Stage works
Orchestra works
Ensemble works
Chamber music
Solo works

STAGE WORKS

Kaguya-Hime (Die nachtglänzende Prinzessin) op. 56b (1985)
Ballet
For eight japanese drums, seven percussionists and four Gagaku-instruments
15 Schlzg. Shô. Hichiriki. 2 Ryuteki.
World Premiere: 1985, Tokyo / Duration: 70'
MMV 5293 Partitur / Sti.

ORCHESTRA WORKS

Süden – Feuer – Sommer op. 95 (1992)
concert for percussion and orchestra
Solo: Schlzg.
2. 2. 2. 2. / 4. 2. 2. 0. / Klav. Schlzg. / Streicher
World Premiere: 1992, Tokyo / Duration: 15'
MMV 5482 Partitur / Sti.

Floating Wind (1989/92)
Symphonic linked works op. 84-86
for orchestra
3. 3. 3. 3. / 6. 3. 3. 1. / 2 Hf. Klav. Cel. 5 Schlzg. / Streicher
This work is composed of the also separate performable works Fu-Shi I op. 84, Garei op. 85, Saido-ki op. 86; also see separate entries
World Premiere: 1989, Tokio / Duration: 40'
MMV 5480 Partitur / Sti.

Fu-Shi I (Die Gestalt des Windes) op. 84 (1989)
for orchestra
3. 3. 3. 3. / 6. 3. 3. 1. / 2 Hf. Cel. Klav. 6 Schlzg. / Streicher
as well as part of "Floating Wind" performable
World Premiere: 1989, Tokio / Duration: 18'
MMV 5463 Partitur / Sti.

Fu-Shi II (Die Gestalt des Windes) op. 87 (1989)
for Nô-Kan solo and small orchestra
Solo: Nô-Kan
2. 2. 2. 2. / 2. 2. 0. 0. / Pk. Schlzg. Klav (Cel). / 12. 10. 8. 6. 4.
World Premiere: 1989, Kanazawa / Duration: 13'
MMV 1470 Partitur / Sti.

Garei (Die spirituelle Macht des Gagaku) op. 85 (1989)
for orchestra
3. 3. 3. 3. / 6. 3. 3. 1. / 2 Hf. Klav. Cel. 6 Schlzg. / Streicher
as well as part of "Floating Wind" performable
World Premiere: 1989, Tokio / Duration: 10'
MMV 5478 Partitur / Sti.

Saido-ki (Dämon) op. 86 (1989)
for percussion and orchestra
Solo: Schlzg.
3. 3. 3. 2. Kfg. / 6. 3. 3. 1. / 2 Hf. Klav. Cel. 5 Schlzg. / Streicher
also performable as part of "Floating Wind"
World Premiere: 1989, Tokio / Duration: 13'
MMV 5479 Partitur / Sti.

Gedatsu (Die Erlösung der Seele) op. 63 (1985)
for Yokobue (japanese transverse flute) or recorder and orchestra
Solo: Yokobue (od. Blfl).
2. 2. 2. 2. / 4. 2. 1. 0. / Hf. Cel. 5 Schlzg. / 12. 12. 10. 8. 6.
Version 1 can be also played as the 2nd half of Gioh (ca. 35').
World Premiere: 1985, Berlin / Duration: 17'
MMV 5308 Partitur / Sti.

Gioh. Symphonic Poem op. 60 (1984)
for Yokobue (japanese transverse flute) and orchestra
Solo: Yokobue
2. 2. 2. 2. / 4. 2. 1. 0. / Hf. Cel. 5 Schlzg. / 12. 12. 10. 8. 6.
World Premiere: 1984, Kyoto / Duration: 23'
MMV 5309 Partitur / Sti.

Kaguya-Hime (Die nachtglänzende Prinzessin) op. 56a (1984)
symphonic suite
For seven japanese drums and seven percussionist
14 Schlzg.
World Premiere: 1984, Berlin / Duration: 40'
MMV 5293 Partitur / Sti.

Afro-Concerto op. 50 (1982)
for percussion solo and orchestra
Solo: Schlzg.
2. 2. 2. 3. / 4. 2. 3. 1. / Hf. 4 Schlzg. / Streicher
World Premiere: 1982, Tokio / Duration: 20'
MMV 5276 Partitur / Sti. / *Stud.-P.

Sho-Ko (Faint Dawn) op. 39 (1979/80)
Music from a four-tone-scale for orchestra
3. 3. 3. 3. / 6. 3. 3. 1. / 2 Hf. Cel. Klav. 5 Schlzg. / 14-10. 0. 12-18. 8-12. 6-10.
World Premiere: 1980, Sapporo / Duration: 16'
MMV 5235 Partitur / Sti.

Lost Sounds III op. 34 (1978)
concert for violin and orchestra
Solo: Vl.
2. 2. 2. 2. / 4. 2. 2. 1. / Hf. Klav. 4 Schlzg. / 12. 10. 8. 6. 4.
World Premiere: 1978, Tokio / Duration: 16'
MMV 5206 Partitur / Sti. / *Stud.-P.

Mono-Prism op. 29 (1976)
for japanese drums and orchestra
Soli: jap. Tr.
3. 3. 3. 3. / 6. 2-4 rag duong (tibetische Tempeltrompeten ad lib.). 4. 3. 1. / 2 Hf. Klav (Cel). 5 Schlzg. / 16. 14. 10. 8. 6.
To Mono-Prism op. 29, can also be played as orchestra prelude Jo op. 26.
World Premiere: 1976, Tanglewood / Duration: 23'
MMV 5192 Partitur / Sti. / *Stud.-P.

Jo op. 26 (1975)
for orchestra
3. 3. 3. 3. / 6. 2 rag duong (tibetanische Tempeltrompeten ad lib.). 4. 3. 1. / 2 Hf. Klav (Cel). 5 Schlzg. / 14. 14. 10. 8. 6.
Jo op. 26 can also be played as orchestra prelude for Mono-Prism op. 29.
World Premiere: 1975, Tokio / Duration: 14'
MMV 5186 Partitur / Sti. / *Stud.-P.

Polaritäten op. 22 (1973)
Version 1: for biwa, harp and orchestra
Version 2: for shakuhachi, flute and orchestra
Version 3: for biwa, harp, shakuhachi, flute and orchestra
Soli: biwa. harp / shakuhachi. flute / biwa. harp shakuhachi. flute
3. 3. 3. 3. / 6. 3. 3. 1. / Cel. 4 Schlzg. / 14. 14. 12. 8. 6.
World Premiere: 1973, Bonn, Berlin / Duration: 23'
MMV 5142 Partitur / Sti.

Dipol op. 19b (1971)
for orchestra
3. 3. 3. 3. / 5. 3. 3. 1. / Hf. Klav (Cel). 4 Schlzg. / 16. 14. 10. 8. 6.
in conjunction with Shi-Kyo (Sound of Violet) op. 19a even performable as So-Gu II op. 19
World Premiere: 1973, Berlin / Duration: 17'
MMV 5135 Partitur / Sti. / *Stud.-P.

So-Gu II op. 19 (1971)
for Gagaku-ensemble and orchestra
Soli: Gagaku-ensemble
3. 3. 3. 3. / 6. 3. 3. 1. / Hf. Klav (Cel). 4 Schlzg. / 16. 14. 10. 8. 6.
So-Gu II  is composed of the also separate performable works Shi-Kyo op. 19a and Dipol op. 19b.
World Premiere: 1971, Tokio / Duration: 29'
MMV 5135 Partitur / Sti. / *Stud.-P.

Kyo-So op. 14 (1968/69)
For six percussionist and orchestra
Soli: 6 Schlzg.
3. 3. 3. 3. / 6. 4. 3. 1. / Hf. Cel. 6 Schlzg. / 30-34. 0. 12-14. 10-12. 8-10.
World Premiere: 1969, Tokio / Duration: 18'
MMV 5068 Partitur / Sti. / Tontr. / *Stud.-P.

Expressionen op. 10 (1966/67)
for four solo strings and string orchestra
Soli: 2 Vl. Vla. Vc.
16. 13. 10. 7. 4.
World Premiere: 1967, Tokio / Duration: 13'
MMV 5170 Partitur / Sti. / *Stud.-P.

ENSEMBLE WORKS (6 instruments and more)

Concertante op. 79 (1988)
for marimbaphon and six percussionist
Mar. 6 Schlzg.
World Premiere: 1988, Tokio / Duration: 23'
MMV 5387 Partitur / Sti. / *Stud.-P.

Lost Sounds I op. 32 (1978)
for violin and six instrumentalists
Solo: Vl.
Klav. 2 Schlzg. Hf. Kl. Fl.
World Premiere: 1978, Paris / Duration: 12'
MMV 5217 Partitur / Sti. / *Stud.-P.

Monochrome op. 28 (1976)
for seven percussionists
7 Schlzg (jap. Tr. Gongs).
World Premiere: 1976, Berlin / Duration: 20'
MMV 5314 *Partitur

Shi-Kyo (Sound of Violet) op. 19a (1970)
for Gagaku-ensemble
in conjunction with Dipol op. 19b even performable as So-Gu II op. 19
World Premiere: 1975, Tokio / Duration: 12'
MMV 5135 Partitur / Sti. / *Stud.-P.

CHAMBER MUSIC

Westen – Gold – Herbst op. 96 (1992)
for string quartet
World Premiere: 1992, Tokyo / Duration: 11'
MMV 5483 Partitur / Sti.

Musik für Shô und Violoncello op. 77 (1988)
Shô. Vc.
World Premiere: 1988, Tokio / Duration: 14'
MMV 5388 *Partitur

Alternation II op. 59 (1984)
for bass clarinet and marimbaphon
World Premiere: 1984, Tokio / Duration: 14'
MMV 5294 *Partitur

Alternation I op. 58 (1984)
for alto-saxophone and marimbaphon
World Premiere: 1984, Tokio / Duration: 14'
MMV 5320 *Partitur

A Time of Afterglow op. 52b (1983/87)
for violin and piano
World Premiere: 1987, Sydney / Duration: 10'
MMV 5389 *Partitur

Hiten Seido II op. 55 (1983)
for two marimbaphones
World Premiere: 1983, Tokio / Duration: 14'
MMV 5316 *Partitur


Dyu-Ha op. 46 (1981)
for japanese drums and gongs
10 Schlzg.
World Premiere: 1981, Köln / Duration: 18'
MMV 5313 *Partitur / Sti.

Lost Sounds I op. 32 (1978)
For violin, piano and two percussionists
World Premiere: 1978, Tokio / Duration: 12'
MMV 5217 Partitur / Sti. / *Stud.-P.

Lost Sounds I op. 32 (1978)
for violin and piano
World Premiere: 1978, Tokio / Duration: 12'
MMV 5217 *Partitur

Anime amare op. 25 (1974)
For harp, audio tape and percussion ad libitum
Hf. Tonb. Schlzg (ad lib.).
World Premiere: 1974, Berlin / Duration: 22'
MMV 5185 Partitur / Tontr. / *Stud.-P.

Nucleus op. 24 (1973)
for biwa, harp, shakuhachi and flute
World Premiere: 1973, Teheran / Duration: 12'
MMV 5143 *Stud.-P. / Sti.

Sen-Ten op. 20 (1971)
for percussion and electronic sounds
World Premiere: 1973, Tokio / Duration: 14'
MMV 5062 Partitur / Tontr. / *Stud.-P.

La-Sen op. 15 (1969)
for seven instrumentalists and electronic sounds
Fl. Ob. Hf. Klav. 3 Schlzg. Tonb.
World Premiere: 1970, Tokio / Duration: 14'
MMV 5091 *Partitur / Tontr.

SOLO WORKS

Nord – Silber – Nacht (Winter) op. 93 (1991)
for piano
World Premiere: 1991, Yokohama / Duration: 6'
MMV 5481 *Partitur

Nachtklang op. 82 (1988)
for violin solo
World Premiere: 1989, Tokio / Duration: 6'
MMV 5395 *Partitur

Tango Prism op. 73 (1987)
for accordion solo
World Premiere: 1987, Tokio / Duration: 10'
MMV 5400 *Partitur

Hiten Seido III op. 75 (1987)
for marimbaphon solo
World Premiere: 1987, Tokio / Duration: 12'
MMV 5401 *Partitur

Thirteen Drums op. 66 (1985)
for percussion solo
World Premiere: 1985, Tokio / Duration: 13'
MMV 5324 *Partitur

A Gleam of Time op. 53 (1983)
for harp solo
World Premiere: 1983, Tokio / Duration: 11'
MMV 5278 *Partitur

Lost Sounds II op. 33 (1978)
for organ solo
World Premiere: 1978, Bremen / Duration: 11'
MMV 5315 *Partitur

La-Sen II op. 17 (1970)
for violoncello solo
World Premiere: 1970, Berlin / Duration: 10'
MMV 5102 *Partitur

Maki Ishii was born on May 28th, 1936 in Tokyo as the third son of Baku Ishii, the celebrated dancer and choreographer who played a pioneering role in establishing the genre of modern dance in Japan.

After studying composition and conducting from 1952 to 1958 in Tokyo he moved to Berlin where he continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Berlin (West), as student of e.g. Josef Rufer and Boris Blacher. In 1962 he returned to Japan. In 1969 he was invited to Berlin by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to take part in their "Berliner Künstlerprogramm". Since then he has been active there as well as in Japan as a composer and conductor.

His compositions have been performed all over the world. Concerts as "Composer's Portrait of Maki Ishii" have been held in Paris at the Festival d'Automne 1978, at the Berliner Festwochen 1981, in Geneva at the Été Japonais 1983, in Tokyo at the Music Today 1987, at the Suntory Music Foundation Orchestral Concert 1989, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra 1990, in the Hague at the Residentie Orchestra 1992, to name but a few.

Ishii was Artistic Director of the Chinese-Japanese Contemporary Music festival in Beijing 1997. His first opera Tojirareta Fune (the sealed boat) (1999) premiered in Utrecht and Berlin in October 1999 has been given the Japanese premiere at Nissay Theatre in Tokyo in November 2000.

He has conducted many of the world's leading orchestra, including the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and Radio Symphony Orchestra Beijing, the Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra, in performance of his works and other. Particularly successful has been his two-act ballet Kaguyahime (choreographed by Jiri Kylian for the Nederlands Dans Theater), which he conducted on more than 80 occasions between 1988 and 1995 in The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Essen, Paris, and throughout Japan.

Maki Ishii, influenced earlier by the serialism and West European avantgarde techniques of the 1950's and 60's, turned his attention to Japanese traditional music in the late 1960's. Since then his creative endeavor has been rooted in the attempt to stride two musical worlds by employing both European compositional method and elements from the sound world of Japanese traditional music in his works.

Maki Ishii does not strive in his music merely to set the music and instruments of East and West in opposition one to the other nor even to fuse these two sound worlds, but remains constantly aware of the essential difference that underlies these two musical worlds in an attempt to pursue and grasp a third musical vision.

It is this main formative element that gives his music its distinctive features. In such works as Kyō-Sō for percussion groups and full orchestra (1968-69), Ishii incorporated elements from Japanese traditional music into a structure dominated by European compositional method. However, since the 1970's, in an extensive body of works including Sō-Gu I for shakuhachi and piano (1970), Sō-Gu II for gagaku and orchestra (1972), and Mono-Prism for Japanese drums and orchestra (1976), he has succeeded in creating his own unique sound world in which Western and Japanese instruments are used in the same temporal and spatial setting. Since the middle of the 1990s, he gropes for new musical world and comes to get interested also in Chinese music, not only Japanese traditional music. He has composed several compositions, for instance, compositions for Erhu (a Chinese string instrument), or another based on poetry by Chinese poets such as Luo Guan Zhong, Cao Cao and others.

Ishii has been the recipient of many awards including the Otaka prize (1977, Tokyo, NHK Symphony orchestra), the 4th Nakajima Music prize: Grand Prix (1986, Tokyo), the German Critics Prize 1987 (Verband der deutschen Kritiker 1988, Category 'Music'), and the 5th Kyoto Music Award: Grand prix (1990). In 1999, Ishii was decorated with the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon by the Emperor of Japan.

On April 8th, 2003, Maki Ishii died in Tokyo, after a short but severe illness.