Quinihico Hashimoto: Nocturne (1934) for piano

Quinihico Hashimoto (橋本國彦) was a Japanese composer (1904-1949) who was largely self-taught, but eventually studied in Europe with Egon Wellesz (from 1934 to 1937) and briefly with Schoenberg. His work includes two symphonies and a number of vocal and ballet scores, but his initial fame rested on a string of chansons. This nocturne, sometimes listed as no.266, is the third of a set of three pieces which he wrote shortly before his departure for Europe in 1934 and were a farewell present to his Japanese audience. They were inspired by a triptych by Kiyokata Kaburagi, who worked in the tradition of Ukiyoe Japanese cartoon-style art. Each piece of the triptych depicts a Japanese beauty wearing the kimono in Tokyo streets at the turn of the century, at which time much modernisation was in progress. The theme of the painting is quite clear: the harmony and conflict between East and West, a feeling which Hashimoto shared. The third piece (Larghetto quasi andante) is about a Japanese woman in a kimono, but with a western hairstyle, who is taking a walk by a quay where foreign ships are harboured; this last piece contains the fewest Japanese elements. (Information courtesy of the booklet notes to Noriko Ogawa's recording of these pieces on the CD entitled 'Just for Me'). The left hand has a rocking figure in thirds which persists throughout the piece (a 'walking' motif, perhaps). The right hand spins an improvisatory melody above this rather in the manner of Chopin's Berceuse.