Motoo Ōtaguro (大田黒 元雄, Ōtaguro Motoo) (January 11, 1893 – January 23, 1979) was a Japanese music critic. He is considered a pioneer of music criticism in Japan.[1]
After graduating from high school, Ōtaguro went abroad to study economics at the London School of Economics from 1913 to 1914. He attended many concerts of contemporary music during his time in London. He became acquainted with works by English contemporaries such as Frederick Delius and Ralph Vaughan Williams as well as other European composers such as Claude Debussy and Alexander Scriabin.[5] He went back to Japan in July 1914 for a summer vacation but was unable to return to London due to the outbreak of World War I.[6] Starting his career as a music writer, he published his first two books in 1915. One of these was From Bach to Schoenberg,[nb 1] which covered sixty European composers and was the first Japanese book to cover modern composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and Claude Debussy.[4][nb 2]
From 1915 to 1917, Ōtaguro held private concerts in his Ōmori-sannō mansion, where he played contemporary pieces on his own piano, despite not being a professional musician.[8] These concerts were held for an audience of about 20 people, including composer Keizō Horiuchi [ja] and critic Kōichi Nomura [ja]. Despite their small and private audiences, the concerts had programs printed elaborately by Kiyoshi Hasegawa, who lived in Ōmori-sannō at the time.[9] Ōtaguro held a piano concert at the Tokyo YMCA center titled "Scriabin–Debussy Evening"[nb 4] on December 9, 1916.[11] This was the first concert in Japan dedicated to either of the composers' music.[12][nb 5]
In 1916, Ōtaguro started the publishing company Ongaku to Bungakusha [ja]. It published books and a magazine titled Ongaku to Bungaku,[6][nb 6] which ran until 1919.[4] He revised and compiled essays he wrote for the magazine into multiple books.[4] By 1921, the company ceased its activities. Ōtaguro went on to publish books for Daiichi Shobō [ja] in 1925, who also reprinted works published by Ongaku to Bungakusha.[9]
He was a founding member of the photography group Photographic Art Society[nb 7], which was active from 1921 to 1924. Other members of the group included Shinzō and Rosō Fukuhara.[15] The society was affiliated with a magazine, Shashin geijutsu, published from June 1921 until September 1923;[16] Ōtaguro contributed an article, "Shashin shoron" (写真小論), to its first issue. His photography career was short lived, and he did not get much recognition as a photographer.[17]
Parts of his residence in Suginami, where he lived since 1933,[22] were transformed into an urban park called Ōtaguro Park, which opened on October 1, 1981.[19]
Ōtaguro's personal collection of books, sheet music, and other material was donated to the NHK by his daughter. The collection was transferred to the Documentation Center of Modern Japanese Music on September 24, 1998. In July 2010, the entire collection of the Documentation Center was transferred to the Meiji Gakuin University's Archives of Modern Japanese Music.[23]
Writings
Translations
In addition to his own writing, Ōtaguro translated many books on music,[24] starting in 1919 with Music on Water[nb 8], a collection of translated essays by various writers.[25]
Ōtaguro's translated works by several English[12] and French composers, as well as historical biographies about composers. Biographies translated by him included works such as André Pirro's biography about Johann Sebastian Bach, which was the first biographic book about Bach published in Japan,[26] and Marie Bobillier's[nb 9] biography of Joseph Haydn.
Poetry
Ōtaguro published a few books of his own poetry, including Haru no enbu,[nb 10] and Nichirin.[nb 11] He also published poetry in the magazine Kamen.[nb 12][27]
1939, William Murdoch: Chopin: His Life (Shopan hyōden (ショパン評伝))
1940, Felix Weingartner: Lebenserinnerungen (闘争の一生 ワインガルトナア自傳 (Tōsō no isshō: Waingarutonaa jiden))
1942, Cecil Gray: Predicaments: Or Music and the Future (Ongaku no genzai oyobi shōrai (音楽の現在及び将来))
Explanatory notes
^Literal translation of Japanese title, Bahha yori Shēnberuhi (バッハよりシェーンベルヒ).
^Although sometimes credited as introducing Debussy, Ōtaguro was not the first writer in Japan to mention him. Arō Naito [ja] wrote an article mentioning him in October 1908, and Kafū Nagai wrote one the following month.[7]
^The advertisement for the concert in the December 1916 issue of Ongaku to Bungaku gives the aforementioned English title, as well as the Japanese title Sukuriabin to Debyusshii no yū (スクリアビンとデビュッシイの夕).[10]
^There were five other performances of Debussy's music in Tokyo before, the first one being a performance of Sarabande from Pour le piano by Rudolph Ernest Reuter on November 24, 1909.[13] However, Ōtaguro's concert was the first one with a program heavily featuring Debussy's music.[14]
^The title of the magazine translates to Music and Literature.
^Shashin geijutsusha (写真芸術社); in the orthography of the time, 寫眞藝術社
^Literal translation of Japanese title, Mizu no ue no ongaku (水の上の音楽)
Arayashiki, Toru (2018) [1998]. "Frederick Delius and Grez Sur-Loing: Some Japanese Perspectives". In Carley, Lionel (ed.). Frederick Delius: Music, Art and Literature. New York: Routledge. pp. 154–167. ISBN978-0-429-45559-9.
Kasaba, Eiko (1986). "La musique de Debussy au Japon". Cahiers Debussy (in French). 10. Saint-Germain-en-Laye: Centre de documentation Claude Debussy: 28–44. ISSN0395-1200.
Nagahara, Hiromu (2017). "The State as Critic and Consumer". Tokyo Boogie-Woogie: Japan's Pop Era and Its Discontents. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 66–107. ISBN978-0-674-97169-1.
Numabe, Shin-ichi (October 17, 2016). "Nihon no kindai ongaku wa koko kara hajimatta. Ōtaguro Motoo to "piano no yūbe"" 日本の近代音楽はここから始まった 大田黒元雄と「ピアノの夕べ」. Ōtaguro Motoo no piano 100nen no yoin 大田黒元雄のピアノ ―100年の余韻― [Motoo Ohtaguro's Piano - A Century of Resonance] (booklet) (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kojima rokuon. pp. 5–17. OCLC1081083571. ALCD-7200.
Tanaka, Eiichi (1986). "Ōtaguro Motoo" 大田黒元雄. In Fundō, Junsaku; Tadokoro, Hitoshi; Miura, Hitoshi (eds.). Nihon gendaishi jiten 日本現代詩辞典 (in Japanese). Tokyo: Ōfūsha. pp. 83–84. ISBN978-4-27-302072-9. OCLC15423114.
Yasar, Kerim (2018). "Sound and Motion". Electrified Voices: How the Telephone, Phonograph, and Radio Shaped Modern Japan, 1868–1945. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 192–224. ISBN978-0-231-18713-8.
"Ongaku hyōron no Ōtaguro-san shikyo" 音楽評論の大田黒さん死去. Asahi shinbun 朝日新聞 (in Japanese) (Evening ed.). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha. January 23, 1979. p. 11.
"Ōtaguro Motoo" 大田黒元雄. Nihon no shashinka 日本の写真家 [Biographic Dictionary of Japanese Photography] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Nichigai Asoshiētsu. 2005. p. 84. ISBN978-4-816-91948-0. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
"Sukuriabin to Debyusshii no yū" スクリアビンとデビュッシイの夕 [Scriabin-Debussy Evening]. Ongaku to bungaku 音楽と文学 (in Japanese). Tokyo: Ongaku to Bungakusha. December 1916. Retrieved 2022-01-02 – via "Nihon piano bunkashi" Kōta no koramu.
"Ōtaguro Kōen to wa" 大田黒公園とは [What is Ōtaguro Park?]. Ōtaguro Kōen 大田黒公園 (in Japanese). Hakone Ueki Landscape Construction Co., Ltd. 2015. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
.jpg)
