It is a documentary that follows Ryuichi Sakamoto for five years. - "Ryuichi Sakamoto: CODA" trailer released

//Summary - Level-C2//

The documentary "Ryuichi Sakamoto: CODA," directed by Stephen Nomura Schible, tracks the renowned Japanese musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto, over five years from 2012. It delves into his influential career, including his time with the Yellow Magic Orchestra, his responses to global crises, and his battle with throat cancer. Archival footage and interviews showcase his compositional evolution and recent works, such as his comeback in "The Revenant" and his first original album in eight years. The film premiered to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival and will be released on November 4, 2017.

It is a documentary that follows Ryuichi Sakamoto, a world-famous musician from Japan. We conducted in-depth interviews over five years, starting in 2012, tracing Sakamoto's musical explorations while incorporating archival footage. We cover his time with the famous Japanese pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), as well as his various activities following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Great East Japan Earthquake, which lasted for almost a year from July 2014. We also get a close look at his battle with throat cancer, his comeback in director Alejandro González Iñárritu's "The Revenant", and the production of his first original album in eight years, released in March 2017. It captures how Sakamoto's past journey intersects with his current compositional process. The director is Stephen Nomura Schible, who co-produced "Lost in Translation".

It was produced in 2017 / 102 minutes / American-Japanese co-production.
Release date: November 4 2017

1)
Ryuichi Sakamoto is a world-renowned musician with a deep connection to film. He won the British Academy Award for "Merry Christmas" and the Academy Award for Original Music Composition for the music of "The Last Emperor."

The documentary "Ryuichi Sakamoto: CODA" will be released on November 4. It closely follows the five years since 2012 and received rave reviews at its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this month. The trailer is now available.

2)
The piano that was hit by the 3/11 tsunami triggered a musical change:

At the trailer's beginning, a piano hit by the 3/11 tsunami is shown, triggering Sakamoto's musical change. The words "Turning a blind eye is something I can't do" are superimposed over the image.

In addition, the "now" of the rare musician is captured in detail, including his true feelings after an unexpected cancer diagnosis, his life fighting the disease, and how he collects sounds from different places and becomes one with the music Sakamoto creates. It's getting worse.

3)
The beautiful melody of the "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" theme song is impressive.

The film also includes valuable footage, such as the Yellow Magic Orchestra's (YMO) 1979 live performance in Los Angeles and precious footage shot by Sakamoto himself during the making of The Last Emperor, which is shown for the first time in Japan. Some of it is also included in the trailer. The beautiful melody of "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence", the theme song to "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield", his masterpiece and his starting point as a film composer, is also impressive, and the result raises expectations for the main story.

It is a documentary that follows Ryuichi Sakamoto for five years. - "Ryuichi Sakamoto: CODA" trailer released

https://screenonline.jp/_ct/17118339

Ryuichi Sakamoto: CODA

https://eiga.com/movie/86609/

Ryuichi Sakamoto documentary film "Ryuichi Sakamoto: CODA" official interview arrives

https://www.billboard-japan.com/d_news/detail/56972/2

CODA - Ryuichi Sakamoto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryuichi_Sakamoto:_Coda

Ryuichi Sakamoto's first and last concert feature film, "Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuKqBOUTF8w

Seiko Ito Communicating the voices of disaster victims through "Kikigaki(Writing while listening)" - 2024/4/20

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20240420/k10014426321000.html

Add info)

The world of contemporary music approaches the question, "What is music?"

https://www.phonim.com/post/contemporary-music

//Summary - Level-C2//

From 1945 to 2020, contemporary music explores the essence of "What is music?" through various philosophical and compositional shifts. This genre incorporates advanced techniques and reflects societal and technological evolutions that challenge traditional tonalities and structures. Influences range from Expressionism to serialism and minimalism, pushing boundaries to include sounds from everyday life and innovative approaches like John Cage's "4'33"." This exploration also delves into how modern music integrates with visual arts and other fields, suggesting a future where music transcends conventional listening experiences.

Do you know the classification of contemporary music? It refers to the music from 1945 to 2020 that follows the line of so-called Western classical music.

[Understand in 5 minutes] Learn about the history of Western music

1)
It's music that lives in the moment, but it's also music that people don't have many opportunities to experience. Pure contemporary music is complex.

Still, the techniques and spirituality of modern music are used in film music, game music, sound effects, etc., and are incorporated into pop music and jazz. It can be said that it forms the basis of the sounds and music that people create.

2)
History:

Western history is the history of authority.
The history of Western music is also inseparable from authority. The music of the 18th century was centred on aristocratic culture, and the central theme of music at that time was formal beauty. This is classical music.

After the French Revolution of 1789, musical authority gradually shifted to the people. The theme then became human emotions such as love, envy, fear and happiness. This is romantic music.

But in the 20th century, Romantic music was too coherent to express human emotions. The inner life of human beings is more complex and unbalanced.

Therefore, he sought a more complicated expression by abandoning "tonality," a kind of order of sound that existed in the Romantic period. This is expressionist music.

3)
Kandinsky's "Yellow, Red, Blue" is said to be the founder of abstractionism. There is an idea similar to sheet music, sometimes called musical painting.

4)
1945 was a significant turning point in humanity's history. Advances in science and technology led to the worst battle in human history. When it ended, science and technology were used as a bridge to connect the world's cultures.

However, when the development of science and technology began to affect music, the possibilities for music expanded too much, and things got out of control. Therefore, many musicians started asking, "What is music?" This is modern music. Modern music may seem complex and mysterious, but it will become more apparent if you look at it from the perspective of "what is music?".

5)
"Music is order"...serialism:

As mentioned in the previous section, Expressionism destroyed tonality but needed a new order to structure music. This is why the Austrian composer Schoenberg created the 12-tone technique. (This is still modern music)

6)
The French composer Messiaen treated pitch and other elements, such as length, intensity and pronunciation, as sequences (series) that could be manipulated. Messiaen's pupil Boulez took up this method of composing all the elements of music in an orderly way and developed serialism.

7)
This is Boulez's masterpiece, "Le Marteau Saint Maître". This earlier work strongly influences this work, "The Clown Possessed by the Moon," and extensively uses serialism.

8)
Grisée's "Acoustic Space No. 3: Partials". His work is based on analysing the trombone's sound spectrum and applying the partial tones to each instrument.

9)
"Music is an auditory experience"...Avant-garde:

Perhaps the most famous song in modern music is "4 Minutes and 33 Seconds" by American composer John Cage. This song is often played on the piano, but there is no specific instrumentation in the revised version, only a pause indication.

Although it is an unusual song in that the performers do nothing on stage for "4 minutes and 33 seconds", it is not silent. When the performer doesn't make a sound, various noises can be heard, from the slightest noise from the audience to the air conditioning or even ringing in the ears. When the performers play "4 minutes 33 seconds", the audience gets a lot of auditory experience.

10)
John Cage's Sonata No. 5 for prepared piano. We are creating new sounds by hammering nails into the piano.

However, even if a composer has an idea, it can still not be presented in a concert, so the composer's compositional skills are tested.

11)
"Music is repetition and change." Minimalism, which involves Repeating the same sound or theme repeatedly, is an ancient musical technique. Minimalism is beautiful music, and repeating the same thing repeatedly can even induce an ecstatic experience called trance.

So, the American composer's Terry Riley and Steve Reich developed a method of relentlessly repeating tiny and simple sound patterns over and over again and perfected it as minimMinimalism)
"Music for 18 Musicians" by Steve Reich. As the same sound pattern is repeated repeatedly, the music changes based on the sound of the vibraphone.

13)
You can sense composition by repeating things and changing them slightly as time changes. In addition, following the change process, methods have been adopted that gradually shift the music into something completely different.

Repeated sound patterns have been taken from sounds not intended to be music, such as human voices or street noises. Various ideas were created, and many minimalist composers are still active today.

14)
"Music is a style"...variety:

You'll probably feel quite uncomfortable if you're listening to J-pop and it suddenly turns into Enka. We can distinguish between J-pop and Enka because we know the two styles.

Of course, there are probably very few people who can verbalise something to the extent that they can write an essay about it, but an understanding of style to the extent that "it kind of sounds like this music" comes naturally in everyday life. The Soviet composer Schnittke wanted to fuse different styles of music.

15)
Schnittke's "Concerto No. 3".
Baroque music was played, but suddenly, it was destroyed. This shows that style is seen as an object to be manipulated.

16)
Schnittke composes music without hesitation, combining music like Mozart and Bach, avant-garde music, and popular music like pop and rock. This is extremely difficult and can easily result in cheap music. Making it into a single work with sensitivity and technique would be best.

17)
Are you stuck in music?

Those who aspire to be composers may be at a loss when studying this subject. It's filled with so many ideas that I wonder if creating new music is impossible. In fact, with the advent of electronic music, it is now possible to make any sound.

18)
In addition, romantic music's pure beauty makes us happy; pop music moves us through recollecting personal memories and emotions; and rock music influences us through rhythm. I also think we are moving away from expressions related to the human mind and body, such as getting excited about something.

19)
Many people look at this and say that music has reached a dead end.

This idea seems negative, but if you are stuck with music alone, combine it with other fields, such as visuals and physical expression, or move away from the flow of composer-performer-audience and let the audience control their operations.

It can also be seen as a precursor of various possibilities, such as creating something that allows you to experience music through music.

Add info No2)

Ryuichi Sakamoto's music version trailer for the movie "The Revenant: The Risen One"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqdq-k5Zg90

Trailer of "Ryuichi Sakamoto CODA" released on 11/4 (Sat)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Goo_LRPrnk8

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence / Ryuichi Sakamoto - From Ryuichi Sakamoto: Playing the Piano 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9tECKZ60zk

Yellow Magic Orchestra – "Rydeen "(Official Music Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxep-gS-Btg

The Last Emperor (Theme)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTtCXTry0DU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJilPHcnnjw

Add info No3)

Yellow-Red-Blue, 1925 - Analysis - Wassily Kandinsky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAwvtlwfeP0

Schoenberg : La Nuit transfigurée (Pierre Boulez)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzSaOWPBFqA

Messiaen: Turangalîla-Sinfonie ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Paavo Järvi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCO7le_6LzU

Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau sans maître - 3. L'Artisanat furieux - Anna Molnár, Lívia Duleba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5D5B6v2buc

Steve Reich – Double Sextet (2007)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m9kNg8FS04

Oleg Kagan plays Schnittke Violin Concerto no. 3 - video 1989
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhwItJPUz6A