. It was like a live broadcast A concert, in other words. That was what I wanted to create. The universe is one of your central themes. But your universe seems to include not just the one far away but also the sounds that we hear relatively nearby, like those sounds you heard over the radio during the war.

But I do think being a child at heart Yes, playing around, basically. Oh, I was told that constantly. Well, I never had a chance to study the basics of music because of the war.

Toru Takemitsu was the same. So his music has outstanding artistic quality, but it sounds unlike ordinary music. So I never intended to create something innovative and surprise the world or anything like that.

I just did whatever I wanted. But whenever I release a record or do a concert, I do worry greatly about how they were interpreted. You spoke about rowing a boat in the darkness. Being able to keep going is what matters, right?

You need that resolve if you intend to do music, to do something new. In closing, could you tell us a bit about your current projects. You have a lot going on, right? Could you tell us? Please tell us about your plans. If I push myself too hard and stay up all night, I come down with pneumonia. You get sick when you grow older. I was surprised to learn that you book your own appointments without a manager to do it for you. I actually think this way will end up becoming the norm.

Because music was originally In Japan there were the minstrels who performed on a single lute. That was a form of music. In Europe there were street musicians playing in groups. But as the members increase, differences in opinion are born, and that becomes a source of anxiety. So why not just do it alone instead? But then you should be prepared to have dreams like rowing a boat out in the middle of the night. I can only speak from my own experience.

So I suppose that would be it. Do it alone. Yesterday, I worked with an orchestra. With an orchestra score I started out writing scores for the orchestra. With a synthesizer, I have to make each sound after I write the score. But with an orchestra, once I write the score, the music just flows.

European civilization is so efficient. Who came up with such a thing? I see. If you have any questions, please ask. I just handle everything equally as music. Was that a satisfactory answer? Kind of, somewhat.

Or did you just start with the Moog synthesizer with built-in effects? Yeah, like rack units. Or did the Moog synthesizer you had have the effects in it, were they part of the system? Like delay? No built-in delay function. So I used the tapes to cause the delay.

Now there are delay and reverb effects, but not in those days. The rest are all sounds with clear pitch that could become music. The sounds from the oscillator. This might not be answering your question, but that thing was No, that's good.

Back in those days the Japanese yen was very weak, so it cost a huge amount of money to travel overseas. Bringing my tapes to RCA was the best I could do. So I never met him.

No offense intended, but I had nothing to gain by meeting Walter Carlos. Not to the point of actually meeting him and asking for advice. But I really wanted to meet Dr. What a wonderful man he was. Very unaffected. No, seriously, when I met Dr. Normally in classical music, most composers, like Beethoven and Mozart, are already gone.

And those who made exquisite instruments like Stradivarius and Steinway are all gone from this world. But there he was! The creator! Meeting him was truly inspiring.

Thank you very much, Mr. Today was a lot of fun. Is that OK? Do you have the CD? Is it OK? Then please listen to it on surround. You heard some sounds like a man talking on there. I tried to make him talk and failed.

He got there before me. Japan in particular. He was impressed by the Japanese culture introduced at the Paris Exposition. Were you aware of those things, was that something you were interested in? I was interested in those things, but I never studied them under an instructor.

But in Keio University in Japan where I graduated, among my friends there were many avid music enthusiasts, very cheeky ones. In Mr. So if anything, I gained the knowledge naturally like that. That is to say, counterpoint is an art in which one creates a melody and adds a counter melody to express a certain thing. Moreover, it must be structured within the bounds of properly harmonious chords. But the chords themselves can be confirmed by playing them on the keyboard. And that way he has of layering sound He took a completely different approach from the norm like Tchaikovsky, which interested me.

Then I learned that Mussorgsky was a layperson who knew nothing about music theory. There was no music department but I had professors interested in music. Japan was completely devoted to German music then. It was all about theory in those days. Mussorgsky's music might not be right, but it sure is interesting! Those chords of his. So I ended up playing Mussorgsky on the piano to explore his sounds, and made my own discoveries by studying him independently.

Oh, and jazz. The chords in jazz are beautiful. Glenn Miller in particular really made my heart soar. So I gave it some thought. When I wanted to know how the chords were layered, I recorded that part from the tape recorder and made a very short loop with it so that I could hear just those chords over and over. I explored the sounds he put into his music that way.

You could buy the scores for his music so I gained knowledge from those. As you said, you encountered many difficulties with your first Moog in the process of making music. With the progress of music technology, did you ever think of remaking your first records?

Or to your mind are they like a piece of art in the course of history? When I listen to them now, they were made in the early stages, so some technical imperfections sort of jump out at me, being the one who made it.

Never mind. That was uncalled for. And we were met with major snowfall on that day and the trains stopped. So we ended up not being able to go on that shoot. But Stevie said that he wanted to experience snow in Japan. Snow appears in it. Some synthesizer is used but the rest is for an orchestra.

An orchestra of about 90 players. But the synthesizer is separate. He requested it. Another round of applause for Mr. Isao Tomita, please.

Academy: Tokyo Isao Tomita Thank you. Isao Tomita Well, unlike sculpting or painting, when working with music Masaaki Hara You had to patch the modules together to create any kind of sound.

Isao Tomita Right. Masaaki Hara What did you want to do with it? What kind of sound did you want to make? Masaaki Hara At the time, you put effort into representing certain sounds. Isao Tomita Oh, right. Isao Tomita That, and bells. Masaaki Hara Yes, and bells. Isao Tomita OK. Isao Tomita And the chime, which is harmonic. Isao Tomita [ Commenting as the sounds change ] This is just pink noise. Why Debussy? Masaaki Hara That experience was how they got into music.

Isao Tomita It was. Masaaki Hara Many Japanese musicians have been strongly influenced by jazz. Masaaki Hara Not classical music?

Isao Tomita Is this on screen? Isao Tomita Could you show the surround sound panners on screen? Masaaki Hara These are in surround? Isao Tomita Yes. During the war, Tomita, a fifth grader in elementary school, picked up Kenji Miyazawa's works for the first time.

Tomita, a young boy, was immediately fascinated by the colorful world of the works he encountered in the midst of the monochrome world of reality. A large orchestra and chorus with a total of about people depict the world of Kenji Miyazawa's otherworldly works and the powerful land of the Tohoku region that nurtured them.

The virtual singer Hatsune Miku suddenly appears in a chaotic space where heroic and exuberant melodies are intertwined with layers of colorful sounds. Tomita, the founder of Japanese electronic music, has long dreamed of a 'machine that sings'. Miku, who became popular all over the world, embodied the dream that Tomita had entrusted to her when her unique voice descended upon the orchestral sound.

Then, with Tomita's colorful orchestral arrangement, the piece unfolds into what could be called a flight into space. Isao Tomita passed away on May 5, , at the age of There was a work that he had been dreaming of performing and creating until the moment of his death. It was called 'Doctor Coppelius'. Tomita left the draft of most of the story and the music concept behind. A large-scale story full of 'dreams and hopes for the universe', which he had been pursuing for many years, unfolds with orchestra, synthesizers, and ballet.

This symphony with ballet was originally conceived by Tomita himself in the s as a development of 'Itokawa and Hayabusa'. The work was handed over to the project members who had been working with him before his death, and the premiere took place on November 11 and 12, After the performance, the curtain closed with loud cheers and unending applause. The climax of this piece is 'Rising of the Planet 9' Track 11 , where Tomita's electronic sounds, orchestral sounds, and Hatsune Miku's singing become a trinity.

The melody of 'Itokawa and Hayabusa', the last melody he composed, is played by the orchestra, and Hatsune Miku sings the last part of the song, which made a moving end to the piece. While still a student at Keio University, Tomita began to work as a composer in a variety of fields. In he released 'Clair de lune' using synthesizers, which reached No. Inevitably the slower numbers come off best-- "Clair de Lune" or "Reverie" could easily become chill-out favorites.

A mixed bag, but with enough musical interest to make Tomita 's "sound clouds" of more than just curiosity value. Here the last copy! In the past I made music for jingles or soundtracks for movies and television drama series, and I made them in collaboration with others.

However, I have made these five albums in the current series all by myself. The reason is that in the case of synthesizer music it is extremely difficult to write a description of the original sound. Even if one did do this it would require an enormous amount of paper if all the necessary details were to be noted down, and if a programmer were to try to assemble the sounds according to such directions there is no assurance that the original conception of the music could be realized.

I often use the analogy of an artist's palette to explain about synthesizer music. First, an idea comes to my mind, and in order to express that idea in reality I use the synthesizer. This is almost like a painter who mixes his own colors on his palette using paints of some original colors in order to express the images he has in his mind. I try to create certain four-dimensional images in space, and I imagine in my mind a hall that can hold about 1, people.

Therefore, space is integral and becomes the basis for my sound images in this collection. The titles alone do not suggest a unity of the sound concept I have created in my mind. Let me explain: "Star Wars" Main Title is from the American space-fantasy movie being shown widely throughout the world. I have used a rhythm box in making the arrangement of the music. Towards the end of the title music there comes a famous melody that a robot carries in a strange way.

Is it the true melody? Space Fantasy begins with heavy, deep sound expressing the shaking of the earth. Then the dawn, and from beyond comes a Pegasus waving its wings.

I have tied all of these images into a fantasy. Pacific - the Pacific is the large steam locomotive, made some 60 years ago, that had two pairs of front wheels, three pairs of power wheels and one pair of rear wheels. In my childhood I felt that an electric train would go only for a short distance but a steam engine would be for a long distance and therefore would carry me to faraway spaces.

I have tried to recapture and recreate such a scene before my memories of a steam engine become diluted and disappear. When one listens to The Unanswered Question after having heard Pacific , one may feel that he is being pulled away from the earth into a space without gravity.

One should imagine he is listening through speakers drifting in the airless space. He must then imagine experiencing sound without the air through which it is transmitted!! Solvejg's Song depicts the pure and innocent heart of a woman who is left alone in a mountain cottage in Norway and waits patiently and faithfully for the return of her lover, Peer Gynt.

She sings the song while working her spinning wheel. Time and space are woven into this haunting melody. It predicts the return of her unfaithful lover to find her still waiting - still spinning.

The image I have created in Aranjuez may differ from that which the original music intends. Whenever I hear this piece I imagine a picture, taken by a pilot in the late s, of the Nasca Lines, which etch the desert in southern Peru. It is not an artistic picture. It looks like a symbol for a signal. Nearby there is something that looks like a runway of an airfield built in ancient times. Space travelers? Another unanswered question. Hora Staccato - micro computers are being used readily nowadays, and we will soon find ourselves in an age where such computers will order most aspects of existence.

Good or evil? Micro computers were used extensively in the making of this cheerful piece to suggest that there is hope that civilization will not be destroyed by its own technology. The planet "Solaris" consists entirely of a sea of plasma that is a living creature with its own power of reasoning. Men from the earth make a space station on Solaris, and send people there to make observations.

The sea of Solaris extracts memories from the sleeping earthmen's brains and reincarnate loved ones from their past. I did not try to express the planet Solaris itself but a certain state of a human mind that might be created by the happenings there. Isao Tomita. A 7" and 12" single of 'Bolero' the tune was released in the UK by popular demand in the light of the success of the movie "10" starring Bo Derek and Dudley Moore.