was a Japanese musician.
As a Biwa player
Tsuruta specialized in the ancient pear-shaped plucked lute called
biwa
The is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. The is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime duri ...
, and also sang. She developed her own form of the Satsuma biwa, which is sometimes referred to as Tsuruta biwa. This biwa differs from the traditional Satsuma biwa in the number of frets, construction of the head, and occasionally a doubled 4th string. The additional frets allows a wider range of notes to be played which makes it possible to perform modern and western compositions.
Tsuruta achieved international attention for her
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
premiere performance, in November 1967, of
Tōru Takemitsu
was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu was admired for the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre. He is known for combining elements of oriental and occidental phil ...
's ''
November Steps
is a musical composition by the Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu, for the traditional Japanese musical instruments, '' shakuhachi'' and '' biwa'', and western orchestra. The work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic on the occasion of ...
'' with the
New York Philharmonic, under the direction of
Seiji Ozawa
Seiji (written: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , or in hiragana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include:
*, Japanese ski jumper
*, Japanese racing driver
*, Japanese politician
*, Japanese film directo ...
(with shakuhachi player
Katsuya Yokoyama).
She has many well known students, such as
Yukio Tanaka,
Yoshiko Sakata Yoshiko is a feminine Japanese given name.
Possible writings
The name Yoshiko can have a variety of different meanings depending on which kanji characters are used to write it. Over 200 possible variations of the name exist. Some of the most commo ...
, and
Junko Ueda
is a feminine Japanese given name.
Possible writings
Junko can be written using different kanji characters and can mean any of the following:
*純子, "pure, child"
*順子, "order, child"
*淳子, "pure, child"
*潤子, "rich/favor/wet, child"
...
.
See also
*
Biwa
The is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. The is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime duri ...
Links
Schwebeablaut (Kinshi Tsuruta – Biwa, the World of Tsuruta Kinshi (1995))
References
1911 births
1995 deaths
20th-century Japanese musicians
Japanese women musicians
20th-century women musicians
{{Japan-musician-stub