‘Japanese Beethoven’ Admits He’s a Fraud
Posted: February 5, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Japan | Tags: BBC News, Classical music, Japan, Ludwig van Beethoven, Media of Japan, Onimusha, Resident Evil, Samuragochi 1 Comment
Listen to an excerpt from Symphony No. 1 Hiroshima: Tokyo Symphony Orchestra / Naoto Otomo, courtesy DENON
BBC News reports: A deaf composer who has been dubbed “Japan’s Beethoven” has admitted hiring someone else to write his music for nearly two decades.
Mamoru Samuragochi shot to fame in the mid-1990s and is most famous for his Hiroshima Symphony No 1, dedicated to those killed in the 1945 atomic blast.
The 50-year-old has now confessed he has not composed his own music since 1996.
The real composer of the musician’s “hits” has not been formally named.
According to Japanese media, though, a man named Takashi Niigaki issued a statement on Wednesday claiming to be the “ghost” composer and to have worked for Samuragochi for 18 years.
According to his now defunct website, Samuragochi was taught how to play the piano by his mother when he was four and began playing Beethoven and Bach when he was 10.
He made his first breakthrough creating music for video games including Resident Evil and Onimusha.
He completely lost his hearing when he was 35 but continued to compose music, apparently relying on his “absolute pitch”.
His Hiroshima Symphony No 1, completed in 2003, became a major classical music hit, selling more than 100,000 copies in Japan…
Related articles
- ‘Japan’s Beethoven’ Admits 18-Year Fraud (newser.com)
- ‘Japanese Beethoven,’ Deaf Composer Mamoru Samuragochi, Admits Faking Work (samedifference1.com)
- Resident Evil Composer Admits Not Actually Composing Anything (usgamer.net)
- Deaf Resident Evil composer didn’t write his own music (destructoid.com)
- Resident Evil composer exposed as a fraud after paying a music ghost writer for 20 years (geek.com)
- ‘Japan’s Beethoven’ Admits to Employing Ghost Composer (nbcnews.com)
- Resident Evil, Onimusha composer admits he didn’t write music (digitalspy.co.uk)
- ‘Japan’s Beethoven’ Samuragochi paid hearing composer to write music (theguardian.com)
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