(17 December 1930 – 2 September 2013) was a Japanese composer.
Biography Makoto Moroi was born in Tokyō, and is the son of Saburō Moroi. He studied composition with Tomojirō Ikenouchi at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, graduating in 1952. He also studied Gregorian chant privately with Paul Anouilh, and Renaissance and Baroque music with Eta Harich-Schneider. He was one of the leading composers who introduced Japanese audiences to new musical styles and devices, including twelve-tone technique, serialism, and aleatory music. He was one of the first Japanese composers to embrace electronic music, and also introduced traditional Japanese instruments like the shakuhachi into his compositions. He died, aged 82, on 2 September 2013.
List of works
Opera 1959 – The Stars of Pythagoras 1960 – Red Cocoon 1961 – Die lange, lange Strasse lange 1962 – Yamauba 1965 – Phaeton the charioteer
Choral 1959 – Chamber Cantata No. 1 1959 – Chamber Cantata No. 2 1970 – Izumo, my home 1972 – A romance of playing cards
Orchestral 1953 – Composition No. 1 1958 – Composition No. 2 1958 – Composition No. 3 1960 – Composition No. 4 1961 – Ode to Schoenberg 1966 – The Vision of Cain, symphonic sketch 1968 – Symphony
Concertante 1963 – Suite concertante for violin and orchestra 1964 – Toccata, Sarabande and Tarantella for piano and double string orchestra 1966 – Piano Concerto No. 1 1968 – Three Movements for shakuhachi, strings and percussion 1971 – Piano Concerto No. 2 1973 – Kyoso Symphony, for folk instruments and orchestra
Chamber 1950 – Chamber Music No. 1 1950 – Chamber Music No. 2 1951 – Chamber Music No. 3 1954 – Chamber Music No. 4 1962 – Five Epigramms 1966 – Five conversations for two shakuhachi 1967 – Five metamorphic strata 1972 – Contradiction 1972 – Contradiction II 1976 – Hanafuda denki
Instrumental 1951 – Sonata da camera for piano 1952 – Partita for flute 1954 – Alpha and Beta, for piano 1964 – Five pieces for shakuhachi 1967 – Eight parables for piano 1970 – Les farces, for violin 1972 – Sinfonia for S.M., for sanjugen 1978 – Fantasie and Fugue for organ
Tape 1956 – Seven variations (collaboration with Toshiro Mayuzumi) 1958 – Transfiguration 1962 – Variété 1968 – Small confession
Sources Kanazawa, Masakata. 2001. "Moroi, Makoto". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers. 2013. "Décès du compositeur japonais makoto moroi (1930–2013)". ResMusica:musique classique et danse (2 September, accessed 3 July 2014).
Further reading Ishii, Maki. 1983. "Japan's 'Music of Encounter': Historical Background and Present Role". The World of Music 25, No. 1 (Japan): 80–90. Loubet, Emmanuelle. 1997. "The Beginnings of Electronic Music in Japan, with a Focus on the NHK Studio: The 1950s and 1960s", translated from the French by Curtis Roads, with assistance from Brigitte Robindoré. Computer Music Journal 21, No. 4 (Winter): 11–22. Loubet, Emmanuelle. 1998. "The Beginnings of Electronic Music in Japan, with a Focus on the NHK Studio: The 1970s". Computer Music Journal 22, No. 1 (Spring): 49–55.