Congratulations/60th birthday! Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the opening of the music hall - A glimpse into the personal history of Mr. Takomaro Yoshida From the birth of the music hall to now

Interview & text: Akiko Inoue photo: Masamasa Nishino

Mr. Maro from elementary, middle and high school days - Encounter with music

- Mr. Maro lived in Yokohama, so I think he has seen the changes in the area surrounding the music hall since he was a child. Ongakudo will soon be celebrating its 60th birthday, and I would like to congratulate Mr. Maro on his 60th anniversary as a conductor.

Coincidentally, I was 20 years old the year the music hall was built. That's the year I entered the world of music as a professional, so it's the same 60th anniversary as Ongakudo. That's why you can tell the year without adding it (lol)

- I would like to start by listening to your story from your elementary school days. Which elementary school does your teacher come from?

I was born in Hokkaido, and came to Yokohama when I was seven years old, and because of the war, I changed elementary schools six times. When I was in the 5th grade of elementary school, I was evacuated as a group to Hakone, but soon after that, the famous Yokohama air raid (May 29, 1945) burned down our house, so I was evacuated to Hokkaido, my parents' hometown. Yes. After the war, it was moved to Yokohama. At the time, there was Oimatsu Elementary School, but it had been requisitioned by Yokohama City Hall, so we lived together at Honmachi Elementary School, and I graduated from there.

After that, the school system was reformed in 1946 and changed to a 6-3-3-4 system (*the current school system), but I got caught up in the new junior high school and high school transitions (lol). I didn't really think about it too much because it was around that time, but now that I think about it, I realize that there is a life like this.

- I borrowed the booklet ``Maro Sensei's Future'' created by the staff around Sensei Maro from Music Hall Director Ito. According to this, when he was in elementary school, there was a class called "Group Chord Listening" where he learned to distinguish between the sounds of bombing during air raids.

That's right (lol) First of all, when the teacher plays a domi-so chord, everyone often raises their hands and guesses which note they played. At that time, we didn't use foreign words, so we used Irohanihoheto. That's why domiso is ``hahoto,'' sireso is ``ronito,'' and for example, the song ``Village Blacksmith'' sounds like ``hotototohahohoho...''

It was during the war, so Japanese and foreign planes would fly by during class, and you'd hear things like ``whinn'' and ``boom.'' So, for example, the B-29 is a bomber, so the sound is low, or ``This sound is the sound of a Japanese friendly plane,'' or ``This is the sound of an enemy country, so we should evacuate when we hear it.'' , That's what we did in music class.

- That's amazing... Is that your first musical experience?

But rather than memorizing the music, it felt like I was being told to do it. Today's children take piano lessons from a young age, but back then, during the war, there were almost no formal music lessons. Even at home, we weren't in an environment where we could play music. But now that I think about it, I think my sense of pitch was a little sharper than everyone else's.

- Next, regarding your junior high school days, you attended Oimatsu Junior High School, where you first encountered a grand piano.

That's right. When I was in third year middle school, there was a music room next to my home room, and I would go there early in the morning, get the key from the janitor, and play the piano.

- Are you self-taught?

He was a Japanese language teacher who also taught music, and my son and I, the son of a geta shop, started practicing together. That child quit after summer vacation, but I was the only one who continued with it for a year. Anyway, I worked in the morning, during lunch break, and after school, and when I worked until late, the teacher came over after a staff meeting and looked at it again. It was only for one year, but I was immersed in the piano... But back then, it was considered weak for a boy to play the piano, so to avoid people thinking that way, I purposely took the initiative to raise my hand when there was a class competition for softball or volleyball (lol).

- I imagine you must have been a very busy junior high school student, right?

But I guess you could say it's fun. We didn't have to go to cram school like we do now, so we mainly played around. At that time, Nogeyama Zoo hadn't been built yet, so that area was open to the public, so we played hide and seek there.

- Sounds good! So, you went to high school at Yokohama Hiranuma High School, which became a new high school, and I heard that you joined the orchestra club there. He was also a timpani player. How did you suddenly start playing percussion instruments?

Hiranuma High School was originally a girls' school, but my generation was in the first generation when it became coeducational. Before the boys came, we had an all-girls orchestra club, but when the boys came in, I was scouted because I was a good fit for being in charge of transporting instruments. At that time, the Yokohama Symphony Orchestra was using Hiranuma High School's practice room, and there were instruments there. I can borrow it for the actual performance, but for practice I put a board on the desk and make my own bamboo sticks. The timpani is not an instrument that has a special role in an orchestra, but is an instrument that is played at special times, so if you make a mistake with a bang, you're in trouble (lol)

- Your turn will come suddenly (lol)

But I guess playing the piano helped a little. When I was in high school, in addition to being in the orchestra, I also formed a first-year mixed choir, and I worked really hard at that. It was very fulfilling.

- So you first encountered choir when you were in high school. This was the starting point for what we do today.

Entering university, dropping out, and becoming a choral conductor

- After graduating from high school, you started studying chorus, orchestra, and composition at university, and it was during that time that you met conductor Hiroyuki Iwaki...

I entered Gakushuin University, and Mr. Iwaki is also from there. After graduating from Gakushuin, Mr. Iwaki entered music school and played timpani for the NHK Symphony Orchestra. It was the same percussion instrument as me.

- It seems a little surprising that Mr. Iwaki played the timpani.

oh yeah. So, I came to my alma mater to teach as a substitute for Koichiro Maeda (*a person who only acts for practice). For some reason, it was known that I played timpani in high school, and I was scouted. That's why I only participated in practice once. I remember just practicing Schubert's ``Symphony No. 8 Unfinished.'' After that, I got busy with choir activities in Yokohama...

- Also, I heard that you have started studying composition.

That's right. At that time, painters, novelists, and musicians were synonymous with poverty, so my parents told me to go to university where I could get a job, so I enrolled in the political science department at Gakushuin, but all classes were held in the morning. I spent all afternoons teaching choir. Upon graduating from high school, I also studied composition under Hideo Ishiwata, a composer who graduated from the University of the Arts. As an alumnus of my alma mater, Hiranuma High School, I went to teach, and since it was the time when the "Utagoe Movement" (*) was popular, I was teaching corporate choirs enough to make a living just by conducting choirs.

*A Japanese music movement centered around choral singing that took place in the 1960s at workplaces, student clubs, and singing cafes that were popular at the time, and is a social movement.

Birth of a music hall - Experience the best sound in the East

- Counting from this period, this year marks your 60th anniversary as a conductor.
Meanwhile, the music hall is also open at that time. What was your impression when you came to see the landscape around the music hall from the burnt-out ruins after the war, and when the music hall was first built?

The coming-of-age ceremony for our generation was held at the Yokohama Women's Hall in Momijizaka at the time (*), and the music hall opened in November of that year. But in the end, my territory for playing was not around this area, but around Mt. Noge, or around what is now the Noge-machi shopping district, but at the time, the Noge area was all a market, and people used to set up tents. There were various shops and it was full of people. But it was much quieter around here. At that time, the area just below Iseyama Kodai Shrine on Mt. Kamon and Momijizaka was a river called Sakuragawa River.

*Additional note: At that time, Coming of Age Ceremonies were probably an event for each ward.

- Really! I can't imagine it now...
Ongakudo was opened as Japan's first public concert hall and is known for having the ``best sound in the East''. Could you please let me listen to it?

Until then, there were no full-fledged public halls, so it was common for concerts to have unreserved seats, but concert halls had reserved seats and tickets were sold, so seat guides were needed. That's why I was invited to work part-time at a music institution for someone like me who aspired to be a musician. Although I didn't get paid, I was able to listen to the live sound of foreign musicians, so I did it a few times and listened to professional performances from overseas. To prevent customers from entering without permission during the performance, we block customers at the front and ask them to enter through the door on the third floor between songs, but the customers do not take their seats without permission. ``Please stand here and listen until the performance is over,'' he says. At that time, we were able to go inside and listen to the performance.

- Are there any concerts that particularly left an impression on you?

I think it was when I heard an American pianist named Julius Katchen play. Up until then, we had been playing songs that I had never known, but for the encore, I smiled and started playing Mozart's ``Piano Sonata in C major, K.545,'' which I had played in my third year of junior high school. So when I heard him play it, I was surprised and thought, "What?! It's such a light song?" It gave me a tingle. A lot of that still remains. The place where Ongakudo's office is now is backstage at the time, but when I went there to get an autograph after the show, there was a huge line... In the end, I didn't hesitate. Now that I think about it, I wish I had gotten it.

- What was your impression of the sound of the music hall?

Around that time, I listened to orchestras, and for example, even if I was in the back seat, I could hear the hissing sound of the violin turning the music. It may have been because everyone was concentrating on listening as it was their first time in the hall, but the sound resonated all the way up to the top. That really surprised me.

- It seems like you can feel Mr. Maro's surprise at the time.
I am deeply moved that you are now in a position to perform on stage at a music hall that has maintained its same sound for the past 60 years. You are currently the advisor for the ``Ongakudo Okaasan Chorus'', and ``Okaasan Chorus'' is a long-established event that started very early, six years after the museum opened, and will be celebrating its 54th event this year.

I became involved with the Okaasan Chorus 20 years ago, and since then it has been held in the form of an executive committee. However, the Okaasan Chorus itself started as an independent project of a music hall at a relatively early stage, and it was originally created to appeal to people who live far away in the prefecture and cannot normally perform in a full-scale hall. I started it with the purpose of getting people to do it. Ongakudo was the dream hall of people who wanted to sing here, so even today, people still come up Momijizaka just to sing (lol).

- I see (lol) And that still continues.

Composing, arranging, conducting, Mr. Maro's hat trick!

- In addition to being a choral conductor, you also do a lot of composing and arranging work.

Immediately after graduating from high school, I worked as a composer teacher for two years, and after learning how to compose music, I started arranging music. I was also arranging pop songs for chorus, and by chance someone from Ongaku no Tomosha came to listen to my work, and I was given the job of translating and arranging it, and my work began to appear in various textbooks. . That's why, like this year, at 10-year milestones, we hold a concert called ``Maro's Teacher Hat Trick,'' which is the culmination of three parts: composition, arrangement, and conducting, using various halls in Yokohama. is. By the way, the 40th anniversary ``Maro 40'' was performed at the music hall. There's a pamphlet here.

- It is a nice photo!

my favorite place

- Now, since time is running out, I would like to ask you one last question. What is your favorite place in the music hall?

Of course, it's on stage.
It's strange for me to say this since I'm not even a housewife, but when I'm on stage at a music hall, it feels like I'm in the kitchen. The feeling of being able to hold everything, as if the entire space was in your hands. Rather than being too wide, it's a space where you can hug yourself in just the right amount. You can hold all the customers in your arms and draw them towards you. It almost feels like a housewife humming while cooking.

- Thank you for your wonderful comments.

It has been 60 years since he began his career as a conductor, but by tracing his personal history, I was able to get a sense of the atmosphere at the time when the music hall was born. I also feel like I was able to get a glimpse of the rich relationship between the hall and people that the music hall has fostered over the past 60 years.

During the ``60th birthday week of the music hall'' which will be held soon, a 60th birthday commemorative concert will be held at the ``Choral Hall Prefectural Music Hall'' where Mr. Maro will perform. There are also many other popular architectural tours and a variety of events. (For more information, please see the related events below!)

“Special Hama Lunch” at Center Grill, a long-established restaurant with a 67-year history

In this interview, Mr. Maro told us about the recommended restaurants. It has a 67-year history that is older than Ongakudo, and Mr. Maro has been frequenting the Western restaurant ``Center Grill'' since his student days. Without further ado, Mr. Maro's recommended menu is the "Special Beach Lunch (1,250 yen)."

A dish with omelet rice, chicken cutlet, vegetables, and potato salad that is both filling and filling. Just looking at the omelette rice topped with a runny egg will whet your appetite. Even though there are so many main ingredients, it is not heavy at all, thanks to the exquisite seasoning of the demi-glace sauce and the chicken ketchup rice inside. It also went perfectly with the freshly fried crispy chicken cutlet. Another good thing is that even though it's a lunch menu, you can order all day. In addition to the "Special Hama Lunch" (1,250 yen) that I received this time, there is also the regular "Hama Lunch" (1,050 yen), which has white rice inside the omelet rice. This menu was created after taking into account the specific requests of customers who wanted to eat not only omelet rice but also chicken cutlet and salad. The reason why it has continued to be loved for 67 years may lie not only in its taste, but also in its style, which has evolved with its customers while retaining its traditional style.

□ Store information □
center grill
http://www.center-grill.com/
11:00~LO 21:15
Closed: Mondays (open on public holidays)
1-9 Hanasaki-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 231-0063
045-241-7327