Memo: Music Written for Toei Anime movies.

When I was writing my first book, a survey of Disney film music, I did also a rough research on Japanese anime music, especially the music written for feature-length anime cartoons created by the Toei Anime Corp (東映動画).  The company had a great ambition, according to the founder, to become an Asian Disney, and I was interested in the music used in their films and American "counterparts."

It was a few year ago when I watched these movies on DVDs, and I did not give a deep thoughts on the material.  However, my vague memory tells that the way music is used in Toei anime films looked a bit different from the Disney ones.  Even though both Toei and Disny films feature songs, songs in Toei anime films are not so integrated with the underscore or strongly enforced dramatically.  Rather, songs were just "inserted" here and there to make some amusements for kids.  Maybe I'm wrong, because the choice of composers for early Toei cartoons were just fascinating: Isao Tomita, Akira Ifukube, Michio Mimiya, among others. 

I found an excerpt from Little Norse Prince (Taiyo no Oji Horusu no Daiboken, 太陽の王子 ホルスの大冒険 [The Great Adventure of Horus: The Prince of the Sun]) .  All songs for this movie was composed by Mamiya, one of the greatest living composers in Japan, who has written many pieces based on the folk songs of his native land.

Well...I don't think this song is based on a Japanese folk song (sounds more like a European style to me), but very effective in this festive marriage in the village.

Anyway, as far as I remember, for this scene, Toei Doga production team made a sort of storyboard.  Their version of storyboard (ekonte 絵コンテ) was different from that of  Disney in that everything is written on the piece of the paper and the music notation was written under the each drawing.

So, my opinion on "integration" does not apply to this film, in which music does enrich the drama and was carefully written to coordinate with the visual event.

First Post in 2009/MEV 40

I have not written for a long time.  Well...I am alive and fine!

Currently, I am listening to the four-CD set titled MEV 40 (New World).  A collection of 7 live performances by the American improvisation group called the Musica Elettronica Viva.  I guess the use of this Italian name was mainly due to the fact that this group was founded in Rome, when all the core members were there.  Only the first track of the first CD really sounds like avant-garde improvisation, in a sort of Cage/Tudor style.  Others tracks were more like free-jazz, mainly due to their choice of instrument and performing style.  For me it is like "The Foundation of MEV and After," because I know the group name only from books on new music (i.e. Michael Nyman's Experimenta Music).  But overall, this set was quite enjoyable and reviewed in the Record Geijyutu.