
English: 
OK, now we'll begin a lecture
by Mr. Isao Tomita.
Thank you for joining us, Mr. Tomita.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Many of you in the audience today
are from overseas,
and I'm sure you've heard of Isao Tomita
or are familiar with his music.
But for those of us who grew up in Japan,
for us Japanese, Isao Tomita is someone
who is of course a composer
of electronic music,
but what his name reminds us of first
are his scores for TV dramas, anime,
and other such things, which many of us
grew up hearing without realizing
that they were all composed
by Mr. Tomita - myself included.

Japanese: 
Isao Tomita

English: 
Music for TV commercials, too.
He's created a massive amount of music.
So when such a creator decided
in the late '60s
to suddenly venture into the world
of electronic music...
Because at the time in Japan,
Moog synthesizers were rare and
of course hardly anyone else had
actually bought one. But you did,
and ventured into the world
of electronic music,
which was something that we Japanese
listeners also found fascinating.
Could you elaborate on what first
drew you into electronic music?
Well, unlike sculpting or painting,
when working with music...
For example, to compose a large-scale
orchestral piece, you use an orchestra.
But the instruments for an orchestra,

English: 
during the 100 years
between Mozart and Wagner,
were improved to the point where there
is no more room for further enhancement.
So orchestral instruments, whether they be
horns, trumpets, violins,
or the woodwinds like the flute,
can't be improved any further.
So instruments haven't changed much
from Wagner's time to today.
I didn't know about the existence
of synthesizers at first.
I'd been working mainly for NHK.
Radio in particular,
and their two radio stations
began stereo broadcasting
by using the two separate stations.
I was only about 20 at the time
when they started this program.
What had only been in mono
could now be heard in stereo.

English: 
So the music I wrote was performed
by an orchestra of nearly 100 musicians
and broadcast in stereo to boot,
which captivated me. I was fascinated.
But... And this might only be the case
in Japan,
but writing a score for 4 or 5 players
or one for almost 100
made little difference in terms of fee.
Even though the latter was excruciating.
Anyway,
stereo broadcast and
performance by an orchestra
were what captivated me. Except,
the sound components of an orchestra,
such as the flute, oboe,
clarinet, bassoon,
and the trumpet, horn, trombone, tuba...
I have to select a tone quality
from these when I do the orchestration.
Consider that as opposed to art,

English: 
in which there are no longer such
restrictions when painting or sculpting.
You could use gold dust
in your painting,
or grind up cinder and paint with it,
it doesn't matter what you do.
But with music you can't do that.
Even if you were to invent
a unique instrument and
get a musician to play it for you...
Take the violin for example.
Becoming pro takes years of practice.
Who'd be willing to do that?
There was no way to make it possible.
But I did want to create music
using a different tone quality,
and around the time
I began to feel that way,
when I'd sort of hit a wall
with orchestral arrangements,

English: 
I heard about the existence
of Moog synthesizers.
That it was something created near
Buffalo in the middle of a field.
And I felt an irresistible urge. I thought
I could create my own sound with it.
If I could create my own sound,
then that meant
I could create music that broke free
from existing ideas.
I also had a certain amount of
confidence. It was unfounded, but still.
That's why I acquired
the Moog synthesizer.
At the time, as I'm sure you all know,
this was a modular synthesizer.
That's right.
You had to patch the modules together
to create any kind of sound.
Hard to imagine now, but producing
even a single note was difficult.
And there was no user's manual, right?

English: 
Right. It was an electronic equipment so
I only had a manual that just explained
what function each module performed.
Now when you buy a modern synthesizer,
all you need to do is press
a single button
to produce the sound assigned to it.
But what I had was nothing like that.
It was basically, "Connect the modules
with the cords yourself,"
"then adjust the amplitude,
and do what you please with it."
That's what it was.
What did you want to do with it?
What kind of sound did you want to make?
Oh, I wasn't thinking that far.
I had no prior knowledge
of Moog synthesizers,

English: 
so I had no idea where to start or
how to use it. I had no instructors.
And the only reference I had was
Walter Carlos's "Switched-On Bach".
The only album with music performed
just on the Moog.
So I had no one to turn to,
but I'd already spent a fortune on it.
I wasn't being paid that much.
Japanese composers in general
aren't paid much.
The only ones who make lots of money
have to make songs that sell
as much as AKB 48.
Oh, there's someone from the record
company. Anyway, it was hard work.
I might as well have imported scrap iron
from the U.S. if I couldn't master it.
I felt pretty uneasy for a while.
But I like doing these things by nature,
so as I fiddled around with it,

English: 
I'd occasionally see a light,
so to speak. Shining ahead.
So the way I learned to use
the Moog synthesizer
was pure tenacity and persistence
on my part in the end.
I guess when you become too engrossed
in something, the gods take pity on you
and decide to give you little hints
along the way.
So when one sound came about, another
one would show itself in relation to it.
The process was completely self-taught.
When I got to the stage where
I could control it to some degree,
I decided, "Well then, let's try and
record an album with this."
My financial state was dreadful
back in those days.

English: 
But because of the novelty...
Synthesizers were still rare then,
so when I used mine for TV commercials,
or dramas based on Sci-Fi novels,
about outer space for example,
any kind of sound I produced from it
would please the director.
So I could also use it for easy work,
which was pretty lucrative.
...What was the question again?
At the time...
You put effort into representing
certain sounds.
In the beginning of the 1970s,
electronic music was still only used
in certain experimental corners
of contemporary music
and gradually made its way
into pop music.
And only abstract sounds
were being used.
Well, I...
But you depicted natural sounds
in your work from the start.

English: 
Right. So when I listen to the
avant-garde music from those days,
I don't get it.
It doesn't speak to me at all.
The understanding was that inorganic
electricity could only make such sounds
and that it was utterly wrong to utilize
it to create sounds with emotion.
This seemed to be the consensus
back then. Except,
if you consider the violin,
that sound is created by scraping
together horsehair and sheep gut.
Although now the bow and strings
also use other materials.
Electricity is a natural energy.
Human innovation created that form
of the violin as an instrument.

English: 
The same goes for all other instruments.
And since electricity had become
so commonplace in our lives,
it was no surprise that music
making use of it came about.
So why did it have to be trashed
as being inorganic
and unemotional music?
That was the criticism I got.
...What were we discussing?
We've got a surround sound system
set up here today.
Oh, right.
So in your first electronic album
"Snowflakes are Dancing,"
you've depicted whistling
with the synthesizer.
You use whistling a lot in your work.
Not actual whistling, but the sound.
That, and bells.
Yes, and bells. So I'd like to play this...

English: 
OK. So why did I try
to replicate natural sounds?
Why bother emulating
an existing sound on such a device
when you could use the real sound?
The thing is, I had a friend
who was an artist
and this was something he told me.
A surprising number of avant-garde
artists don't have basic drawing skills.
For example, Picasso has the ability
to draw fabulous realistic portraits,
even if they're not abstract. It's
because he has basic drawing skills.
So...
Those images that nobody
had ever seen before
were captured on canvas because he could
draw what was in his heart and mind.

English: 
Likewise, I figured there must be
composers who couldn't properly "draw"
the sounds that emerged
from within themselves.
What to do? I had no clues where to start
in any case,
so I began by emulating existing sounds,
since I had no examples.
"Drawing" with sounds.
Yes. That's the whistling sound,
pink noise...
Let's listen to it.
And the chime, which is harmonic.
I'll play it then.
- This one?
- Yes.
This is just pink noise.
Now cut it.

English: 
This is often used to depict
steam locomotives. Now,
increase the resonance using the VCF.
By gradually increasing the resonance,
it becomes closer to whistling.
Then add reverbs.
And it ends up sounding like that.
Next is the sound of chimes.
The chimes.
Generate a harmonic sound
with the oscillator.
Together with the one next to it
to generate the harmonics.
The basic sound you hear of a bell
is an aggregate of multiple sounds.

English: 
So mix them together, then sever it
like it's being struck.
I used the sound to construct a piece.
Debussy's "Arabesque No.1."
You chose Debussy's piece
as the base of your endeavor.
Why Debussy?
I chose Debussy because Walter Carlos
worked with Baroque music.
It was from a sense of rivalry.

English: 
That record was a big hit, too. Anyway,
Baroque music and Bach
are reminiscent of line drawings.
Any tone quality or sound
would work in the pieces.
Whereas Debussy is more about color.
Not chords or melody,
but the tone. Because it's music
by a French Impressionist.
That's why I chose Debussy.
A sense of rivalry against Walter Carlos.
Your album ended up becoming
a bigger hit, didn't it?
I don't know about that.
You don't know?
Moving on...
You've previously talked about
how musicians who'd been working
from before WWII in Japan
encountered music from overseas
through the radio

English: 
that the U.S. Occupation Army
was broadcasting.
That's right.
That experience was
how they got into music.
It was. Western music was prohibited
during World War II, you see.
No listening, no playing.
Many Japanese musicians have been
strongly influenced by jazz.
Yes, you're right.
But you've mentioned
classical influences,
Stravinsky in particular.
I wouldn't have considered
Stravinsky or Ravel
"classical" composers back then.
It was new music.
Not classical music?
No, because I hadn't been exposed
to enough music to understand
the difference between jazz and
classical in the first place.
There was nothing but war songs
during the war. Even in school.

English: 
Those war songs never impressed me,
even though some were all right.
They never struck me as being real music.
And those military bands,
the brass bands making a racket,
marching around town in unison
to the out-of-time drumbeat.
I never considered that to be music.
But I came across real music when...
The Imperial Headquarters was telling us
that Japan was still winning.
But... There were air raids
on Nagoya and Okazaki.
We never knew when we'd be bombed so we
kept the radio on to hear the warnings.
And then, music that
I'd never heard before...
Now it might be equivalent to music
brought by aliens from outer space.

English: 
It was so unlike the Japanese war songs.
The harmony progression was different.
The rhythm was different.
I couldn't help but be curious.
And it was longwave at that.
Longwave radio isn't used much anymore.
Those foreign sounds would be included
in the midst of all the crosstalk.
That meant that a mobile station
was following
the troops to entertain the soldiers.
So although we were told that Japan
was winning, these sounds...
The government told us not to listen.
But we couldn't help it.
It wasn't on purpose.
We were listening for the warnings
and the sounds just came.
The radios lacked the precision
to weed out those broadcasts.

English: 
So that's when I discovered that
there was music like that in the world.
And that... I could go on forever.
It's quite all right.
But since we're at it,
let's listen to this track.
To hear the evolved form
of the whistling sound
on the surround system. Like the rocket.
No, um... Kanna.
No, the chick, since it's there.
Is this on-screen?
I'm... not sure.
Could you show the panners on-screen?
It's up.
Is it up?
This panner over here is the chick.
The one in the middle is a stray cat
trying to devour the chick.
A cat is in this panner.

English: 
And this one is the parent bird
trying to protect the chick.
Clucking away and trying to protect
its young. That's this one.
Let's hear them in order, then.
First is the chick.
These are in surround?
Yes. This is the front left.
This is the front right.
This is the rear left.
This is the rear right.
Now let's activate just the chick first.
The panner moves like this.
Next is the stray cat
trying to eat the chick.

English: 
That's the cat.
Next, the parent guarding the chick.
Now all three of them together.
They'll run over in the back, too.

English: 
Whew, they escaped!
Could you turn this off? The Windows.
That one.
Now open that page again.
In there...
This one. This one has the graphs.
The one with waveforms?
The one with graphs.
Bring that one over here.
Oh, there we go.

English: 
These are the x- and y-axes.
You can see where each animal is going.
The one at the top is the chick.
This is the cat.
It attacks sometimes
so it moves sometimes.
This one represents the parent bird.
What this part shows is that
as it shifts to the right, it also moves
from the back to the front...
Just pointing isn't helping.
This part. This shows the movement
from the back to the front.
Let's listen to it.
This software is called
Nuendo from Germany.

English: 
So this was created for surround sound
from the beginning
and not regular stereo?
Yes it was.
What was the reason why
you were drawn to surround sound?
There was a time when electronic music
was said to sound flat.
Basically what they meant
was that even in mono,
the sounds of a violin or a cello
had depth.
Whereas electronic music was flat.
So in opposition to that, I figured
I'd run the sounds over to the back.
That was one reason. Also,
we all hear sounds in surround in our
daily lives. From the front and back.
So I wanted to see
if it were possible to listen to music
like the way

English: 
we listen to the sounds that surround us
in our daily lives.
That was the other reason why
I began doing this.
But when I hear the things I made
in regular stereo
it sounds like a compressed version
and it makes me go like this.
It's better with depth.
So Yoichiro Kawaguchi,
the computer graphics artist...
Let me put on another pair of glasses
like a relic from the past century
has suddenly materialized...
Let's get rid of this. Now...
It certainly is a treat to be able
to see your computer screen.
I've heard you don't show it much.

English: 
That's right.
And me wearing two glasses.
Needing these to see what I'm doing
feels like the end of life is near.
Now this one is based on...
Prokofiev's violin concerto.
I've arranged it like this.
Is that right? Oh, wrong assignment.
The assignments are complicated
with surround.
Ideally, is it best to be in the center
of the room?
Yes. But...
I've made sure it sounds fun
wherever you are.

English: 
It's like the voice of a goddess.
I made it with the Moog synthesizer.

English: 
Turn it down.
No, I meant the volume.
Turn it off.
Stop it there, then up. Right.
Sorry about that.
For example, how long did it take you
to create the tones for this?
Emulating human voice isn't so...

English: 
Vocalises aren't that difficult to make.
A day is enough.
The problem was the music
in the background, like the bleeps.
The impression of
Mr. Kawaguchi's CG artwork itself
was like a faraway planet
that was nothing like Earth.
So I made various background sounds
to express that.
I think that took at least a week.
To decide on the sound,
do you record them over and over?
Well, now we have these computers, so...
Yes, but before...
I used tape recorders.
Yes, tapes.
After repeated recordings,
I'd have to deal with tape hiss.
But the way I did so was...
I'd change the filters to some extent
for the strings.

English: 
And... how do I say it?
I'd change the pitch, too.
I added thickness to the sound
by overdubbing it like that.
With computers there's no noise,
so the thickness can't be brought out
at all.
But those tapes that I used to
record with, that tape hiss...
I'd record a few times with the
noise reduction off and get that hiss.
When you play the violin, it generates
a kind of hissing noise as well.
It actually adds quite a bit of impact
to the sound.
I discovered that.
So for the sound of strings,
I'd use noise reduction
only for the silent parts and
leave it off for the rest.
I crafted the sound
by letting the tape hiss

English: 
blend into the recording on purpose.
Conversely, the current noise-free
digital environment
is convenient, but what do you think?
It feels like I'm walking on thin ice.
Like it might break if I put a bit of
pressure on it. It feels so transparent.
But...
Oh, this is Takuya Kanna.
I used to... How old were you
when I first began instructing you?
19? He's a brilliant young man.
He's independent now and
works on Hatsune Miku,
in charge of the vocals and such.
I also... Oh, this?
Shall we play it, then?
The "Galactic Railroad."
Hatsune Miku's "Galactic Railroad."

English: 
What was I talking about
when I introduced you?
You see, you gradually become forgetful
as you grow older.
This is Hatsune Miku. Hatsune Miku is a...
It's a Blu-ray disc so it'll take a bit.
"Night on the Galactic Railroad" is track 5.
Yes.
This is an animated vocalist
called Hatsune Miku.
She's actually dancing and singing
in time with
the music and the conductor's cues.
He's well versed in the technical
aspects of all that, but...
A conductor is necessary
to perform this.
"Night on the Galactic Railroad"?
Yes, please. Hatsune Miku will appear.

English: 
The volume's too low.
Should we leave it like that?

English: 
Let's turn it down.
The volume?
Let's have them turn it down.
A bit more.
All the way.
This is what's known as a vocaloid.
Yes.
The voice is electronically synthesized,
which is what you were doing...
Yes, with the Moog.
It's a modern version.
Yes. But what really made me happy
was how Hatsune Miku could
sing along to a real orchestra, chorus,
and of course to the conductor's cues,
which was something
that couldn't be done before.
It made me so happy
when we finally realized it.

English: 
You did the vocals and what else?
Oh, the TAP.
It might become too complicated if
we get into that. Maybe if we have time.
What was the reason why
you embarked on a project like this?
I devoted all my energy to the Moog
and created many sounds.
I've also composed for orchestras
and had worked on the fusion of
orchestral music and the Moog,
so as an extension of that
I became keenly interested
in the project and decided to do it.
Before you began this project,
you used to do the SoundCloud...
Oh, that.
...performances.

English: 
"SoundCloud" is now better known
as an online audio platform,
but long before that, you held
"Tomita Sound Cloud" concerts,
which were 3D audio performances?
Yes.
And you performed these concerts
in many places
all over the world, right?
The first one was held in Linz, Austria,
by the Danube.
The Ars Electronica festival.
When the festival was still...
In its early years.
In its early years. Very early.
Other Japanese artists
have since been awarded there,
like Ryoji Ikeda who also appears in Red
Bull this year, but you went in the '80s.
'84 or '86. Oh, 1984.
And when you performed by the Danube...
Yes.
Was it 80,000 people?
Came to the concert.

English: 
A staggering number of people gathered
to hear your performance in 3D audio.
You've always handled all the work
by yourself to begin with.
You use your equipment, record,
and do the mixing on your own.
This is often said of you.
And now, including many people
in today's audience, it's no longer special
to use a computer to make music
by yourself.
You're like the pioneer of such people
who make music at home,
handling everything alone.
What was the purpose
of handling everything by yourself?
Music is really an ensemble,
so it's probably better to do it
together, but disagreements occur.

English: 
There was nothing to refer to and
there were no clues, either.
You can't tell what others are thinking
so it's exhausting.
And you have to set up a schedule
that works for both of you.
Say you woke up at 2 a.m.
and couldn't get back to sleep,
you could just go down to the studio
and work if you're alone.
So actually, it wasn't really my intent
to work alone initially, but everyone
ended up running away,
so I had no choice but to do it alone.
But working alone...
Well, now there are lots of different
synthesizer music

English: 
so it's fine, but when it was just me,
I often had doubts as to whether or not
I should keep doing it.
I imagine athletes feel that way.
This was mainly because I had a family
and had to support them.
When I think about my son and daughter,
I'm sure I bothered them.
I couldn't buy them what they wanted.
Did they understand what you were doing?
Probably not.
I'm here to tell everyone today
about the things I've done
that broke away from conventional music,
but I don't consider what I've done
so far as the correct way at all.
My work is still in progress.
I want people to say,

English: 
"Well if he's doing that,
then so will I,"
"then I'll go even further"
"and do something completely new."
I hope so.
What do you think?
He's very modest.
So...
Anyway, I always feel that my work
is still in progress.
When RCA Records... None of the Japanese
record companies wanted it.
"Snowflakes are Dancing."
Yes, that.
But I'd spent a year and four months
making it.
Besides the costly Moog,
I'd bought other equipment
because I needed pro-level
tape recorders and mixers.
You see...

English: 
I couldn't work on it unless
I turned down the steady job offers.
I'm sure some of you here
have jobs that are like this,
but for example,
a familiar director would call up
saying, "We're going to shoot
this innovative movie,"
"and in the meeting just now,"
"we decided to ask you
to do the soundtrack!"
They expect me to be happy to hear it.
But I'm trying frantically to figure
things out when I take the call,
so I say, "Well, I'm kind of
busy right now."
"What are you doing?" they ask.
"I'm working on some
electronic music, you see."
"Oh."

English: 
"Well, I don't know what that is,
but maybe next time then."
Do this twice and
there won't be a third time.
True.
That's how it goes.
And it makes you feel very uneasy.
I still have dreams even now
about rowing a boat
all by myself into the pitch-black sea.
I'd see the faces of friends in the dark
who have come to see me off,
but they'd disappear one by one.
I don't like thinking about that dream.
And so,
when RCA in the U.S.
agreed to release it,
and the album rose up
the Billboard charts,
that was a very happy feeling indeed.
When you approached RCA in the U.S.,
did you have some kind of plan?

English: 
Japan Victor cooperated technically
with RCA at the time,
and there was a Japanese person
who had connections with
the director and executives at RCA in the U.S.
So this person helped me
get in touch with the right people.
But on top of that,
they'd heard your music, right?
Well yes, of course
I'd sent them tapes, but...
Back in the '70s, the image of Japan
that Americans had was like,
"So, does Japan have color TV?"
That we lagged behind culturally.
I see.
And, "Do your fridges have defrosters?"
With old refrigerators,
you used to have to turn them off

English: 
to remove the built-up frost,
but that's all automatic now.
And they asked me about it.
It was like that back then.
Wasn't Japan ahead of the U.S. in terms
of household appliances by the mid-'70s?
My record came out in the mid-'70s
but I brought it over
much earlier than that.
It was closer to 1970.
So perhaps the reason why
they took interest in me
was because I was this guy who brought
music made with a Moog synthesizer
from someplace they thought
was way behind them
in terms of culture.
They were more open-minded. The record
companies here were harder to convince.

English: 
Japanese record companies are
extremely conservative.
In short, they base their decisions
on previous hit records.
But along came this unprecedented
synthesizer music.
They were afraid of giving trouble
to the record stores.
The music director would say,
"I love it! I'll make it work."
But then the sales people
couldn't convince the stores to carry it,
so they'd tell me,
"Sorry but it didn't work."
But I brought it over to the U.S.
and got lucky, I guess.
I didn't have any kind of
political scheme, really.
It turned out OK in the end.
You've worked with Stevie Wonder,
and Coppola...
Oh, Francis Ford Coppola.
Coppola wanted you score a film for him.

English: 
Yes, that was "Apocalypse Now."
But it was on Warner.
And RCA said,
"Tomita has a contract with us."
The contract prevented you.
I even went to the shooting in the
Philippines and was close to doing it.
But in the end I was told that
it wasn't possible so I couldn't do it.
Your soundtrack would have been
so impressive. In surround sound.
Don't I know it!
"The Planets" had already
been released then,
and when I got Coppola to listen to it
he said he wanted the soundtrack
to sound like it.
Could we listen to "The Planets," then?
Sure. Which part?
"The Planets"...

English: 
The rocket launch part... Do we have time?
Yes, we've still got time.
Shall I play the first track "Mars"?
Yes. It has voices communicating
over transceivers.
Quickly, then.
Around there, I think.
You don't have to touch that.

English: 
This is 5.1 surround sound, right?
Yes.
It's powerful through these speakers.
I used transceivers...
are they called intercoms now?
They're improved now
so they don't sound the same.
You can drive halfway up Mt. Fuji
to the 5th station,

English: 
so I broadcast the sound from there
and received it on the public highway.
When you use poor-quality transceivers,
the transmitted sound picks up
various noises.
I wanted those noises
so I attempted something like that.
What I didn't know was that
there was a Self-Defense Forces base
near Mt. Fuji.
Broadcasting is prohibited there.
The Self-Defense Forces used tapes
to keep record, and they must have
heard these strange noises.
An illegal radio wave.
Right. And which country was it
coming from? Outer space maybe?
I thought it might eventually cause
a huge uproar.

English: 
I waited in dread and anticipation but
nothing happened. What were they doing?
This is Holst's "The Planets,"
but as we heard just now,
you use sounds from a transceiver
and other concrete sounds.
This is a personal favorite
among your works,
and "The Bermuda Triangle,"
with the Tadanori Yokoo cover art.
In those works, you not only
reinterpret existing works
of classical music on the synthesizer,
but also incorporate
various other sounds. I've always
found that really interesting.
Well, record companies tend to...
Because "Snowflakes are Dancing,"
Debussy, did well, for the next album...
They wanted the same.
They wanted a series of
classical music arrangements.

English: 
And...
Peter Munves, the director
who handled my album,
had also handled "Switched-On Bach."
He'd left Columbia
and had recently begun working
at RCA Records at the time.
So he'd had success
with a Baroque music album
and inevitably couldn't forget about
that kind of...
Past experience, I guess. He insisted
on doing a similar series.
And I wasn't averse to it at all, so I 
gladly accommodated him even after that.
Regarding those concrete sounds and
that transceiver noise you talked about,
did you always want to incorporate
other sounds?
Yes, I did.
Because...

English: 
Noise is normally shunned in music.
But those noises are...
When sound is transmitted,
it picks up a lot of noise.
And I'm quite pleased with that sound.
It seems to me that you've always
been aware of noise as a sound
but from a different standpoint
compared to
experimental or what's now called
noise music.
I don't think I've been that aware of it.
But your works are so interesting.
They just happened to turn out that way.
I was engrossed in my work back then.
Around the time I was
working on "The Planets."

English: 
The concept was that of a live broadcast
of something happening right at that
moment somewhere in the universe.
The sound itself, the sound quality
might not be perfect,
but in a recording of a live broadcast,
there'd be various noises.
It was like a live broadcast...
A concert, in other words.
That was what I wanted to create.
The universe is one of your central themes.
But your universe seems to include
not just the one far away
but also the sounds
that we hear relatively nearby,

English: 
like those sounds you heard
over the radio during the war.
I don't really think about it much.
But I do think being a child at heart...
I'm 82 years old now,
but having a kind of childlike
mentality is necessary in music.
Playing with sounds?
Yes, playing around, basically.
So music performers
are called "players," right?
It's another way of playing.
When I spoke to you before,
I thought it was interesting that
people said your work wasn't music.
Oh, I was told that constantly. That it
wasn't music or that it wasn't proper.
Well, if it's not music, then interpret
it as something other than music.
It doesn't have to be music.

English: 
"Not proper"...
I don't even know what that means.
If my message doesn't get across
to the listeners and all they hear
are some pointless sounds,
then that'd be "not proper."
But if listeners get something out of it,
then it's a completely different thing.
You've said before
that you don't really have
any messages to give to young people,
but it'd be great if you could give
a few words to these people
who are trying to continue making music.
Well,
I never had a chance to study the basics
of music because of the war.
I'm sure Mr. Toru Takemitsu was the same.

English: 
So his music has
outstanding artistic quality,
but it sounds unlike ordinary music.
Yes, it does.
My music is geared
a bit more towards pop
and it sort of wells up
from whichever direction I'm facing.
So I never intended
to create something innovative
and surprise the world
or anything like that.
I just did whatever I wanted.
But whenever I release a record
or do a concert,
I do worry greatly about
how they were interpreted.
You spoke about rowing a boat
in the darkness.
Being able to keep going
is what matters, right?

English: 
Yes. You need that resolve if you intend
to do music, to do something new.
Although I'm sure
there's a sense of security
in the method of digging up
what's been done, the classics...
Because unlike going in a direction
that you aren't familiar with,
there's already a path and you know
where you're headed.
In closing, could you tell us a bit
about your current projects...
You have a lot going on, right?
Could you tell us?
About what?
About what you'll be working on.
Please tell us about your plans.
You've got some projects, right?
Yes, well...

English: 
I can't talk about any of them yet.
None of them?
You know, losing one's strength
is bothersome.
I used to be able to stay up all night
consecutively and show off about it,
but I'm past 80 now and
it's not the same.
If I push myself too hard and stay up
all night, I come down with pneumonia.
You get sick when you grow older.
So I plan to take it easy
because once I get a new idea,
I'd really like to see it through.
So heaven only knows
what'll happen in the future.
But I still haven't lost my curiosity,

English: 
so I'll surely keep working.
Even when I'm older and worn out.
I was surprised to learn that
you book your own appointments
without a manager to do it for you.
I think it's wonderful
that you handle
all the communication yourself.
I actually think this way
will end up becoming the norm.
Because music was originally...
In Japan there were the minstrels
who performed on a single lute.
That was a form of music.
In Europe there were street musicians
playing in groups.
But as the members increase,
differences in opinion are born,
and that becomes a source of anxiety.

English: 
So why not just do it alone instead?
But then you should be prepared
to have dreams
like rowing a boat out in the middle
of the night. There is that.
Not to force a conclusion,
but your message is: Do it alone.
I can only speak from my own experience.
So I suppose that would be it.
Do it alone.
But an orchestra...
Yesterday, I worked with an orchestra.
I did a "The Tales of Genji" concert.
And when so many
come together and play all at once,
that's also a very moving experience.

English: 
With an orchestra score... I started out
writing scores for the orchestra.
With a synthesizer, I have to make
each sound after I write the score.
But with an orchestra, once I write
the score, the music just flows.
European civilization is so efficient.
Who came up with such a thing?
Those people can play music that
they'd never heard before at sight.
Yes, it's efficient.
I came home thinking
how convenient it was.
I see.
Well, we're almost out of time,
so I'd like to move on to the Q&A
for the people in the audience.
If you have any questions, please ask.
Is it all right if I handle this, too?
If you have any questions...

Japanese: 
どうもありがとう
冨田さんは いつから
エフェクトを使っていますか？

English: 
Please go ahead.
I don't think of them as effects.
I don't differentiate between
musical sounds and sound effects
perhaps because I've lived through
a different time period.
So I don't consider them
as different things.
I just handle everything equally
as music.

English: 
Was that a satisfactory answer?
This "9-10" something you mention...
Is that the name of a module?
Oh, there you are.
Please raise your hand like this.

Japanese: 
もう少し詳しく
お聞かせ願えますか
Eventideのエフェクター
などは使っていましたか？
H910やH949などを
Moog Synthesizerと一緒に
使っていたのでしょうか
それともMoog Synthesizerに すでに
ビルトインのエフェクトが？

English: 
No built-in delay function.
So I used the tapes to cause the delay.
Now there are delay and reverb effects,
but not in those days.

Japanese: 
つまり 外付けの
モジュールを使っていたか
あるいは当時お持ちだった
Moog Synthesizer自体に
すでに機能があったか
どうかということです

Japanese: 
いまので十分です
ありがとうございます
あと もう１つだけ
いいですか？
Walter Carlosに
会ったことはありますか？

English: 
I'd use the recording head
and playback head
to create the delay and use that.
With the Moog, if anything
could be called sound effects,
they'd be the pink and white noises.
The rest are all sounds
with clear pitch that could become
music. The sounds from the oscillator.
This might not be answering
your question, but that thing was...
No.

English: 
Back in those days the Japanese yen
was very weak,
so it cost a huge amount of money
to travel overseas.
Bringing my tapes to RCA
was the best I could do.
So I never met him. But...
No offense intended, but I had nothing
to gain by meeting Walter Carlos.
Not to the point of actually meeting him
and asking for advice.
I don't think I ever really
felt the need to meet him in person.
But I really wanted to meet Dr. Moog.

English: 
What a wonderful man he was.
Very unaffected.
He's passed away now.
No, seriously, when I met Dr. Moog...
Normally in classical music,
most composers,
like Beethoven and Mozart,
are already gone.
And those who made exquisite instruments
like Stradivarius and Steinway
OUT
are all gone from this world.
So you can't just meet them and
ask questions about how to get the best
sound out of the piano or the violin.
But there he was! The creator!
Meeting him was truly inspiring.
Thank you.

English: 
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Tomita.
Today was a lot of fun.
My most favorite piece of yours is...
Where are you?
Yes, hello.
My most favorite piece of yours
is "Arabesque No. 1."
I want to listen to it now
with everyone. Is that OK?
Oh, "Arabesque"?
Yes, "Arabesque."
Do you have the CD? Is it OK?
Then please listen to it on surround.
That one.
Was it the third track?
I thought "Arabesque"
came after the bells...

English: 
I'll put it on now.
The first track is
"Snowflakes are Dancing."
It's the third track.
Oh I see. He said "No. 1"
so I thought he meant the track.

English: 
Thank you.
You heard some sounds
like a man talking on there.
I tried to make him talk and failed.
I could only make him say
"pa pi pu pe po" on the Moog
and the "ah," "oh," and "eh"
of the vocalises.
He made Hatsune Miku talk.
He got there before me.

Japanese: 
西洋の音楽を採用したのは
何か意図があったんですか？
「四季」や「月の光」などを
アレンジされていますが
単に こういった楽曲が
お好きだったんでしょうか
それとも何か目的があって
この曲を選ばれた？

English: 
OK?
Thank you, Mr. Tomita.
Like I talked about earlier,
I had a sense of rivalry against
"Switched-On Bach"
and wanted to make something different.
While it's true that Bach's works

Japanese: 
冨田さんが
作曲を始められた時には
理論を書籍で
学ばれたんでしょうか
アルノルト･
シェーンベルクや

English: 
is the prime example of German music,
in the case of Debussy, his works
were greatly influenced by the East.
Japan in particular...
He was impressed by the Japanese culture
introduced at the Paris Exposition.
And as an Asian,
I'm deeply struck by his various
compositions like for the piano,
so that's why I decided to take up
Debussy's pieces to work with.

Japanese: 
ヴィンセント･
パーシケッティによる
和声法に関する本などは
参考にされましたか

English: 
I was interested in those things,
but I never studied them
under an instructor.
But in Keio University in Japan
where I graduated,
among my friends
there were many avid
music enthusiasts, very cheeky ones.
Just being among them was enough
to widen one's knowledge.
I'm sure it must be like that even today.

English: 
In Mr. Takemitsu's case,
my understanding is that he went
to the U.S. military bases and played
lots of currently popular records
and gained much of his knowledge
that way.
So if anything, I gained the knowledge
naturally like that.
That is to say, counterpoint is an art
in which one creates a melody
and adds a counter melody
to express a certain thing.
It's an art.
Moreover, it must be structured
within the bounds of properly harmonious chords.
But the chords themselves
can be confirmed by playing them
on the keyboard.
I'm actually very fond of
Mussorgsky's music.

English: 
And that way he has of...
Layering sound...
He took a completely different approach
from the norm like Tchaikovsky,
which interested me.
Then I learned that Mussorgsky was
a layperson who knew nothing
about music theory.
"There's nothing to be gained
from studying that crap,"
I was told by certain friends
and professors who...
There was no music department but I had
professors interested in music.
In my view, though,
it might not be musically correct...
Meaning it's "not proper."
A layperson composing on a whim.
Japan was completely devoted
to German music then.

English: 
It was all about theory in those days.
But his music might not be right
but it sure is interesting!
Those chords of his.
So I ended up playing
Mussorgsky on the piano
to explore his sounds,
and made my own discoveries
by studying him independently.
Oh, and jazz.
The chords in jazz are beautiful.
Superb.
Glenn Miller in particular
really made my heart soar.
His chords are hard to follow
when you're not paying attention.
So I gave it some thought.
When I wanted to know
how the chords were layered,
I recorded that part
from the tape recorder

English: 
and made a very short loop
with it so that I could hear
just those chords over and over.
I explored the sounds
he put into his music that way.
So that's how I learned these things.
Having said that,
Debussy's harmony was
also extremely fascinating as well.
You could buy the scores for his music
so I gained knowledge from those.
I didn't like music theory.
That's why I didn't go to music school.
The general view was that you couldn't
compose unless you studied it,
and I knew those schools were filled
with extremely obstinate teachers.

English: 
I felt I'd become too deeply involved
in something tremendous,
and I wanted to be free
of all those things instead.
OK?

Japanese: 
ありがとうございます
どうも こんにちは
お話を伺っていると
最初のMoogには
ずいぶんと苦労を
されていたようですね
録音は大変だったと思います
テクノロジーの進歩に従って
リメイクを考えたことは
ありますか？
つまり 初期の作品の
再録音です
それとも芸術作品として
あとから改変してはならないと
お考えでしょうか

English: 
Yes. Different record company, but I've
remade many of them. "The Planets," too.
When I listen to them now,
they were made in the early stages,
so some technical imperfections
sort of jump out at me,
being the one who made it.
So I've remade them because
I really wanted to fix those parts.
This is Debussy's music.
This is "The Planets."
I think they're being sold
in the merchandise booth.
Never mind. That was uncalled for.

Japanese: 
すみません こちらです
今日は本当に
ありがとうございます
ここで もう１曲リクエストを
させてもらっていいですか？
「雪は踊っている」を
お願いします

English: 
Oh, I'm happy to hear that.
When Stevie Wonder came to Japan,
he said, "I'd like to go someplace
where there's snow."
So I'd planned on taking him to Niigata...
Or was it Fukui?
Those areas only had Japanese-style inns
and since Stevie is blind, he's disabled,
it would have been hard for him
to even use the restrooms.

English: 
In those days, those inns hadn't been
made accessible like they are now.
And we were met with major snowfall
on that day and the trains stopped.
So we ended up not being able to go
on that shoot.
But Stevie said that he wanted
to experience snow in Japan.
This is also my...
In yesterday's...
"The Tales of Genji,"
there's also a snow scene. It's an
orchestral piece. Snow appears in it.
This one's written
completely for an orchestra.
Some synthesizer is used
but the rest is for an orchestra.

English: 
An orchestra of about 90 players.
There's some portrayal of snow in this one as well.
But the synthesizer is separate...
I'll play "Snowflakes are Dancing," then.
He requested it.
Turn it up a bit.

Japanese: 
「月の光」の…
すみません 聞こえますか
トラックが違うようですね
私がかけてほしかったのは
２曲目なんです

English: 
"Golliwog's Cakewalk"?
I wanted to make this talk on the Moog, too.
"Golliwog's Cakewalk" in
"Snowflakes are Dancing."
"Golliwog's Cakewalk"?
"Passepied."

Japanese: 
すみません その前の曲です
申し訳ありませんが
前のトラックの曲を

Japanese: 
最初にかけた曲にしてください
ちょっと勘違いしていたようです
全曲 聴いてもいいですけど
その曲です

English: 
Well, we've run out of time
so that's the end of the lecture.

English: 
Thank you. Another round of applause
for Mr. Isao Tomita, please.
