Saburo Moroi

Japanese composer and pianist Saburo Moroi was German-trained. He was Japan’s first great symphonist and his music was influenced by Paul Hindemith. He came from the family that founded the Chichibu Cement Co., now part of Taiheiyo Cement Corporation (Pacific Ocean Cement Corporation). After graduation from the University of Tsukuba high school, Moroi enrolled at the Faculty of Letters of the Tokyo Imperial University. At the same time he started studying piano under Austrian Willy Bardas and Russian Leonid Kochanski.

In 1927 Moroi was one of the founders of the music group Surya performing modern classical music including his own works. Moroi moved to Germany in 1932 for further studies in Berlin at the Music High School under Leo Schrattenholz, Max Trapp and Walter Gmeindl, where he composed his Symphony No. 1. His most fruitful years were the period from 1934 (his return to Japan) to 1939 with symphonies, orchestral works, chamber and piano music but also some vocal pieces. In 1944 Moroi wrote Symphony No. 3, written like a farewell letter preparing for death during his service in World War II.

After World War II, Moroi only wrote a limited number of works including Symphony No. 4 influenced by Russian classical music. However, he played a major role in the re-organization of music public education in Japan. From 1965-76 Moroi was a director of the Tokyo Municipal Orchestra, then head of the Music Department at the University of Kawasaki. In his later days he concentrated on teaching and writing books on music theory. His son Makoto Moroi was also a composer. The work Olympiade presented at the 1936 Arts Competitions was probably one of his symphonic fragments written in his early years as a composer in the late 1920s. The complete title was Orimupikku yori no dans san-shō (Olympiad (more a fragment) - Three chapters).