Minoru Miki was born in Tokushima prefecture on March 16 in 1930. During high school, he was a member of a choral group and studied piano and the theory of harmony. He entered into Tokyo University of the Arts and studied composition with Tomojirō Ikenouchi and Akira Ifukube. After composing many works for the radio, television, and films, Miki contributed to the invigoration of the Japanese traditional music world.
In 1964, he founded the ensemble “Nihon Ongaku Shūdan (Japanese Music Group)” and he acted as its music director for the following 20 years while carrying out more than 160 concerts overseas. He composed many ensemble works for traditional Japanese instruments, such as “Kodai Bukyoku ni yoru Paraphrase (Paraphrase based on ancient Dance)”, “Yon gun no tame no Keishō (Images for Four Groups)”, “ 凸 (Convex)”, “Wa (Ring)” and “Hote (Big Fire)”, and in 1970 the record album “Miki Minoru’s Music by Nihon Onagaku Shūdan” won the Grand Prize at the National Arts Festival. Miki took part in the invention of a new instrument, the ‘Nijūgen koto (20 string koto)’ which later was added one more string, and he composed many pieces for this instrument. In 1981, he completed “Kyū no kyoku”, which was commissioned for the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the Gewandhaus orchestra, and he presented “Hōō Sanren (Eurasian Trilogy)” which brings together the two pieces “Jo no Kyoku” and “Ha no kyoku”. In 1983, Miki wrote “Saikō Jokyoku (Overture for colorful Rainbow)” for the dual ensemble of Nihon Ongaku Shūdan and Chūō Minzoku Gakudan, and ten years later he launched the ‘Orchestra Asia’ which consisted of ethnic instruments from Japan, China, and Korea.
Miki composed opera too, completing “Shiawase no Pagoda (Happy Pagoda)” and an opera series of nine parts which portrays the history of Japan from the 5th to the 20th century. A trilogy composed in Miki’s early years, “Shunkin-shō (A Portrait of ‘Shunkin’)”, “Ada (An Actor’s Revenge)”, and “Jōruri”, was performed in Finland, Great Britain, United
States of America, and Germany and received high appraisal. Pieces such as “Marimba Spiritual” continue to be performed often in Europe and America. Miki’s most important book is “Nihon Gakki-hō (Instrumentation for Japanese Instruments)”. He received the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1994 and the Order of the Rising Sun in 2000. Miki passed away on December 8 in 2011 and was posthumously awarded the Honor Award of Tokushima Prefecture.
