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Bekku Japan quotOharabushiquot from 3 Paraphrases Based on Folksongs of Southern Japan 1968
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Sadao Bekku (別宮貞雄, 1922-2012) was a Japanese composer in the post-war era. In his long life he composed 5 symphonies, concertos for Violin, Flute, Viola, and Piano, the numerous songs, choral works, chamber works, etc. • After he graduated Tokyo University, in 1951 he studied at Paris Conservatoire at the class of Delius Milhaud (at which only one foreign student was allowed to enroll, so Bekku competed with a German, Karlhainz Stockhausen, and finally won[1]) and Jean Rivier and Olivier Messian. He adored Beethoven from his youth, but as a result he was influenced by French Neoclassism like Franck, Honegger etc, rather than Debussy and Ravel. His works are lyrical and have elements of Japanese traditional music but did not show the nationalism like Akira Ifukube (伊福部昭). He completed his study and returned to Japan in 1954.[2] • Bekku had the isolated position in the field of Japanese postwar serious music. Especially in 1960-70s, the avand-gurde music held hegemony, but he refused and strictly criticize it. The major Japanese postwar composers who persist in tonality were Ifukube and Bekku. However, while Ifukube earned the fame and publicity due to his music to a film Godzhilla and then the Classical music and still after his death, Bekku did have no popular work (he composed the music for the more obscure SF cult horror film Shadows in the Dark (the original title is Matango(マタンゴ)) , directed by Ishiro Honda, the very director of Godzhilla). • It was that time when he composed 3 Paraphrases Based on Folksongs of Southern Japan in 1968, on commission by a pianist Meiko Miyazawa (宮沢明子 b.1941) to compose piano music on Japanese folk tunes. He used those of the southern district of Kyushu (九州) that is the also southern island of Japanese Honshu (main island of Japan) And this Ohara-bushi (小原節) is the third, final piece of this suite, occupying over half length of the whole suite. • Ohara-bushi (おはら節) is the popular folk tune in the Kagoshima prefecture. Its origin is not defined but it describes manners and customs of Kagoshima. This song was collected when in 1931 the well-known composer of popular song Shinpei Nakayama (中山晋平, 1887-1952) was invited in order to create a new Kagoshima folk tune for an upcoming commerce exhibition. At the Japanese traditional party Nakayama listened to the song sung by Kiyoji (喜代治 1903-1958), a Japanese Geisha (a Japanese woman trained to entertain men with conversation and singing and dancing). He was very appreciated to her and took her to Tokyo and let her record Ohara-bushi that got popular in whole Japan in 1934. • Bekku rendered this folk tune to a brilliant and virtuosic concert piece, consisting of passages in 16th notes.It begins slowly, and theme is transformed, ascending to climax at the ending. Although his common style is not so nationalistic, the coda is barbaristic and enthusiastic, reminding us of even Ifukube. For the compositional purposes, Bekku also quoted two other folk tunes in the middle slow section: Roku choushi (六調子) sung in the southern japan and Gen-ya-bushi (げんや節) , another popular Kagoshima folk tune [3]. But they are used with the transformation and It is difficult to distinguish those tunes in this piece. • Unfortunately his piano music for solo piano is rare: Only small Sonatine (we can listen to on youtube: • 別宮 貞雄:ピアノのためのソナチネ 第1楽章 pf. 加藤 真一郎:Ka... ) and some works for children. But this work should be revived as the concert piece with folk element for not only Japanese but also foreign pianists. I'm glad to upload this on today (23 March), the day the Kiyozo,died at Tokyo in 1958 (10 years before the piece). • ==Note on tempo== • The direction of tempo is annoying. His direction on the autograph is too slow (ca76 in the 8th note), not so accelerated even at the ending (ca100), rendering the piece boring. The dedicatee Miyazawa completely ignored it and played faster in all parts. My interpretation here is almost as same as her because I think it makes the piece more interesting. However, in 1977 when Bekku published the score officially from Zen-on, he didn't accept her interpretation and take no change from the autograph. However, he wrote at the preface in the published score: I hope the feeling as if (the performer) falls over when finished to play (ひき終わって、倒れる位の感じを望みたい) . I think it is contradicted with his direction in real, • [1] Morihide Katayama. M. Sadao BEKKU Symphonies Nos.1 and 2, Naxos. 8.557763J. • [2] Ibid. • [3] Accrdoing to the composer's preface of the published score. But I can't find Genya-bushi (げんや節) in any books with the exception of the historical recording database at the national library that I have not ever surveyed. It is possibly the popular Kagoshima folk tune Hanya-bushi (はんや節) , but I can't distinguish this tune in this piece. • 別宮貞雄：南日本民謡による三つのパラフレーズ 第3曲「小原節」 • I got acquainted with this piece by the recommendation of a Japanese composer Hiroyuki Shimozato (下里博之). Thank you a lot!
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