AKIRAIFUKUBE.ORG

BIOGRAPHY

Part 6

IFUKUBE'S STYLE

Although Ifukube became best known as a film composer over the years, he continued to write a large number of concert works. While the vast majority of Japanese composers at the time were interested in composing experimental, avant-garde music, Ifukube remained devoted to his ethnic style.

Nevertheless, seldom or never did Ifukube cite in his compositions the original materials such as folk melodies which he used as inspiration. He was strictly a composer creating original music based on ethnic aesthetics. Ifukube's music of that type was once received with indifference, but after the 1970's, when the influence of avant-garde music diminished, his musical artistry enjoyed a popular revival and greatly influenced a wide range of music, from classical to pop.

Ifukube's style can be characterized by his love for thunderous, folk-inspired orchestral sounds, rhythmic power, percussive audacity and beautifully flowing melodies. His compositions are always tonal and are actually quite conservative, perhaps even "old-fashioned" in their structure and orchestration. Like the German composer Carl Orff of Carmina Burana (1937) fame , Ifukube prefered a direct, elemental approach to melody and harmony, dispensing with the use of complex counterpoint almost entirely. Furthermore, his music frequently uses simple ostinatos, which can be associated with Minimalist or Post-minimalist music. In this regard, it can be asserted that Ifukube's musical style shares many similarities with the famed American composer, Philip Glass.

Ifukube's substantial concert repertoire includes cantatas, orchestral works, works for chamber orchestra, concertos, ballets, piano music, guitar music, compositions for traditional Japanese instruments (especially the koto) and songs attributed to the music of the Ainu and other northern Asian peoples. (For more information on Ifukube's concert repertoire, please visit the Music Library section of this site.)

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