Jōji Yuasa

Jōji Yuasa initially completed three years of medical studies before turning his attention to music and learning composition largely as a self-taught composer. From 1951 to 1957, he joined the interdisciplinary artistic collective Jikken Kōbō (“Experimental Workshop”), which also included Tōru Takemitsu. Within this group, Yuasa was given license to experiment, particularly with multimedia practices. For his early works, he drew from musique concrète, before shifting toward electronic music some ten years later.

Projection Esemplastic for White Noise, composed in 1964 at the NHK studios, signaled a departure from Western approaches to electronic music. In this piece, Yuasa adopted a sculptural treatment of white noise, extracting elements from a sound that contains all frequencies and using them to construct a continuous sonic arc. He revisited this process twenty years later in Nine Levels by Ze-Ami (1987-1988), composed during a residency at IRCAM. The question of sonic movement, particularly within virtual space made possible by electroacoustic media, also runs through his work. This is particularly evident in Eye on Genesis (1992), created using the UPIC system developed by Iannis Xenakis, where Yuasa develops his concept of “free sound movement.”

From his experience with musique concrète, Yuasa developed a strong interest in graphic notation, driven by the need to produce accompanying scores for his tape works. The score for Ikon, Icon / On the Source of White Noise (1967), composed for the Osaka World Exposition in 1970, is a significant example of this practice. Yuasa also composed several soundtracks, notably for short films and documentaries.

Alongside his compositional activity, Yuasa has pursued an extensive teaching career in Japan and abroad. From 1981, he was a visiting professor at the Tokyo College of Music, and ten years later became a professor at Nihon University. Between 1981 and 1994, he was also a visiting scholar at the University of California San Diego, and in 1988 joined the faculty of the Darmstadt Summer Courses.

Like his contemporaries Takemitsu, Toshi Ichiyanagi, and Yoritsune Matsudaira, with whom he shared an affiliation with the Japanese “transonic” group of composers, Yuasa played a crucial role in the development of electroacoustic music in Japan during the 1950s. Interested in what he calls the “cosmology of the composer,” Yuasa investigated how the Japanese tradition in which he was educated informed his compositional practice. His works, often structured around concepts drawn from Buddhist philosophy, incorporate traditional instruments and draw on major Japanese texts, such as Matsuo Bashō’s haiku or the writings of the Noh playwright and theorist Zeami Motokiyo.

Yuasa was also an active member of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) for nearly fifty years. Around a dozen of his works were performed at ISCM festivals during this period. His music has been presented at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the Ultima Festival in Oslo, and the Venice Biennale. In 2010, he was elected an honorary member of the ISCM, alongside Milton Babbitt.

Awards and distinctions

• Japan Academy Prize, 1999
• Imperial Prize, 1999
• Medal with Purple Ribbon (Government of Japan), 1997
• Suntory Music Prize, 1996
• Kyoto Music Grand Prize, 1995
• Japan Arts Festival Grand Prize, 1973, 1983
• Otaka Prize, 1972, 1988, 1997, 2003
• Golden Lion of San Marco, 1967
• Prix Italia, 1966, 1967
• Special Jury Prize, Berlin International Film Festival, 1961