Toshi Ichiyanagi

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A dean of Japanese music talks boundaries, John Cage and life with Yoko Ono

• It's hard to account for the lack of U.S. interest in Toshi Ichiyanagi, long one of Japan's leading composers.
• Yoko Ono's first husband, Toshi Ichiyanagi, is one of today's most imaginative composers of traditional works.

[Homefromtheforest]

Thanks for posting!

[7/4]

Toshi Ichiyanagi, shown at home in Tokyo, has written concertos for Western and traditional Japanese instruments, and his compositions have recently gained an audience in Finland. (Ko Sasaki / For The Times)

[JSngry]

So much music to get to...but I am interested. How "traditional" are the "traditional works" that we're talking about here, and in what tradition are they?

[Homefromtheforest]

I must admit I only own his more "experimental" albums like "opera for tadanori Yokoo", "improvisation 1975", and a few electronic CDs on the Omega Point label. He also appears on part of the "helipolar egg" box with Michael Ranta and Harmut Geerken which is totally great.

[7/4]

The pieces I've heard were quite textural...