• Source: Kikuko Kanai

Kikuko Kanai (金井 喜久子, Kanai Kikuko, née Kawahira, 13 March 1911 – 17 February 1986) was a Japanese composer and one of the first Japanese women to compose classical music in the Western tradition.




Biography


Kikuko Kawahira was born on the Ryukyu island of Miyako-jima, Okinawa, and studied voice at the Nihon Music School and composition at Tokyo Music School. She studied with teachers including with Taijiro Goh, Kanichi Shimofusa, Hisatada Otaka and Kishio Hirao. Working as a composer, she produced songs and orchestral music using the Ryukyuan pentatonic scale.
In 1954 she studied the dodecaphonic method in Brazil with Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, and incorporated atonal composition into her work. She was awarded the Mainichi Prize for Cultural Publication in 1955, and a prize by the Okinawan government for her opera Okinawa monogatari in 1968. She died in Tokyo.
The BBC describe her as "one of the first Japanese women to compose Western classical music".




Works


Selected works include:

Ryūkyū no min’yō ('Folksongs of Ryūkyū') 1954
Okinawa monogatari opera
Miyako-jima engi (Legend of Miyako Island) (ballet), 1949
Ryūkyū hiwa (A Hidden Story of Ryūkyū) (jazz ballet), 1951
Hiren Karafune (Love Tragedy on Tang Boat) (op, 4, Kanai and K. Yano), 1960
Okinawa monogatari (Tale of Okinawa), 1997
Symphony, no.1, 1938
Okinawa buyō kumikyoku (Okinawan Dance Suite): no.1, 1940, no.2, 1946
Ryūkyū kyōsōkyoku (Ryūkyū Rhapsody) no.1, 1946
Symphony, no.2, 1946
Uruma no shi (Poem on Uruma), 1952
Festival Overture 'Hishō', 1972
Ryūkyū kyōsōkyoku no.2, pianoforte octet, 1950
Ryūkyū Ballade, pianoforte, 1951
Sonata, violin, pianoforte, 1952
Brazil Rhapsody, pianoforte, 1955
Hamachidori hensōkyoku (Variations on Hamachidori), koto, Electone, percussion, 1970
Okinawa min'yō niyoru gasshōkyoku-shū (Choral Pieces on Okinawan Folksongs), 1953–60
Haha to ko no Okinawa no uta (Okinawan Songs for a Mother and Children), 1965
Her work has been recorded and issued on CD, including:

Just For Me - Noriko Ogawa plays Japanese piano music (1997) BIS
Bridges to Japan Audio CD (17 October 2000) Bis, ASIN: B0000508RU




References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Omoro soshi
• Cells at Work!
• Megumi Hinata
• La storia della Arcana Familia
• Kotoura-san
• Happy Sugar Life
• Yurikuma Arashi
• Yami to Bōshi to Hon no Tabibito
• Skip Beat! (seri TV)
• Mahou Tsukai PreCure!
• Kikuko Kanai
• Kikuko
• Kanai (surname)
• The Teahouse of the August Moon (film)
• List of 20th-century classical composers
• Polly Barton (author)
• List of women composers by birth date
• List of Japanese composers
• List of women composers by name
• Deaths in February 1986