Kikuko Kanai

was a Japanese composer and one of the first Japanese women to compose classical music in the Western tradition.

Biography

Kikuko Kawahira was born on the Ryukyu island of Miyako-jima, Okinawa, and studied voice at the Nihon Music School and composition at Tokyo Music School. She studied with teachers including with Taijiro Goh, Kanichi Shimofusa, Hisatada Otaka and Kishio Hirao. Working as a composer, she produced songs and orchestral music using the Ryukyuan pentatonic scale.

In 1954 she studied the dodecaphonic method in Brazil with Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, and incorporated atonal composition into her work. She was awarded the Mainichi Prize for Cultural Publication in 1955, and a prize by the Okinawan government for her opera Okinawa monogatari in 1968. She died in Tokyo.

The BBC describe her as "one of the first Japanese women to compose Western classical music".

Works

Selected works include:

• RyÅ«kyÅ« no min’yō ('Folksongs of RyÅ«kyÅ«') 1954
• Okinawa monogatari opera
• Miyako-jima engi (Legend of Miyako Island) (ballet), 1949
• RyÅ«kyÅ« hiwa (A Hidden Story of RyÅ«kyÅ«) (jazz ballet), 1951
• Hiren Karafune (Love Tragedy on Tang Boat) (op, 4, Kanai and K. Yano), 1960
• Okinawa monogatari (Tale of Okinawa), 1997
• Symphony, no.1, 1938
• Okinawa buyō kumikyoku (Okinawan Dance Suite): no.1, 1940, no.2, 1946
• RyÅ«kyÅ« kyōsōkyoku (RyÅ«kyÅ« Rhapsody) no.1, 1946
• Symphony, no.2, 1946
• Uruma no shi (Poem on Uruma), 1952
• Festival Overture 'Hishō, 1972
• RyÅ«kyÅ« kyōsōkyoku no.2, pianoforte octet, 1950
• RyÅ«kyÅ« Ballade, pianoforte, 1951
• Sonata, violin, pianoforte, 1952
• Brazil Rhapsody, pianoforte, 1955
• Hamachidori hensōkyoku (Variations on Hamachidori), koto, Electone, percussion, 1970
• Okinawa min'yō niyoru gasshōkyoku-shÅ« (Choral Pieces on Okinawan Folksongs), 1953–60
• Haha to ko no Okinawa no uta (Okinawan Songs for a Mother and Children), 1965