Yasushi Akutagawa

Yasushi Akutagawa

was a Japanese composer and conductor. He was born and raised in Tabata, Tokyo. His father was Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.Akutagawa was taught composition by Kunihiko Hashimoto and Akira Ifukube at the Tokyo Conservatory of Music...

's Ellora Symphony was composed in 1958 after a visit to the Ellora Caves

Ellora Caves

Ellora is an archaeological site, from the city of Aurangabad in the Indian state of Maharashtra built by the Rashtrakuta dynasty . Well-known for its monumental caves, Ellora is a World Heritage Site. Ellora represents the epitome of Indian rock-cut architecture. The 34 "caves" – actually...

 in Aurangabad, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. One of several Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese primitivistic

Primitivism

Primitivism is a Western art movement that borrows visual forms from non-Western or prehistoric peoples, such as Paul Gauguin's inclusion of Tahitian motifs in paintings and ceramics...

 symphonies

Symphony

A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

 composed in the 1950s

1950s

The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...

, including Akira Ifukube

Akira Ifukube

was a Japanese composer of classical music and film scores, perhaps best known for his work on the soundtracks of the Godzilla movies by Toho.-Biography:...

's Sinfonia Tapkaara and Kan Ishii

Kan Ishii

was a Japanese composer, and the brother of composer Maki Ishii. His father, was a prominent Japanese ballet dancer. His Symphonia Ainu won a prize at the 1958 Art Festival, inspiring him to do further work inspired by nationalist primitivism. His musical style appeals directly to the emotions,...

's Sinfonia Ainu, it is representative of Akutagawa's most adventurous period, when he associated Toru Takemitsu

Toru Takemitsu

was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...

 and Toshiro Mayuzumi

Toshiro Mayuzumi

Toshiro Mayuzumi was a Japanese composer.-Biography:...

 and embraced avant-garde music

Avant-garde music

Avant-garde music is a term used to characterize music which is thought to be ahead of its time, i.e. containing innovative elements or fusing different genres....

.

Instead of the traditional multi-movement layout, which Akutagawa had used in his Shostakovichian Prima Sinfonia three years earlier, the Ellora Symphony is structured in fifteen sequences: eight caressing "feminine" fragments marked Adagio

Adagio

-Music:* Adagio, a tempo marking indicating that music is to be played slowly* A composition marked to be played adagio, e.g.** Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber** Adagio for Strings , a cover of Barber's Adagio by Tiësto...

 or Andante and seven aggressive "masculine" ones marked Allegro

Allegro

Allegro may refer to:* Allegro * Musical tempo meaning cheerful or brisk; see Tempo#Italian tempo markings* Allegro library, a computer game programming library* Allegro , a typeface designed in 1936...

. The later assemble mainly in the last half of the work, translating in an Introduction and Allegro-like form.