Ifukube was born in Japan in 1914 and died there at the advanced age of 91 in 2006. Musically, he was self-taught, composing in his spare time found during his full-time studies in forestry at Hokkaido University. He had decided to become a composer after having heard a radio performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. He was a forestry worker during the Second World War, and a researcher into the nature of wood for the Imperial Army as that conflict ended. After the war, he took his first professional job in music, teaching at the Tokyo University of the Arts. It was at this point that he composed the first of more than 250 film scores, which became his principal source of income for the rest of his life. He never stopped composing 'real' classical music, though, with numerous ballets and symphonic and other orchestral works to his credit.
He is nevertheless most famous as the man who wrote the scores for films like 'Godzilla' -and, indeed, of creating the roar of the eponymous monster (a leather glove rubbed against the loosened strings of a double bass!
His style has been called 'ethnic exoticism': it usually sounds distinctly Oriental, with its use of pentatonic and other non-Western scales, but then adds a lot of striking percussive effects for that added touch of savagery and barbarousness!
Music Plays from my collection
(since January 9th 2021)
| Date of Play | Time of Play | Genre | Composition | Length | Play Count |
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| Date of Play | Time of Play | Genre | Composition | Length | Play Count |