Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Mandala Symphony (1960)
I. Tempo non équilibré
II. Extrémement lent [6:18]
The NHK Symphony Orchestra
Hiroyuki Iwaki
Toshirō Mayuzumi was born in 1929. He has been a leader of avant-garde music in Japan since the end of World War II, but it was not until his Nehan Symphony, in 1957, that he brought his own style to perfection. His Mandala Symphony was completed in March, 1960, and first performed that month by the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Hiroyuki Iwaki.
In this work, as in the Nehan Symphony, Mayuzumi has tried to express his own Buddhist view of an omnipotent universe. The mandala is a Buddhist and Hindu mystic symbol of the universe, usually taking the form of a circular design of the faces of the deities of Kongokai-Mandala and Taizokai-Mandala, the unit being called Ryou-Mandala. Kongokai-Mandala symbolizes spiritual awakening through contemplation and a sense of oneness with eternity; Taizokai-Mandala represents the world of Sokushin Jyobutsu, which is made up of phases of life, such as Gakido (a place of hunger and thirst where sinners go in the afterlife) or Shurado (passage of pandemonium, the world of the immature until they attain spiritual awakening).
Like the mandala symbol, the symphony is in two parts. The composer has said of this work: "I aimed to illustrate in sound the basic thought of Buddhism, just as painters have done on canvas. Since the object of my aim is so abstract, I have used only pure collections of sounds." [Stereo 32 160152]
Art: Mandala of Jnanadakini, Tibet, late 14th century
Mandala Symphony (1960)
I. Tempo non équilibré
II. Extrémement lent [6:18]
The NHK Symphony Orchestra
Hiroyuki Iwaki
Toshirō Mayuzumi was born in 1929. He has been a leader of avant-garde music in Japan since the end of World War II, but it was not until his Nehan Symphony, in 1957, that he brought his own style to perfection. His Mandala Symphony was completed in March, 1960, and first performed that month by the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Hiroyuki Iwaki.
In this work, as in the Nehan Symphony, Mayuzumi has tried to express his own Buddhist view of an omnipotent universe. The mandala is a Buddhist and Hindu mystic symbol of the universe, usually taking the form of a circular design of the faces of the deities of Kongokai-Mandala and Taizokai-Mandala, the unit being called Ryou-Mandala. Kongokai-Mandala symbolizes spiritual awakening through contemplation and a sense of oneness with eternity; Taizokai-Mandala represents the world of Sokushin Jyobutsu, which is made up of phases of life, such as Gakido (a place of hunger and thirst where sinners go in the afterlife) or Shurado (passage of pandemonium, the world of the immature until they attain spiritual awakening).
Like the mandala symbol, the symphony is in two parts. The composer has said of this work: "I aimed to illustrate in sound the basic thought of Buddhism, just as painters have done on canvas. Since the object of my aim is so abstract, I have used only pure collections of sounds." [Stereo 32 160152]
Art: Mandala of Jnanadakini, Tibet, late 14th century
