Toshirō Mayuzumi

Sound

Toshiro Mayuzumi (黛敏郎 Mayuzumi Toshirō [majɯzɯmi toɕiɾoː]; 20 February 1929, in Yokohama – 10 April 1997, in Kawasaki) was a Japanese composer known for his implementation of avant-garde instrumentation alongside traditional Japanese musical techniques. His works drew inspiration from a variety of sources ranging from jazz to Balinese music, and he was considered a pioneer in the realm of musique concrète and electronic music (Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica n.d.; Kozinn 1997), being the first artist in his country to explore these techniques (Layne n.d.). In the span of his career, his works included symphonies, ballets, operas, and film scores (Kennedy and Kennedy 2007), and was the recipient of an Otaka prize by the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Purple Medal of Merit (Kirkup 1997).

Ratings

Music Composing: —0 ratings

Filmography

Music Composing

4 titles

Reflections in a Golden Eye

Movie1967

Bizarre tale of sex, betrayal, and perversion at a military post.

The Bible: In the Beginning...

Movie1966

Covering only the first 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis, vignettes include: Adam and Eve frolicking in the Garden of Eden until their indulgence in the forbidden fruit sees them driven out; Cain murdering his brother Abel; Noah building an ark to preserve the animals of the world from the coming flood; and Abraham making a covenant with God.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

Movie1960

Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.

Good Morning

Movie1959

A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of intergenerational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.