AKIRAIFUKUBE.ORG - Arctic Forest

ARCTIC FOREST - TONE POEM
(1944)

From the title page of the "final proof' of Arctic Forest

In the 1930s the Japanese Empire was determined to expand itself. In September 1931 the Japanese invaded Manchuria, a mountainous region in northeast China. Manchuria became a base for Japanese operations in northern China and a buffer region for Japanese-controlled Korea. By February 1932, the Japanese had conquered the whole of Manchuria and set up a Japanese-controlled state called Manchukuo run by Puyi, the former Emperor of China. Japan controlled Manchuria until the Soviets invaded in August, 1945 and "liberated" the region.

Puyi during his time as the Emperor of Manchukuo

In 1944 Akira Ifukube was commissioned by the Japanese-controlled Manchurian government to write a piece of music for the Manchurian people. Ifukube was personally invited to come to Manchuria by Captain Masahiko Amakasu who was, at the time, a chairman of the Orchestra of Shinkyo (the Manchurian capital). Captain Amakasu was a very powerful Manchurian political figure and the director of the Manchurian Film Cooperative.

Masahiko Amakasu

Ifukube stayed in Manchuria for about 20 days with free rein to travel wherever he wanted. However, toward the end of his visit he contracted an amoeba-borne sickness and had to return to Hokkaido, Japan. It was in Hokkaido where Ifukube composed Arctic Forest, so named because it was based on, among other things, the composer's impressions of the Manchurian landscape. Upon its completion, a copy of the score was sent to Manchuria and Ifukube never saw it again.

Ifukube had another copy of the score, however, which has been recently rediscovered. The title page of this score reads "Arctic Forest for Harbin Orchestra - Final Proof." "Arctic Forest" is written in ancient-style Japanese kanji and "Harbin Orchestra" in Russian. Harbin is an area of China (which was a part of Manchukuo at the time) which housed many "White Russians" who left their country after the Soviet Revolution of 1917. Ifukube may have intended for an orchestra in Harbin to perform the work but this ended up not being the case. The work is only known to have been performed twice at the Shin Miyako Memorial Auditorium in Jilin Province, China on April 26 and 27, 1944. Long-time Ifukube colaborator Kazuo Yamada conducted the Shin Miyako Orchestra.

Arctic Forest is a tone poem in three movements: Primo Movimento (Andante tranquillo), Secondo Movimento (Moderato pastorale) and Terzo Movimento (Allegro rapsodico). The work's total duration is about 25 minutes.

On August 8, 2010 the "Tokyo version" of Acrtic Forest will receive its Japanese premiere (and the work's third performance) by the Orchestra Nipponica in Tokyo.

Detail from the score showing the three movements (left) and the page outlining the orchestration in Italian (right)

The first pages of the first, second and third movements

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Acknowledgments: Ifukube on Ifukube: Interview with Akira Ifukube by Ed Godziszewski, translated by Michiko Imamura, G-Fan Magazine, November/December 1995 and Akira Ifukube Interview III by David Milner, translated by Yoshihiko Shibata, December 1993. Also, thanks to Kiwami Ifukube.