Mamoru Samuragochi hired someone else to produce his last two decade’s worth of work.
“I’ve been told that there are certain circumstances that make it hard for the person (who composed the works) to come out in public,” says Mamoru Samuragochi’s lawyer, “and Samuragochi has come to describe himself as the sole composer.” The modern Beethoven – completely deaf since 1999 – who worked on Resident Evil and Onimusha could not bear to admit that the works attributed to him were not his own. His last two decade’s worth of work was written by this unknown musician, and that includes the Hiroshima Symphony, his best known piece.
Samuragochi, a self-taught composer, struggled with hearing loss all his life, and eventually became completely deaf at the age of 35. He continued to compose, relying on what he described as his absolute pitch. “If you trust your inner sense of sound, you create something that is truer,” he claimed. “Losing my hearing was a gift from God.”
Only he knows who composed the works attributed to him. Samuragochi started commissioning music in 1996, when his hearing condition became worse, and relied on ghostwriters from 1999 onwards. Nippon Columbia Co. will stop shipping his music or selling it online, and says it is “flabbergasted and deeply infuriated” by this revelation. A nationwide concert tour featuring his work may be cancelled.
Samuragochi deeply regrets what has happened. “He is mentally distressed and not in a condition to properly express his own thoughts,” his lawyer says. It’s not clear why Samuragochi decided to admit now, after all this time, that the works attributed to him were not his own.
Source: Japan Times
