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Hidemaro Konoye

 

 
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Hidemaro Konoye
 
 
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Viscount was a conductor
Conducting

Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors....
 and composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
 of classical music
Classical music

Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western art history Religious music and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times....
 in Showa period
Showa period

The , or Showa era, is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Showa , from December 25, 1926 to January 7, 1989. In his coronation message which was read to the people and to the army, the newly enthroned emperor referenced this Japanese era name or nengo: "I have visited the battlefields of the Great War in...
 Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
. He was the brother of pre-war Japanese Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Japan

The is the usual English-language term used for the head of government of Japan, although the literal translation of the Japanese name for the office is Prime Minister of the Cabinet....
 Fumimaro Konoe
Fumimaro Konoe

Prince Fumimaro Konoe was a Japanese politician and the 34th , 38th and 39th Prime Minister of Japan....
.

ye was born in Kojimachi
Kojimachi

is a neighborhood in Chiyoda, Tokyo.Prior to the arrival of Tokugawa Ieyasu, it was known as . The area developed as Chonin settled along the Koshu Kaido....
, Tokyo
Tokyo

, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshu. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the Tokyo City in the eastern part of the prefecture, and total over 8 million people....
 as the younger son of Prince Konoe Atsumaro
Konoe Atsumaro

Prince was a Japanese nobleman who served as the 3rd President of the House of Peers and 7th President of the Gakushuin Peer's School in Meiji period Japan....
, scion of one of the Five regent houses
Five regent houses

The Five regent houses is a collective term for those five families of Fujiwara clan, who were regarded entitled to the position of Sessho and Kampaku in the Imperial Court of Kyoto, Japan, and monopolized the position between 12th and 19th century....
 of the Fujiwara clan. The Konoe clan traditionally provided gagaku
Gagaku

Gagaku is a type of Music of Japan that has been performed at the Imperial court for several centuries. It consists of three primary bodies:...
 muscians to the Imperial Household, and Hidemaro chose to follow the family’s musical tradition, whereas his older brother Fumimaro went into politics.

Konoye attended the Gakushuin
Gakushuin

File:Gakushuin in 1933.JPGThe or Peers School is an educational institution founded in Tokyo in 1877, during the Meiji period, for the education of the children of the Kazoku, though it eventually also opened its doors to the offspring of extremely wealthy commoners....
 Peers School, where he became a close friend of Takashi Inukai
Takashi Inukai

Takashi Inukai was a professor at Osaka University and Konan Women's University, and a noted scholar of Japanese literature and especially the Man'yoshu poetry....
.






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Encyclopedia


Viscount was a conductor
Conducting

Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors....
 and composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
 of classical music
Classical music

Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western art history Religious music and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times....
 in Showa period
Showa period

The , or Showa era, is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Showa , from December 25, 1926 to January 7, 1989. In his coronation message which was read to the people and to the army, the newly enthroned emperor referenced this Japanese era name or nengo: "I have visited the battlefields of the Great War in...
 Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
. He was the brother of pre-war Japanese Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Japan

The is the usual English-language term used for the head of government of Japan, although the literal translation of the Japanese name for the office is Prime Minister of the Cabinet....
 Fumimaro Konoe
Fumimaro Konoe

Prince Fumimaro Konoe was a Japanese politician and the 34th , 38th and 39th Prime Minister of Japan....
.

Biography

Konoye was born in Kojimachi
Kojimachi

is a neighborhood in Chiyoda, Tokyo.Prior to the arrival of Tokugawa Ieyasu, it was known as . The area developed as Chonin settled along the Koshu Kaido....
, Tokyo
Tokyo

, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshu. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the Tokyo City in the eastern part of the prefecture, and total over 8 million people....
 as the younger son of Prince Konoe Atsumaro
Konoe Atsumaro

Prince was a Japanese nobleman who served as the 3rd President of the House of Peers and 7th President of the Gakushuin Peer's School in Meiji period Japan....
, scion of one of the Five regent houses
Five regent houses

The Five regent houses is a collective term for those five families of Fujiwara clan, who were regarded entitled to the position of Sessho and Kampaku in the Imperial Court of Kyoto, Japan, and monopolized the position between 12th and 19th century....
 of the Fujiwara clan. The Konoe clan traditionally provided gagaku
Gagaku

Gagaku is a type of Music of Japan that has been performed at the Imperial court for several centuries. It consists of three primary bodies:...
 muscians to the Imperial Household, and Hidemaro chose to follow the family’s musical tradition, whereas his older brother Fumimaro went into politics.

Konoye attended the Gakushuin
Gakushuin

File:Gakushuin in 1933.JPGThe or Peers School is an educational institution founded in Tokyo in 1877, during the Meiji period, for the education of the children of the Kazoku, though it eventually also opened its doors to the offspring of extremely wealthy commoners....
 Peers School, where he became a close friend of Takashi Inukai
Takashi Inukai

Takashi Inukai was a professor at Osaka University and Konan Women's University, and a noted scholar of Japanese literature and especially the Man'yoshu poetry....
. In 1913, he entered the Tokyo University of the Arts, where he specialized in the violin
Violin

The violin is a Bow string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
. In 1915, he went to study briefly in Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 to study musical composition
Musical composition

Musical composition is:* an original piece of music* the musical form of a musical piece* the process of creating a new piece of music...
, and became a pupil of Kosaku Yamada
Kosaku Yamada

, was a Japan composer and conductor.In many Western reference books his name is given as K?s?ak Yamada. During his music study in the Imperial German capital of Berlin from 1910-13 he hated the moment when people laughed at him because his "normal" transliteration of his first name "Kosaku" sounded like the Italian "cosa" meaning "what" o...
 on his return to Japan. His debut as a conductor
Conductor

Conductor or conduction may refer to:*Conductor , an album by indie rock band The Comas*Conductor , a senior Warrant Officer appointment in the Royal Logistic Corps and its predecessors...
 was in 1920, with an amateur orchestra
Orchestra

An orchestra is an Musical ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an theatre of ancient Greece reserved for the Greek chorus....
 led by Toukichi Setoguchi. Konoye returned to Europe for further studies in 1923 in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 under Vincent d'Indy
Vincent d'Indy

Paul Marie Th?odore Vincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher....
 and Berlin
Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
 under Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker

Franz Schreker was an Austrian composer and conducting. Primarily a composer of operas, his style is characterized by aesthetic plurality , timbre experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and conception of total music theatre into the narrative of 20th century classical music....
. He also studied conducting under Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber

Erich Kleiber was an Austrian Conducting.Born in Vienna, Kleiber studied in Prague. In 1923, after conducting a stirring performance of Beethoven's Fidelio at the Berlin State Opera, he became that institution's music director....
, and Karl Muck
Karl Muck

Karl Muck was a Germany conductingBorn in Darmstadt, Germany, Muck earned a Ph.D. in classical philolology at Heidelberg. An early love for music led him to take piano lessons....
. In 1924, he conducted at the Berlin Philharmonic, and returned to Japan in the fall of the same year.

Konoye co-founded the Japan Symphonic Association in 1925, and the following year became conductor of the orchestra. Konoe later founded the New Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo (the present day NHK Symphony Orchestra
NHK Symphony Orchestra

The in Tokyo, Japan began as the New Symphony Orchestra on October 5, 1926 and was the country's first professional symphony orchestra. Later, it changed its name to Japan Symphony Orchestra and in 1951, after receiving financial support from Nippon Hoso Kyokai, it took its current name....
), and helped mold the orchestra over a 10 year period into an ensemble that was praised as competitive with many of the better orchestras in Europe.

Today he is remembered for making the premiere recording of Mahler
Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler was a Bohemian-born Austrian composer and conducting. He was best known during his own lifetime as one of the leading orchestral and operatic conductors of the day....
's Fourth Symphony
Symphony No. 4 (Mahler)

The Symphony No. 4 in G major by Gustav Mahler was written between 1899 and 1901. The four-movement orchestral work features a solo soprano in the finale....
, done in May 1930. It was also the first electrical recording of any complete Mahler symphony..

Additionally, Konoye made numerous guest appearances in Europe and America, conducting some 90 different orchestras in the course of his career including the orchestra of La Scala
La Scala

The Teatro alla Scala , in Milan, Italy, is one of the world's most famous opera houses. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778, under the name Nuovo Regio Ducal Teatro alla Scala with Antonio Salieri Europa riconosciuta....
, Milan
Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....
 and the NBC Symphony Orchestra
NBC Symphony Orchestra

The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra established by David Sarnoff of the National Broadcasting Company especially for conductor Arturo Toscanini....
. He created friendships with Erich Kleiber, Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski

Leopold Stokowski was a famous orchestral conducting, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted....
, Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler

Wilhelm Furtw?ngler was a German Conducting and composer....
 and Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
. He went to Germany and conducted Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

The Berlin Philharmonic , is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. In 2006, a group of ten European media outlets voted the Berlin Philharmonic number three on a list of "top ten European Orchestras", after the Vienna Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra....
 in second half of 1930s. In the early days of the NBC Symphony, he planned an American tour under the supervision of Stokowski, but the project was cancelled due to World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
.

Konoye wrote original compositions, but was more deeply interested in arranging existing music, including, for example, Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky , one of the Russian composers known as the Five, was an innovator of Music of Russia. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music....
's Pictures at an Exhibition and Schubert's C major Quintet, which he orchestrated.

Konoe died in 1972.

Major works

  • Kronungs-Kantate for soprano, mezzo soprano, bariton, chorus and orchestra (1928)
  • Etenraku for orchestra (1931; Transcription from gagaku)
  • Chin Chin Chidori for voice and piano


Notable recordings

  • Mahler, Fourth Symphony, Sakaye Kitasaya (soprano), New Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo
    NHK Symphony Orchestra

    The in Tokyo, Japan began as the New Symphony Orchestra on October 5, 1926 and was the country's first professional symphony orchestra. Later, it changed its name to Japan Symphony Orchestra and in 1951, after receiving financial support from Nippon Hoso Kyokai, it took its current name....
    , Japanese Parlophone, May 1930


External links