Sunday, 3 November 2019

Influences


Tomita found a lasting pull towards the French impressionist composers. He describes the music as a painter who mixes colours on a palate, to produce a wash of sound. He felt the early synthesizers had the potential to mimic any sound one could possibly imagine. It was this flair Tomita had of creating a vast soundscape of music to emulate these composers.

Even after composing such pieces as the Tale of Genji, which uses an orchestra as well as synthesizers, I still have a sympathetic feeling towards the music of the French impressionists, particularly Ravel's 'Daphnis et Chloe'. French composers of the period are somehow different from their contemporaries in other countries, and that might be due to the influence of Japanese court music, which was heard at the Great Exposition in Paris at the turn of the century. I strongly feel that composers such as Debussy and Ravel might well have been influenced by this music, even subconsciously. So, I feel that I have something in common, some kind of empathy with such composers.” (Tomita)[1]


[1] Isoa Tomita.net, Interviews, accessed on 25/10/2019

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