Makoto Moroi was born in Tokyo, and is the son of Saburō Moroi. He studied composition with Tomojirō Ikenouchi at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, graduating in 1952. He also studied Gregorian chant privately with Paul Anouilh, and Renaissance and Baroque music with Eta Harich-Schneider. He was one of the leading composers who introduced Japanese audiences to new musical styles and devices, including twelve-tone technique, serialism, and aleatory music (Kanazawa 2001). He was one of the first Japanese composers to embrace electronic music, and also introduced traditional Japanese instruments like the shakuhachi into his compositions. He died, aged 82, on 2 September 2013 (Anon. 2013).
Opera
1959 — The Stars of Pythagoras
1960 — Red Cocoon
1961 — Die lange, lange Strasse lange
1962 — Yamauba
1965 — Phaeton the charioteer
Choral
1959 — Chamber Cantata No. 1
1959 — Chamber Cantata No. 2
1970 — Izumo, my home
1972 — A romance of playing cards
Orchestral
1953 — Composition No. 1
1958 — Composition No. 2
1958 — Composition No. 3
1960 — Composition No. 4
1961 — Ode to Schoenberg
1966 — The Vision of Cain, symphonic sketch
1968 — Symphony
Concertante
1963 — Suite concertante for violin and orchestra
1964 — Toccata, Sarabande and Tarantella for piano and double string orchestra
1966 — Piano Concerto No. 1
1968 — Three Movements for shakuhachi, strings and percussion
1971 — Piano Concerto No. 2
1973 — Kyoso Symphony, for folk instruments and orchestra
Chamber
1950 — Chamber Music No. 1
1950 — Chamber Music No. 2
1951 — Chamber Music No. 3
1954 — Chamber Music No. 4
1962 — Five Epigramms
1966 — Five conversations for two shakuhachi
1967 — Five metamorphic strata
1972 — Contradiction
1972 — Contradiction II
1976 — Hanafuda denki
Instrumental
1951 — Sonata da camera for piano
1952 — Partita for flute
1954 — Alpha and Beta, for piano
1964 — Five pieces for shakuhachi
1967 — Eight parables for piano
1970 — Les farces, for violin
1972 — Sinfonia for S.M., for sanjugen
1978 — Fantasie and Fugue for organ
Tape
1956 — Seven variations (collaboration with Toshiro Mayuzumi)
1958 — Transfiguration
1962 — Variété
1968 — Small confession
Sources
Anon. 2013. "Décès du compositeur japonais makoto moroi (1930–2013)". ResMusica:musique classique et danse (2 September, accessed 3 July 2014).
Kanazawa, Masakata. 2001. "Moroi, Makoto". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
