Stylistic features of Takashi Yoshimatsu’s music, and his Symphony No. 3 Op. 75
Skorobogatykh, Andrei
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124864
Description
Title
Stylistic features of Takashi Yoshimatsu’s music, and his Symphony No. 3 Op. 75
Author(s)
Skorobogatykh, Andrei
Issue Date
2024
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Taylor, Stephen
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Robinson, Dana
Committee Member(s)
Fieldsteel, Eli
Solya, Andrea
Department of Study
School of Music
Discipline
Music
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
A.Mus.D. (doctoral)
Keyword(s)
Takashi Yoshimatsu
Japanese music
Topic theory
Progressive rock
Birdsong
Language
eng
Abstract
The distinguished Japanese composer Takashi Yoshimatsu (b. 1953) has more than a
hundred compositions, including six symphonies. His music is performed in Japan and abroad by
major orchestras and soloists. Despite such repute, his music is heavily underrepresented in
academic research. This work aims to dissect Takashi Yoshimatsu’s compositional style by
examining its diverse components and illustrating their integration within a significant symphonic work, Symphony No. 3 op. 75, composed in 1998. Yoshimatsu’s path as a composer has an unusual trajectory: he is a self-taught musician who draws equally from worlds of progressive rock, jazz, and classical music. His compositions are characterized by the intensive use of additive procedures derived from progressive- and math-rock riffs, as well as influences from birdsong, impressionism, and the works of Jean Sibelius. To investigate how all these elements work together in Yoshimatsu’s music I use the framework of topic theory and consider
those elements of different styles as topics in Yoshimatsu’s oeuvre.
Despite an early interest in avant-garde and sound-mass music, Yoshimatsu’s mature style features a more frequent use of familiar idioms, often borrowed from rock and jazz. The
synthesis of seemingly incompatible stylistic elements from impressionism, avant-garde, and popular genres forms a central motif in Yoshimatsu’s aesthetics, reflecting a tension and quest for
harmony between technology, nature, and human being. The final chapter examines how the musical topics contribute to Yoshimatsu’s environmentalist aesthetics, embodying themes of contemplation, melancholy, and nostalgia. Additionally, the thesis discusses the interaction between Japanese mentality and Western influences, issues of intertextuality, and how Yoshimatsu's aesthetics resonate with Eastern philosophical ideas.
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