Madara [Import]

1. Mad Marble Hell Vision

2. Japanese Title

3. Ruder

4. No. [ 6 6 6 ]

5. Japanese Title

Madara,Gazette,Pioneer Japan,Pop,Rock,World Music

Average customer rating: Japan's First-Ever Symphonic Music is Worth Hearing

Kôsçak Yamada: Symphony in F major 'Triumph and Peace' Manufacturer: Naxos ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music 4-for-3 Classical | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music 4-for-3 All Music | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music Similar Items: Saburo Moroi: Symphony No. 3; Two Symphonic Movements Yasushi Akutagawa: Ellora Symphony; Trinita Sinfonica Rapsodia per Orchestra Piano Concerto / Symphony Ohzawa: Piano Concerto No. 3 'Kamikazi'; Symphony No. 3 'Symphony of the Founding of Japan' Toshiro Mayuzumi: Mandala Symphony; Bugaku; Symphonic Mood; Rumba Rhapsody ASIN: B0001AXQHS Release Date: 2004-03-16

Tracks:

1. Overture In D Major (1912)
2. Moderato
3. Adagio Non Tanto E Poco Marciale
4. Poco Vivace
5. Adagio Molto - Molto Allegro E Trionfante
6. Symphonic Poem 'The Dark Gate' (1913)
7. Symphonic Poem 'Madara No Hana' (1913)

Customer Reviews:

Japan's First-Ever Symphonic Music is Worth Hearing.......2004-04-14

Kôsçak Yamada (1886-1965; the first name is as often transliterated as 'Kosaku') was Japan's first composer of Western symphonic music. By a chance of fate, he was exposed to Western military bands and Protestant hymnody in his youth. Then his sister married an Englishman, an amateur musician and organist in a local Japanese Anglican church, and he heard further Western music. Eventually he studied with a German emigré, a former student of Joseph Joachim. Finally he went to Berlin to study at the Musikhochschule in 1910. The first two pieces on this CD are student works, but are extremely skillfully done. They sound as if they could have been written by someone immersed in the music of Schubert and Mendelssohn, as indeed Yamada was. They are characterized by memorable melodies and 'correct' working-out. The 'Overture in D' and the 'Symphony in F Major' (subtitled 'Triumph and Peace') were both written in 1912. The Overture is in sonata form, although the development is given short shrift. It has a vaulting opening theme that imparts infectious forward motion to the piece. The second theme is soft and détaché and just slightly chromatic. The opening theme returns to bring the whole thing to a brashly optimistic finish.

The Symphony, in four movements, opens with a catchy melody that returns in varied form in the last movement. There are both martial and hymnic themes throughout, uniting Yamada's earliest memories of Western music. Also throughout is Yamada's quotation of the Japanese national anthem ('Kimigayo') made of the descending pentatonic melody, C-A-G-F-D). The Adagio is particularly lovely and serene, reminiscent of the Adagio from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The Scherzo is somewhat Dvorakian and even sounds like it could have been inspired by a Central European folk-dance. The second trio of the Scherzo has a particularly lovely melody. The Finale is a strict sonata-allegro with a misterioso introduction leading to a soft brass fanfare that supplies much of the thematic material for the movement. I swear that I've heard the ensuing march theme somewhere else, but I can't place it. The 'Triumph' part of the symphony's subtitle seems apt for this movement.

The final two pieces on this disc sound as if they were written by a different composer. Both 'The Dark Gate' and 'Madara No Hana' were written the year following the earlier two pieces, but it is clear that Yamada is no longer following the precepts of his Germanic teachers. Both pieces partake of the mystical thrust of Scriabin and the impressionistic harmonic features of Debussy. And the orchestration is much more creative; clearly Yamada had studied his Rimsky-Korsakov and Richard Strauss.

'Dark Gate' was inspired by a Maeterlinckian poem by Japanese poet, Rofu Miki, in which a group of blind people in a room are startled by a loud knocking on the door. They freeze, in silence, until someone begins to cry. Yamada catches the uneasiness, the silence, the quiet hysteria of the poem in this 11-minute orchestral tour de force. Interestingly, this piece was premièred in New York in 1918 with Yamada conducting the New York Symphony (one of the two precursors of the New York Philharmonic).

'Madara No Hana,' also inspired by a poem, this one by Yamada's friend Kazo Saito, is a symbolist verse about death. 'Madara No Hana' denotes "beautiful flowers growing in Buddhist Heaven." The serenely beautiful eight-minute piece is for a huge Straussian orchestra utilized amazingly skillfully by the composer, newly graduated from the Hochschule. There are two recurring intervals, a rising perfect fourth and a a falling major third. Memorable melodies and harmonic ideas abound. One is reminded to some degree of Scriabin's 'Poème de l'Extase.'

The performances here are masterful. In 'Overture in D,' Takuo Yuasa conducts the New Zealand Symphony; in the others he leads the Ulster Orchestra, of which he is the Music Director.

Yamada is highly honored in his native land as indeed he should be; he was not only the first Japanese composer of Western music, he also helped start what became the country's leading orchestra in Japan, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and helped to set up music education throughout the country. His life has even been dramatized for Japanese television. [Here I must give credit to Morihide Katayama, the writer of the extremely informative booklet essay, for much of the above information about a composer I'd never encountered before.]

This is a worthwhile issue, particularly for those interested in following Naxos's continuing series of Music from Japan which is opening our ears to all-but-unknown music from that country.

Scott Morrison

Average customer rating:

Tarako: Madara Saga Japanimation Manufacturer: Polys ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B00004WH29 Release Date: 2000-07-18

Tracks:

1. [Japanese Title]
2. [Japanese Title]
3. [Japanese Title]
4. [Japanese Title]
5. Just Like A Mother
6. [Japanese Title]
7. [Japanese Title]
8. [Japanese Title]
9. [Japanese Title]

Average customer rating:

Do the Bop Johnny Madara ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music ASIN: B000GBE30G Release Date: 2006-05-02

Average customer rating: Gazetto

Madara Gazette Manufacturer: Pioneer Japan ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | International | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music International | Imports | Stores | Music Rock | Imports | Stores | Music ASIN: B0001O3WJQ Release Date: 2004-06-29

Tracks:

1. Mad Marble Hell Vision
2. Ruder
3. No. (666)

Customer Reviews:

Gazetto.......2005-06-19

Madara is by far the best album gazette has put out, from one of my favorite jrock bands around... Ruki's vocals are only matched by Reita's insane bass skill and Uruha's solo's.. their differentiating styles in every song makes this a good listen!..

--1--Mad Marble Hell Vision is umm... interesting to say the least.. its my least favorite track .. but i guess its sort of the intro so its forgivable... its masked by voice changers and other technoey beats...
--2-- shiikureta haru, kawarenu haru.. mm the variation in this song compared to the rest is on the lower downbeat kinda scale.. not my favorite song.. but I rarely skip it .. its got a catchy chorus
--3-- Ruder.. hah.. what can i say.. one of my favorite songs on here! .. its decently hard and fast.. what can i say..
--4-- No. 666 .. hmm actually this is the song that made me think of gazette more than.. just an ok band.. the techno beat in the beginning... the psycho screaming parts.. the happy chanting of BLOODY BIRTHDAY! R20 MAD PARTYEAH!.. i mean it sounds so happy then so dark at the same time.. how can you not like it! ittl be stuck in your head guarentee!
--5--sumire.. slowest song in the album!.. mm reminds me sort of like a lost love kinda song.. deffinatly seems a whole lot softer after listening to no.666 and ruder hah hah..
--6--anata no tame no kono inochi.. hah.. it kinda seems like there are 2 different choruses in this song! catchy as hell.. and a great closer to the album..

Although the album is only 6 songs long... it is by far my favorite of all their stuff theyve put out!.. although if you like em you should check out their older indies stuff its great also.... OH YEAH.. their sound is only matched by their outragous style.. they do have music vids to every song on this album... each with different hairstyles/looks.. its very cool and deffinatly worth looking into if your into japanese culture/music at all!.. hope this helps someone X_X..

Average customer rating:

Madara ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Japan | Far East & Asia | International | Styles | Music International | Imports | Stores | Music Similar Items: Gauze ASIN: B000BKJIHK

Album Description

Japanese reissue pressing. King. 2005.

Pop Music:

1. Magie
2. Medina [Import]
3. Melodia: Autor Juan Almeida [Import]
4. Melting Pop Brazilian Groove [Import]
5. Mestro [Import]
6. Meu Samba [Import]
7. Meus Momentos [Import]
8. Michel Plays Legrand [Import]
9. Mira Mare 19.4.89 [Import]
10. Modi [Import]

Pop Music