Toru Takemitsu Composition Award

The four composers that you have heard today, each were very much dedicated and took their time and care in composing their pieces. In that way, all these four composers were excellent.
I believe that through studying these pieces that there were two main approaches in their compositions. One was the specific images that they had created. They took a specific item and tried to make it into a musical work. The other was the conceptual work of what is music – what is it that we are doing now. I think the compositions could be divided into these two categories.
We are limited for time, so I will not get into the details of each and every piece but I will make a short comment on each composition we have heard today. I will speak in the order of performance.

The first piece we heard was triple sensibilities by Myunghoon Park. This piece contained a long sustained note that was coming throughout the piece. And as this long tone progressed and developed over time, there were moments of strong accents and explosions, and the moments afterwards, so the contrasts between the two were quite impressive.
As this slow piece gradually took shape and found its direction, the overall picture of the piece becomes clear as time goes by. And this developed into a very convincing, powerful piece by the end.
Also another memorable character of this piece was the presence of instruments such as the piccolo trumpet, baritone saxophone and water gongs. These instruments that are not part of the normal orchestral set-up had supported the texture of the overall piece.

Next is the piece by Hirofumi Mogi: "Let's speak in Wondrous Words!". The main characteristic of this piece I felt was that unlike many contemporary pieces that use very specific and special techniques, this piece did not require such novel techniques. Except for the microtonal passages one could feel in the moments of the glissandos, I was able to listen to the piece without noticing these special performance techniques.
The combination of the massive sounds and also the unison ended up creating the very natural sound world I listened to today. Even though it was mainly musical tones, through his handling of musical range and rhythm, it became noise, but the contrast had resolved by the end of the piece. This transparent tone contributed to creating an atmosphere different from what we normally hear from an orchestra. It was a very powerful effect.

Next is the piece by Michael Seltenreich: ARCHETYPE. I felt that this was a very rare piece in that it was very precisely and densely written and very unique with clear development and contrasts. As the title, the music throughout this composition was thoroughly thought out and it was written with a very modern motif and resulted in creating a very deep, thick musical texture. And this musical realization lasted throughout the piece, and the thorough orchestration enabled the orchestra to sound with vitality. This resulted in a perpetual movement forward, which helped in the creation of the structure of this piece.
You must have heard the canon played by the violin and cello solos at the end. This "archetype" melody gave us the reason for the presence of this particular piece.

The fourth piece is Nacres by Alice Nakamura. This piece I felt was the natural progressive process of nature and this enveloped the entire piece. The descriptive nature of the music was not fixed, and this led to the future of the musical ideas which enabled to pull out the various ideas that were to come in the piece. This was all done in a very convincing manner.
The central instrument of this piece was the vibraphone, and the interaction with the other instruments of the orchestra enveloped the whole piece, giving it a very special orchestral sound.

These are my comments for each individual piece.

As I mentioned in the beginning, the four composers that you heard today and their four pieces, you can tell that their musical attitude has been very thorough and the pieces handled with great care. I would like to express my great respect for all four composers.

I am rather an older composer now, but when I was young, probably around your age, the television appeared. Half a century has passed since then, but I feel that today on television it is mostly bombarded with commercials and entertainment. Now well into the 21st century, I feel that in the musical life and world, we need to somehow exit this environment that we are surrounded by.

Of the four composers that we have heard today, I believe there is no big difference between the first prize winner and the fourth prize winner. Therefore, in this year’s competition, I will award only first and second prizes – there will be two first prize winners and two second prize winners.
For the same reason I have just given, the difference in the prize money between the first prize and the second prize is minimal. The first prize winners will receive ¥800,000 each and the second prize winners will receive ¥700,000 each. The total of the four prizes will be ¥3,000,000.

I thank all of you here for your attention today. I would also like to thank Maestro Kentaro Kawase and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra for their enthusiastic performance. It is they who will be developing and creating the musical culture of Japan in the future. Japan today, unlike when I was younger during the age of the bubble economy, society itself is more introvert. I hope that the musical culture that we are creating and the people involved will enable us to move forward in the future.

Now I would like to announce the prizewinners and call them onto the stage.
Second prize winners are Myunghoon Park and Alice Nakamura.
First prize winners are Michael Seltenreich and Hirofumi Mogi.
Congratulations all.

Edited by Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation