Michiko Toyama

Michiko Francoise[1] Toyama (September 1, 1913 – March 31, 2006) was a Japanese modernist composer.[2][3] She was one of the first women invited[4] to study at the  Columbia–Princeton Electronic Music Center (today known as the Computer Music Center).[2]

Biography

Toyama was born in Osaka to Sutezo Toyama and Haru (Haruko) Toyama.[5] Toyama's mother, Haru, was one of the first graduates of the Tokyo Music School, and encouraged her daughter's musical education.[5] Michiko began studying piano in the 1930s in Paris, and in 1936 began studying with Nadia Boulanger.[3][6] In 1937, Jacques Ibert recommended that Toyama submit her composition Voice of Yamato to the 15th Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM),[7] where it won a prize.[3] Beginning in 1948, she returned to Japan and taught as an assistant professor at the Osaka Academy of Music in both piano and counterpoint.[8]

In 1952, Toyama studied with Darius Milhaud, Olivier Messiaen, and Noel Gallon at the Paris Conservatory. In 1955, she received a scholarship to study at Tanglewood with Roger Sessions. She studied conducting at the Pierre Monteux School and Columbia University.[6] From 1956 to 1959 she was one of the first women to study at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center with Dr. Otto Luening and Dr. Vladimir Ussachevsky.[9] At the Center, Toyama and Edgard Varese shared an enthusiasm for Japanese gagaku court music.[10] In 1960, Toyama's compositions were released on Folkways Records Album No. FW 8881.[11]

Toyama said, "composing music is my joy and I do it for myself. I hope my compositions will be performed, but I do not dare to organize performance opportunities for my compositions by myself."[3]

Works

Toyama published her music under the name Michiko Toyama. Her compositions include:

Electronic

  • Aoi No Ue (tape and narrator)[6]
  • Waka (tape and narrator; text by Hyaku-nin Shu)[6]

Orchestra

  • Japanese Suite[6]

Vocal

  • Voice of Yamato (soprano, flute, clarinet, bassoon and cello)[6]
  • "Two Old Folk Songs" (voice and koto)[6]

References

  1. ^ The Musical Woman. Greenwood Press. 1983. ISBN 978-0-313-23587-0.
  2. ^ a b "Michiko Toyama at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center". University of Rochester Calendar. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  3. ^ a b c d Nishikawa, Teruka (2000). Four Recitals and an Essay: Women and Western Music in Japan: 1868 to the Present (PDF) (dissertation). Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta.
  4. ^ Perera, Ronald; Luening, Otto (1975). The Development and Practice of Electronic Music. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-207605-0.
  5. ^ a b Cohen, Brigid (2023). "Michiko Toyama Disrupts the Historiography of Modernism". Twentieth-Century Music. 20 (3): 402–423. doi:10.1017/S1478572223000191. ISSN 1478-5722 – via Cambridge Core.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Cohen, Aaron I. (1987). International encyclopedia of women composers (Second edition, revised and enlarged ed.). New York. ISBN 0-9617485-2-4. OCLC 16714846.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ Matthei, Renate (1991). Komponistinnen in Japan und Deutschland: eine Dokumentation (in German). Furore-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-927327-09-2.
  8. ^ "Waka and Other Compositions: Contemporary Music of Japan" (PDF). Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ "Early Synthesizers and Experimenters" (PDF). Retrieved 14 Jun 2021.
  10. ^ Toop, David (2018-08-02). Ocean of Sound: Ambient sound and radical listening in the age of communication. Serpent's Tail. ISBN 978-1-78816-104-6.
  11. ^ "Waka and Other Compositions: Contemporary Music of Japan". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
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