諸井　誠

Moroi, Makoto

1930 - 2013

Makoto Moroi was born as Saburō Moroi’s second son in Tokyo on December 17 in 1930. Although his father opposed, Moroi began to study composition and entered Tokyo Ongaku Gakkō (Tokyo Academy of Music, now the Faculty of Music at Tokyo University of the Arts). He learned the laws of harmony and counterpoint under Tomojirō Ikenouchi, the piano under Kan Kajiwara, and the flute under Tadashi Mori. While a student, he composed “Piano no tame no Koten Kumikyoku (Classical Suite for Piano)” (1949) and “Shitsunai Ongaku Daisan-ban (Chamber Music No. 3)” (1951) using twelve-tone technique. In 1953, Moroi was awarded a prize as the first Japanese composer at the Belgian Queen Elisabeth Competition for his “Composition for Orchestra”. Moroi investigated the technique of series and various tone laws, and he received the ISCM prize for his “Piano no tame no α to β (Alpha and Beta for Piano)” composed in 1954. “Nana no Variations (Seven Variations)” composed with Toshirō Mayuzumi in 1956 pioneered full-scale electronic music in Japan.