松平　頼則

Matsudaira, Yoritsune

1907 - 2001

Japanese composer born in Tokyo (1907-2001). His father, Yorinari Matsudaira, was a viscount and a famous butterfly collector. In 1923, Matsudaira entered Keio University and majored in French literature, but he decided to be a composer when he went to a piano recital by Henri Gil-Marchex, in which various pieces including those of J. S. Bach and Stravinsky were performed. He studied piano under Charles Lautrup and composition with Heinrich Werckmeister and Kosuke Komatsu. In 1930, he participated in the establishment of the Shinkō Sakkyokuka Renmei (Association for Innovative Composers) with Shūkichi Mitsukuri. Between 1931 and 1934, he organized piano recitals where he played number of works by French composers. He had opportunities to get acquaintance with foreign musicians when Alexandre Tansman introduced neoclassicism to him in 1932, and Alexandre Tcherepnin, who stayed in Japan in 1934 and 1935, praised his works. In 1946, he established the Shin Sakkyokuha Kyōkai (New Composers’ Association) with Yasuji Kiyose. His international reputation as a leading figure in Japanese musical world was confirmed through winning a prize at the ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music) with Tema e variazioni per pianoforte e orchestra (1951), in which elements of gagaku and twelve-tone technique are combined. He won 15 prizes in total at the ISCM: Figures sonores per orchestra (1965), Bugaku per orchestra da camera (1961), Mouvements circulatoires per orchestra in due sezioni (1971), in the latter two of which are featured aleatoric aspects, etc. Chairman of the JSCM (Japan Society for Contemporary Music, Japanese section of the ISCM) from 1956 to 1960, he received the Medal with Purple Ribbon (1972), the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette (1979), and he became