在1980年代當代音樂的轉向風潮中,日本作曲家西村朗(1953-)是少數敢於高舉後現代旗幟,將目光回歸到亞洲傳統文化,以充滿著官能性愉悅的音響表達其創作理念的作曲家。從1970年代學生時期的作品《為弦樂四重奏的Heterophony》(1975-87)和《Ketiak》(1979),一直到《雅歌I-IV》(1987-88)、《巫樂》(1990),和完成於2000年前後的《迦樓羅》(2000)、《毗濕奴的化身》(2001)等作品,亞洲文化和調式、支聲複調織體等民族音樂素材一直是西村朗長期的關注對象和音樂創作泉源。本文首先回溯西村朗於學生時期受到武滿徹、松村禎三等日本作曲家和民族音樂學者小泉文夫啟發,致力於民族音樂素材的吸取和運用,並融合尹伊桑和克森那奇斯等當代作曲大師的音響觀念,形成其獨特的音樂語言。之後,本文將以西村朗具代表性的重要作品為例,探討亞洲傳統音樂素材和歐陸前衛音響風格的融合可能,並勾勒出西村朗音樂語言的具體內涵與美學特質及其持續而廣泛的亞洲關懷對其音樂風格的影響。
The Japanese composer Akira Nishimura (1953-) developed his musical language by synthesizing Pan-Asian traditional music, such as Oriental mode and melisma, Balinese rhythm, and Japanese and Korean court music, superimposing or juxtaposing them "heterophonically." Other than these Asian elements learning from the ethnomusicologist Fumio Koizumi, the musical ideas and sound conceptions of many contemporary composers, like Tôru Takemitsu, Teizô Matsumura, Isang Yun and Iannis Xenakis, also inspired him to amalgamate these Asian resources into his music. After analyzing the multiple Asian elements, whether physical or spiritual, auditory or visual, sacred or secular, elaborated in Nishimura's works, such as Heterophony for String Quartet (1975-1987), Ketiak (1979), Gaka I-IV (1987-88), Fugaku (1990), as well as Karura (2000) and Avatara (2001), we try to discover how Nishimura established his self-identification using the fantastic Asian imaginations, or so-called, "trans-self cosmic consciousness," as defined by the composer himself.