Akira Ifukube: Difference between revisions

If you've never heard of this man, but have heard of Godzilla, then you should be ashamed of yourself. Akira Ifukube was a Japanese musician who is best known today for creating both the roar and the music for the king of the monsters, Godzilla. Yes, he created the Big G's roar himself. Ifukube was born on May 31, in 1914, in Kushiro, Japan. Ifukube's interest in music started at a young age when he found an abandoned violin in a barbershop. Because his father refused to pay for him to have formal lessons for playing the violin, Ifukube taught himself how to play the instrument. During his time of self teaching, Ifukube encountered a recording by the Austrian violinist Fritz Kreisler, which also included music by Dvorak, Cui, and Tchaikovsky. Hearing this recording greatly moved Ifukube and led him to personally learn the pieces by ear.

In 1946, Ifukube moved from Hokkaido to Kujira, Nikko, Japan. By this time he had developed a solid reputation as a music composer. Because of this, he was offered the position of music teacher at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Working there, he was soon hired by Toho to write film music. By 1947 he had scored his first film, ''Ginrei no hate (To the End of the Silver Mountains)''. This film was written by Akira Kurosawa and was Toshiro Mifune's first feature film. In 1954, Ifukube was asked by Toho to score a film directed by Ishiro Honda. That film was ''Gojira (Godzilla)''. This score became one of the most famous film scores in history and propelled Ifukube to heights of fame that no other Japanese film composer has ever reached. If you wish to compare him to [[John Williams]], please keep in mind that Ifukube ''predated'' John Williams. It would be more appropriate to compare him to [[Jerry Goldsmith]] instead (even then he still predated Goldsmith. An even better comparison would be [[Elmer Bernstein]], his nearest counterpartcontemporary; Bernstein started five years after Ifukube scored his first film!) Ifukube regarded his score for ''Gojira'' as the best score he had ever written for a motion picture, although many of his fans (this troper included) would argue that his scores for ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'' (1962) and ''Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II'' (1993) may hold that position instead. Ifukube would go on to score dozens and dozens of films for not only Toho, but Daei as well. He composed the music for the Damajin films (some of which he recycled for the heisei Godzilla films), and many others, until his death in 2006. His last film score was for 1995's ''[[Godzilla vs. Destoroyah]].'' Ifukube was quoted as saying that composing the music for Godzilla's death was like composing music for his own death.