Akio Yashiro acquired elaborate compositional techniques of French music and left behind works of very high quality.
Yashiro was born in Tokyo on September 10 in 1929. His father, Yukio, was noted as a fine art critic and his mother was a pupil of the pianist, Kikuji Tanaka. Akio Yashiro began to study the piano at the age of about 5 and he started to learn composition at the age of 8. He studied under Saburō Moroi from 1939, when he was at the age of 10, and four years later he began being taught composition by Kunihiko Hashimoto.
In 1945, which was in the middle of the Pacific War, Yashiro entered Tokyo Ongaku Gakkō (Tokyo Academy of Music, now the Faculty of Music at Tokyo University of the Arts). He studied composition with Tomojirō Ikenouchi and Akira Ifukube, and the piano with Kiyo Kawakami, Noboru Toyomasu and L. Kreuzer. Yashiro composed piano music one after another in the 1940s and completed “Sonatine for Piano”, “24 Preludes” and “Nocturn for Piano”. He graduated in 1949 and finished “Piano Trio” and subsequently entered the graduate school. Compositions such as “Sonata for Viola and Piano”, “Kōkyō-teki Sakuhin (Symphonic Piece)”, “Violin to Piano no tame no Mittsu no Shōhin (3 small Pieces for Violin and Piano)”, and the stage music “Yoshidagoten (Yoshida palace)” were composed around 1950.
From 1951, he was sent to France by the Japanese government and studied at the Conservatoire in Paris. He learned the way of composition and orchestration from T. Aubin and O. Messiaen. “String Quartet”, composed as a work that compiles the years of studying abroad and testifies to the acquirement of his ‘métier’, was recognized by H. Barraud and F. Schmitt and played on the first public stage by Parrenin Quartet and broadcasted in RTF in 1956.
Yashiro returned to Japan in 1956. “String Quartet” was played in Japan and Yashiro received the Mainichi Music Award. In 1958, one of his most important works, “Symphony” was performed for the first time. Yashiro’s “Cello Concerto” won the Otaka Award in 1961, and “Piano Concerto” received the Otaka Award again in 1968 as well as the Encouragement Prize of an art festival. Yashiro also composed music for documentary films, such as “Hōryūji (Hōryūji Temple)” and “Kodai no Bi (the ancient Beauty)”, music for the stage, such as “Kurotokage (Black Lizard)” and “Tosca”, furthermore, “Hakugin no Saiten (Festival in Silver-white)” which was commissioned for the Sapporo Olympic, and he cooperated with NHK television with the piece “Minna no Uta (Everyone’s Songs)”. Yashiro moreover acted as the music director of the Mie National Athletic Meeting.
Yashiro became professor at the Faculty of Music at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1974 and trained not only Shinichirō Ikebe but also many other composers at the university. On April 6 in 1976, Yashiro passed away when he was only 46 years old. At the first anniversary of his death, the essay collection “Orfeo no Shi (The Death of Orpheus)” was published from Shinya Sōsho-sha, and Yashiro’s complete writings was published by Ongaku No Tomo Sha the following year. Yashiro also coauthored the book, “Bach Heikinritsu no Kenkyū (A Study of equal Temperament of Bach)” (published by Musicanova in 1981), with Jin Kobayashi.
For Yashiro, both the aspects of an instrumental performer and a composer were immanent in his musical character. His works are not many, but his music proper can be seen as substantiated polished ‘ecriture’.
ステップレベル：応用2,応用3,応用4,応用5,応用6