Heavenly Maiden and Fisherman

Composer: HASHIMOTO, Qunihico
  • Heavenly Maiden and Fisherman is an orchestral ballet score that Hashimoto completed in 1932, while he was living and studying in Europe.1
    • Though the work is called a ballet, Hashimoto did not actually write it for traditional ballet dancers, but for a Nihon-Buyo dancer. This Japanese genre of dance, related to the Geisha and Kabuki art forms, experienced some cross-pollination with Western ballet in the early 20th century.  
    • Hashimoto wrote this work for the Nihon-Buyo dancer Sumi Hanayagi. 
  • Heavenly Maiden and Fisherman premiered in Toyko on October 13, 1932.2 In 1933, Hashimoto adapted the music as a concert suite.3
  • The plot of Heavenly Maiden and Fisherman is based on a  Japanese legend best-known in a Noh play, Hagoromo.4

Sources

  1. Morihide Katayama, liner notes to Hashimoto: Symphony No. 1 / Symphonic Suite, Toyko Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Ryusuke Numajiri, Naxos 8.555881, CD, 2003.
  2. Ibid.
  3. “Qunihico Hashimoto,” Naxos, accessed November 17, 2021, naxos.com/person/Qunihico_Hashimoto/24698.htm.
  4. Katayama, liner notes to Hashimoto: Symphony No. 1 / Symphonic Suite.

Cut IDs

24071