Makoto Moroi was born as Saburō Moroi’s second son in Tokyo on December 17 in 1930. Although his father opposed, Moroi began to study composition and entered Tokyo Ongaku Gakkō (Tokyo Academy of Music, now the Faculty of Music at Tokyo University of the Arts). He learned the laws of harmony and counterpoint under Tomojirō Ikenouchi, the piano under Kan Kajiwara, and the flute under Tadashi Mori. While a student, he composed “Piano no tame no Koten Kumikyoku (Classical Suite for Piano)” (1949) and “Shitsunai Ongaku Daisan-ban (Chamber Music No. 3)” (1951) using twelve-tone technique. In 1953, Moroi was awarded a prize as the first Japanese composer at the Belgian Queen Elisabeth Competition for his “Composition for Orchestra”. Moroi investigated the technique of series and various tone laws, and he received the ISCM prize for his “Piano no tame no α to β (Alpha and Beta for Piano)” composed in 1954. “Nana no Variations (Seven Variations)” composed with Toshirō Mayuzumi in 1956 pioneered full-scale electronic music in Japan.
In 1957, Moroi established the Institute for 20th-Century Music with Minao Shibata, Yoshirō Irino, Toshirō Mayuzumi and Hidekazu Yoshida. They researched aleatoric music as well as held festivals which influenced the Japanese compositional world greatly at the time. “Violin to Orchestra no tame no Kyōsō-kumikyoku (Concerto Suite for Violin and Orchestra)” was performed for the first time in 1963 and won the Otaka Award.
It was after 1964 that Moroi turned toward traditional Japanese music. As a result of exchanges with shakuhachi players of the Chikuho school such as Chikudō Sakai (the second-generation Chikuho), Moroi began to compose “Chikurai Go-shō (Five Pieces of Wind blowing in the Bamboo Forest” (1964) and “Taiwa Go-dai (Five Dialogues)” (1965). At the same time Tōru Takemitsu adapted the biwa to his works, Moroi composed shakuhachi music. In 1973, Moroi completed a work for traditional Japanese instruments and western orchestra “Dai-ichi Kyōsō kōkyōkyoku ‘Gūtai’ (the First Concerto Symphony ‘Gūtai’)”, in which one can find quotations from “Symphony No. 9” by L. v. Beethoven. Works such as Moroi’s “Fantasy and Fugue based on the name of J. S. Bach” can also be situated within the context of polystilistic music.
Moroi became the first director of ‘Sai no kuni Saitama Geijutsu Gekijō (Saitama Arts Theater)’ in 1994 and he received the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1995. Moroi passed away due to interstitial pneumonia on September 2 in 2013.
We can confirm that for Moroi composition as well as education and cultivation were important activities. He worked as the professor of Osaka Geijutsu Daigaku (Osaka University of Arts) and Shōbi Ongaku Tanki-Daigaku (Shōbi Music Junior College), and in 1985 he established the Japan Alban Berg Institute and became the institute’s first president.
He wrote much music criticism and exhibited a particular sense of humor when using the pen name ‘Makotonio Monroi’. Numerous writings of Moroi concerning music analysis and piano music also exist, such as “Piano Meikyoku Meiban 100 (Famous Pieces and Record of a Hundred Piano Music)” published from Ongaku No Tomo Sha in 1977, “Piano Sonata by Beethoven” which was written in collaboration with Takahiro Sonoda and published from Ongaku No Tomo Sha in 1971, and “Piano Works of the Romanticists” (published from Ongaku No Tomo Sha in 1984). Analytical studies on works such as “Fantasy” op. 17 by R. Schumann and “Sonata No. 3” by F. Chopin reveal Moroi’s practical music research which include studies of performance techniques.
