English of Kinoshita_Official_Site

Japanese Contemporary Music Composer

Born in 1956 in Tokyo, Japan. KINOSHITA Makiko graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts, Composition Department and completed its graduate school also. Her composition, an orchestra piece "Koten" was performed at the graduation concert as one of the most outstanding graduation pieces. Awarded the prize with "Fantasy" at the Music Competitition of Japan, composition division for orchestra piece, and also "Aura for Orchestra" was chosen as Outstanding Composition by the Japan Symphony Foundation Award.
  In 2003, awarded by Mitsubishi Trust Art and Cultural Foundation with the opera"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" commissioned in commemoration of 20th anniversary of the Mozart Theatre. She is a member of the Japan Society for contemporary Music. 

  Her chief works include: "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Opera), "Abyss of Night" (for orchestra), "Sinfonietta" (for Strings), "Gothic" (for wind band), "Percussion Concerto"  (for Perc.solo & perc. ensemble), "The Trembling Moon" (for Percussion ensemble), "Twisting Landscapes" (for Clarinet, Violin and Piano), "A Circuit of Dreams" (for Piano), "Jashumon-Hikyoku" (for mixed voices and orchestra), "Blue" (for female voices and percussion), "Nirvana" (vocal & piano), etc.
  Kinoshita has about eighty publications, as well as CD's, such as  "The Trembling Moon", (chamber music / ALM Records),  "Jashumon-Hikyoku" (chorus and orchestra / Fontec),  "Blessing"(chorus without accompaniment / Japan Traditional Cultures Foundation), "Tsuyoshi Mihara Sings Makiko Kinoshita" (lied album / Fontec), and many others.
  Official web-site to accsess is :  http://www.m-kinoshita.com

Kinoshita Makiko  A Collection of Songs
（Japan Traditional Culture Foundation）

1.Four Songs by C.Rossetti（4'07"/2'43"/5'03"/3'38"） Wheb I am Dead, My Dearest / Summer / What? / Another Spring
   sop. KANNO Yasuko    pf. OBARA Takashi 
2.Three Father's Songs（3'47"/3'27"/2'45" ） The Night is Tender / A Small Sphinx / A Father's Song　
   bar. MATSUI Kouji   sax. HIKOSAKA Shinichiro   pf. AZUMAI Mika
3.Songs of "Late Summer"（2'09"/2'28"/3'03"/1'57"/4'01"/1'59"/4'17"）   Hand / Though Nobody is Here Anymore /
    Late Summer / In September / A Car Window / At Least Three or Four Silver Coins / Goldfish in Winter
    sop. NOZAKI Yumi   pf. OBARA Takashi

The Trembling Moon （chamber music/ALM Records）

1.The Trembling Moon   for 4 percussion players（10'52"）
   vib. NISHIKUBO Tomohiro／YOKOTA Daiji／KOBAYASHI Naoaki   　mar. MURAI Isao
2.Twisting Landscapes   for clarinetto, violin & piano（ I. 4'52"/II. 6'41"/III. 4'35" ）
   cl. TAKEDA Tadayoshi   vn. SEGAWA Mitsuko   pf. SHIBATA Miho 
3.Vocalise   for soprano, harp, vibraphone & cello（8'36"）
   sop. SATAKE Naomi   hrp. HAYAKAWA Risako   vc. DOGIN Hisaya   perc. TAKESHIMA Satoshi
4.A Circuit of Dreams  for piano（I. 7'35"/II. 5'36"）       pf. SHIBATA Miho
5.BLUE   for female voices and percussion（ I. 6'19"/II. 4'06"/III. 6'03" ）
   cond. KURIYAMA Fumiyoshi   perc. EISO Sigemitsu   chor. The femalechor"Sai"

"BLUE" for female voices & percussion （Mother-Earth Company Ltd., Tokyo, Japan / Dec.'07）

  In November, 2002, a large number of composers wrote new pieces that they presented to the leader and chorus director, Kuriyama Fumiaki for a concert to celebrate his 60th birthday. My own contribution to the event was the work, the door into summer.  I chose to base my piece on a surrealist poem by Kitasono Katue. Gaining inspiration from the overall image of the poem and from the sound of each word, I developed the musical ideas in a very free manner. The softness of the female voices blended with the individual sounds made by the various percussion instruments in a way that was unexpectedly beautiful, and the music succeeded in producting a unique kind of transparency. Two years later, I was commissioned by the female choir " Sai" to write a suite that included this piece, so I added the two movements "Blue Square" and "Blue" , hence the work's present form.

"Twisting Landscapes" for clarinetto, violin & piano（ONGAKU NO TOMO EDITION / Apr.'07）

　I composed this music at the request of pianist Miho Shibata in the summer and autumn of 2004. It was first performed in October of tha tyear by the Miho Shibata Chamber Music Ensemble, Series VII. All three movements are composed each according to a different method. In the first movement, a wedge of harmony is driven by the piano into the twisted exchange of scales between the clarinet and the violin. In the second movement, a melody emerges from transparent but dense sounds that frequently employ trill, arpeggio, pizzicato,etc. In the third movement, the dialogue between the clarinet and theviolin moves rapidly above the piano's notched sixteeth notes. The frequent use of glissando is characteristic of this movement. 

"A Circuit of Dreams" for piano（edition KAWAI / Jan.'07）

　This is the only piano piece that I have composed when I was in the late 20s and early 30s. During that period I was enthusiastic about composing pieces of a large formation. Though it consisted of three movements at first, I tried to revise the entire piece from '97 to '98. It has two movements now, by deleting the middle one, and the remaining movements also were drastically reformed. In autumn of '06, I revised this piece once again.
 In the first movement, the smooth flow of the melody is emphasized, and frequent use of pedals gives abundant suspension. It is better to play the phrases with a large flow, in stead of playing each phrase with slur separately. Also, the range of dynamic expression is required as wide as from ppp to fff. In the second is brought fast forward by using staccato, accents, irregular times and rests effectively.  

"The Trembling Moon" for 4 percussion Players（The Japan Federation of Composers / Jan.'06）

　After being invited by Norio Fukushi, the chairman of the Japan Society for Contemporary Music, to write a piece for percussion ensemble, I thought long and hard and eventually decided to compose a sonorous piece with multi-layered harmonies making extensive use of keyboard percussion instruments. I allowed myself the luxury of using 3 vibraphones, which have a very long reverberation, and added a marimba, which has the dual role of both supporting and confronting the other instruments. The four instruments form a dense sound by endlessly repeating tremolo figures, with the marimba coming to the fore in this heaving wave of sound from time to time. The balance of sound volume between the instruments is extremely important for making the structure of the composition clear to the listener.

Choral Works are Here