Kósçak Yamada was an important pioneer in modern Japanese music. He studied with Max Bruch in Berlin and wrote a series of orchestral works and operas that introduced something new to Japan. He also laid the foundations for the present prosperous state of Japanese music, encouraging orchestras and opera companies, with a view to having Japanese works performed by them. He conducted the New York Philharmonic in 1918, met Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Ornstein, and in the 1930s conducted the Berlin Philharmonic and the Leningrad Philharmonic. Writing at first under the influence of European Classical styles, he developed a musical language that prepared the way for composers such as Takemitsu.
Vocal and Instrumental Music
In addition to songs and choral works Yamada wrote operas and ballets, the former including his pioneering Ochitaru ten-nyo (‘Heavenly Maiden Fallen to Earth’). His 1912 Symphony ‘Triumph and Peace’ was also the first such work by a Japanese composer; it followed his Overture in D major, which, again, was the first of its kind in Japan. He was strongly influenced by the European music of his time, and his interest in Maeterlinck led to the opera Maria Magdalena and to the orchestral Kurai to (‘The Dark Gate’). His Nagauta Symphony makes full use of traditional Japanese elements and instruments in a work for singers and orchestra.