Ikuma Dan

Ikuma Dan (團 伊玖磨, Dan Ikuma, 7 April 1924 – 17 May 2001) was a Japanese composer.

Biography

Dan was born in Tokyo, the descendant of a prominent family, his grandfather Baron Dan Takuma having been President of Mitsui before being assassinated in 1932. He graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1946. One of his teachers was the opera composer Kosaku Yamada.

During his career he completed six symphonies, all recorded and released on the Decca label in Japan, and wrote seven operas as well as a number of filmscores, and many songs. He wrote celebratory music for the Japanese imperial family, actively promoted cultural exchange with China (from 1979 until his death in Suzhou, China, in 2001), and received the commission to write an opera (Takeru) for the 1997 opening of the New National Theatre, Tokyo, Japan's main opera house.

Dan is known in Japan for his 1951 opera Yūzuru (Twilight Crane), which is regularly revived there.^{[citation needed]}

Honors

• Japan Foundation Award, 1998.

Works

Stage

• Yūzuru (Twilight Crane), opera in 1 act, text by Junji Kinoshita, (Osaka, 1952)
• Kikimimizukin (The Listening Cap), opera in 3 acts, text by Junji Kinoshita (Osaka, 1955)
• Yōkihi (Yang Guifei), opera in 3 acts, text by Jirō Osaragi (Tokyo, 1958)
• Futari Shizuka, dance drama (1961)
• Hikarigoke (Luminous Moss), opera in 2 acts, text by T. Takeda (Osaka, 1972)
• Chanchiki, opera in 2 acts, text by Y. Mizuki (Tokyo, 1975)
• Master Flute Player, ballet (1989)
• Susanō, opera (1994)
• Takeru, opera (Tokyo, 1997)

Orchestral

• Symphony No. 1 in A (1948-49/56-57)
• The Silk Road (1955)
• Symphony No. 2 in B flat (1955-56/88)
• Grand March "Celebration" for wind orchestra (1959)
• Symphony No. 3 (1960)
• Symphony No. 4 (1965)
• Symphony No. 5 (1965)
• Symphony No. 6 "Hiroshima" for soprano, nohkan, shinobue and orchestra (1985)
• Fantasia all'antica for two violins and string orchestra (1988)
• Grand March "The Royal Wedding" for wind orchestra (1992)
• Symphony No. 7 - unfinished

Chamber/Instrumental

• Fantasia No. 1 for violin and piano (1973)
• 3 Novelettes for piano (1983)
• Fantasia No. 2 for violin and piano (1983)
• Fantasia No. 3 for violin and piano (1984)
• Sonata for Flute and Piano (1986)
• Sonata for four bassoons (1988)

Vocal

• Six Songs for Children for voice and piano (1945)

Film scores

• Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954)
• Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955)
• Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (1956)
• The Last War (1961)
• Rickshaw Man (aka "The Life of Wild Matsu") (1958)

Music for the radio

• The Second Radio taiso (1952)

External links

• Ikuma Dan - List of Works
• Ikuma Dan (Toho Kingdom)