経歴

成城高校在学中から片山穎太郎に作曲法を学 ぶ。1931年に渡欧しウィーン音楽院作曲科マ イスタークラスに入学、ヤンベール、シュテー ルにつき、作曲とピアノの研鑽を積む。32～34 年に一時帰国し武蔵野音楽学校（現武蔵野音楽大学）で音楽理論を教授するがその間も作曲とピアノの学習は中断せず、再渡欧した後はヨゼ フ・マルクス、フランツ・モーザーの下で作曲法を、ヴァインガルトナーの下で指揮法の勉強を続ける。37年にマイスタークラスを修了し、 指揮者として欧州の楽団と演奏活動を行う。40 年の帰国後は東京高等音楽学院（現国立音楽大学） の教授となる。以降、指揮者としてはNHK交響楽団（当時の名前は新交響楽団）の常任指揮者を、 帰国後間もない42年から生涯務めた。 なお、息子には作曲家の尾高惇忠、指揮者の忠明、母方の祖父には渋沢栄一がいる。

作品・作風 

ドイツ・ロマン趣味の支持者でありながら、 日本音楽の特徴を取り入れた作曲家として評価 されている。すでにウィーン留学時代から管弦楽曲《日本組曲》でヴァインガルトナー賞に入選するといった高い才能を露わにしている。帰国後は指揮者として活動する中で、ヨーロッパ音楽の演奏と同時に自身の作品発表も重ねていく。日本楽壇へのデビューは1941年《交響詩 「芦屋乙女」》、《みだれ》の自演による。尾高の作品発表には、彼が所属したNHK交響楽団がとりわけ重要な役割を担っており、彼の管弦楽作品の多くが当楽団の演奏によって発表されている。一方、室内楽作品も少なくはなく、42 年には自作の作品発表の演奏会を催している。 このように尾高は日本楽壇へ多大な貢献をしたが、戦乱・戦後の情勢不安の時代にあり、 疲労によって51年に早逝する。48年発表のフルート協奏曲の管弦楽版が未完の絶筆となり、 弟子の林光によって完成された。

受賞歴 

在学中のヴァインガルトナー賞、芸術選奨、 毎日音楽賞、文部大臣賞。なお死後に贈られた芸術選奨文部大臣賞の賞金がNHK交響楽団へ寄せられ、1952年に邦人作曲家の管弦楽作品に授与される「尾高賞」が設立され、現在もなおこの賞は存続している。

Hisatada Otaka was born in Tokyo in 1911. He enjoyed music starting from early childhood. He learned the piano with Sealy Watanabe and composition with Eitaro Katayama, while studying at Seijo High School. In 1931, he dropped out of high school and went to the Vienna Music Academy. There, he studied the piano with Yahn Bale and music theory with Steel. After learning for a year and a half, he returned home and taught music theory at Musashino Music Academy , while studying the piano with Leo Shirota and composition with Pringsheim.

In 1934, Otaka returned to Vienna again, studied composition with Joseph Marx, and conducting with Weingartner at Master Class of the Academy of Music. “Nihon Kumikyoku (Japanese Suite)” was composed for the piano in 1936 and later arranged for orchestra as his graduation work. This work was awarded the Weingartner prize. After graduation, he was active as a conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic. Otaka returned home in 1940. In the next year, he played his own orchestral music together with works of Mozart and Brahms at the New Symphony Orchestra (currently named the NHK Symphony Orchestra), debuting as conductor and composer. Starting in 1942, he became a permanent conductor of the Orchestra. He dedicatedly worked during and just after the World War. He composed a lot of works mainly for Orchestra. He played his several works, one after another, such as “Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra” (1943), “Symphonic Fantasia ‘The Prairie’ “ (1944), “Cello Concerto” (1944), and “Concert Suite for Piano and Orchestra”(1946) at the concert of his Orchestra.

Otaka’s other works include “Sonata for Violin and Piano” (1932), “Sonatine for Piano” (1940), “Piano Trio” (1941) and others. His musical style is regarded as elegant consisting of German romanticism and Japanese beauty.

Otaka died at the age of 39 in 1951, because of overworking during and after the War. On the first anniversary of his death, “The Otaka Prize” was established with the prize money from the Minister of Education Award which Otaka won after his death. This Prize aimed at orchestral works of Japanese composers. In addition, his wife is pianist, Setsuko Otaka. His oldest son, Atsutada is a composer, and his second son Tadaaki is a conductor.

Career

         Otaka took Eitaro Katayama’s compositional lesson when he visited Seijo-High School. In 1931 he went to Europe to enter the Vienna Music Academy, Meister-class of the department of composition, there he learned composition and piano. Temporally returning back to Japan (193234), he taught musical theory at Musashino College of Music (now Musashino Academia Musicae), while continuing to learn composition and piano. After

returning to Europe, he took Josef Marx and Franz Moser’s lesson of composition and conducting lesson under Weingartner. After he absolved the Meister class in 1937, he was active with European orchestras as a conductor. After returning back to Japan, he was a professor at Tokyo Music Conservatory (now Kunitachi College of Music) and from 1942 until his death, he dedicated himself to the New Symphony Orchestra (currently named the NHK Symphony Orchestra) as a conductor.

The composer Atsutada and a conductor Tadaaki Otaka are his sons, and the famous Japanese industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa is his maternal uncle.

Works and Style 

While committed to the German romanticism style, he is appreciated to have integrated the characteristics of Japanese music into his works. The Weingartner prize for his orchestral suite Nihon Kumikyoku (Japanese Suite) proved his high musical talent already during his Viennese period. While working as a conductor in Japan, he presented his works alongside European music. He was first recognized within the Japanese musical scene with the performance of his symphonic poem Ashiya-Otome and Midare. The NHK Symphony Orchestra, his affiliate orchestra, played a great role in premiering many of his orchestral works. Not small in numbers are his chamber works, for whose premiere he made a concert in 1942.

His contributions to the Japanese musical scene are indispensable. However, during the political instability before and after the World War he worked himself to an early death. His last unfinished work, an arrangement of his flute concerto for orchestra, was completed by his student Hikaru Hayashi.