Isao Tomita RIP

[Rbh]

I second that. I was awed by his command of the Moog modular as a kid. A real pioneer.

[Esus]

He passed last Thursday at age 84.
A true pioneer, I feel fortunate to have met him.

[mpa1104]

Very sad to see him go. He coaxed some truly distinctive and exciting sounds from his gear, and was quite the orchestrator, picking up where Carlos left off in terms of electronic realisations of traditional music.

[madtheory]

Kinda glad I didn't hear about this on the day, I was still getting over Prince's untimely death.

Tomita's sounds were unique. So inspirational. I've always preferred his version of Stravinsky's Firebird to any orchestra. His Debussy was so atmospheric. Some of his own compositions were great too. Glad he lived to a good age and was still producing. That Hatsuna Miku thing is a disturbing though.

[meatballfulton]

picking up where Carlos left off in terms of electronic realisations of traditional music.

It would be more correct to write classical music....traditional music usually refers to folk music.

I agree his orchestrations were good. While Carlos focused mostly on baroque music, Tomita focused on late 19th/early 20th century pieces...Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Ives, Honegger, Wagner, Richard Strauss, Holst, Mussorgsky.

[max badwan]

2016, eh. Bowie, Emerson, Prince and now Tomita. RIP.

[mpa1104]

picking up where Carlos left off in terms of electronic realisations of traditional music.

It would be more correct to write classical music....traditional music usually refers to folk music.

I agree his orchestrations were good. While Carlos focused mostly on baroque music, Tomita focused on late 19th/early 20th century pieces...Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Ives, Honegger, Wagner, Richard Strauss, Holst, Mussorgsky.

It was a hurried decision when typing - I always make the distinction between what I call Classical music (ie, the era of Mozart, Haydn, early Beethoven) and what Joe Public calls classical music (anything written in the past couple of millenia by dead people with funny hair, played by orchestras or other archaic acoustic instruments such as pianos with <gasp!> real strings and mechanical bits in them). The word "traditional" can sometimes be a little more over-encompassing (if confusing). One could argue that the "traditional" music of modern Vienna is Classical music. Mind you, Vienna's original ancient inhabitants were apparently Celtic! All that pedantry aside, it's nice to engage in conversation with someone else who would make those distinctions.

You're quite right of course in that Carlos tended to concentrate on Baroque and Classical music (and a little from the Renaissance I seem to recall?), whereas Tomita was interested in later eras (which is what I was driving at too).

What struck me about Tomita's approaches to his not so distant contemporaries was his "re-imagining" (for want of a better word) of the existing orchestrations - I love the way he treated the Holst, Ravel, and Stravinsky works. Also, his colourful imagination in arranging piano works. When I was learning some of the Debussy Preludes as a kid, I'd often imagine orchestras or other sounds playing some of the chords, melodies, etc. When I heard Tomita's renderings of those same pieces, they were damn near perfect for my ears.
Such an imaginative talent - sad loss.