Takemitsu Toru (1930-1996) was Japan's greatest and most original composer. In addition to composing prolifically for the orchestra, Takemitsu wrote a vast number of chamber works, solo music for piano, for flute and for guitar, electro-acoustic pieces, and a number of pieces that feature soloists playing traditional Japanese instruments backed by a symphony orchestra. He also had a keen interest in jazz, chanson and pop music (12 Songs for Guitar) and, as an outspoken film fan, he wrote 93 film scores (including Pale Flower, Double Suicide, Harakiri, Woman in the Dunes, and Ran).
Takemitsu became interested in Western music during World War II while recovering from a long-term illness. On his sickbed, he heard classical music from a U.S. military radio station. He also listened to jazz from his father's record collection. After World War II, he decided to become a composer and in 1948 he studied briefly with Kiyose Yasuji, but mainly developed as an autodidact. He was very impressed by the music of Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen, which also influenced his own way of composing. In 1950, his piece Lento in Due Movimento for piano, a brief and intense work, became his first composition that attracted attention.
Early on he was interested in many non-musical arts, including modern painting, literature (especially poetry), theater and film. In 1951, together with other composers and artists from different art fields, he founded the group "Experimental Workshop" (Jikken Kobo), a kind of mixed-media group, which soon became known for its avant-garde multimedia activities. Takemitsu's interest in various forms of artistic expression and his self-taught
development inspired his avant-garde style. He exploited a sound tape
as early as 1950 to create music collages (musique concrète) from found
sounds, for example, Water Music (1960) and the film music for Kwaidan (1964). Jikken Kobo formed a third stream next to the academic composers and the neo-nationalists.
Takemitsu gained his first major public exposure as a composer in the late 1950s with his Requiem for Strings (1957), thanks to support given by Igor Stravinsky. After 1960, two new elements found their way into Takemitsu's music: traditional Japanese music and nature. Initially he had very little interest in traditional Japanese music (because of the war, he had an aversion of traditional Japanese culture), but from the mid-1960s instruments such as the shakuhachi and biwa caught his interest, for example in November Steps (1967) for shakuhachi and biwa plus orchestra, as well as Autumn for the same combination of instruments (1973). In an Autumn Garden (1973-79) was composed for a Gagaku Orchestra, playing ancient court instruments.
ARC I (1963) for orchestra and A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden (1977) contain music with a strong reference to nature.
From the 1980s on, Takemitsu's style became more mellow and we also increasingly hear tonal elements.
Takemitsu taught composition at Yale University and was invited as a lecturer or Composer-in-Residence by many universities in the United States, Canada and Australia. Takemitsu received numerous awards and honors.
Takemitsu's music has three important characteristics, which come from wider Japanese culture:
- Ma, a term widely used in traditional Japanese arts as painting, music, dance and the theater, to designate an artistically placed interval in time or space. By the absence of color or sound, ma helps to accentuate the overall rhythm and design. Traditional Japanese painters try to create a meaningful void by the use of blank space (just look at any ink painting). In traditional music, performers were free to lengthen or shorten a rest according to their interpretation of a composition. In the Kabuki theater, we have the mie, a moment of emotional intensity where the actor stops momentarily all motion. There are also blank spaces in Japanese gardens and in ikebana, and ma even plays a role in the way foods are arranged on a dish in the Japanese haute-cuisine. Likewise, Takemitsu often uses gaps and silences as "meaningful voids" between notes to give meaning to those same notes. He has claimed that sound and silence are equal.
- Mode, rather than scales, because "mode doesn't reject notes from outside the scale."
- Timbre (onshoku). Thanks to the use of ma, and a generally slow tempo, the sound quality of the individual notes becomes more important, and can be appreciated.
- Influence of Debussy and Messiaen (it was after hearing Messiaen's Preludes for piano that Takemitsu decided to pursue music as a career; he appreciated Debussy because Debussy's music does nor emphasize any one particular aspect - such as melody, for example.).
- The lack of supporting bass notes. This is a basic difference with most European classical music, which is usually built on a bass (like the left hand in piano music, or the basso continuo in Baroque music). Japanese music originally lacks such bass notes - this was another reason why Takemitsu was attracted to the music of Debussy and Messiaen which are also not so strongly built on a bass line.
- Melancholy, expressed by slow tempos. "The joy of music is connected with the sadness of existence."
We can periodize Takemitsu's works as follows:
- Early period (- 1959). In the first years the style is rather tonal. However, Japanese influences are manifestly exposed in chord constructions, scales and texture. This is followed by pointillistic works suggesting the style of Anton Webern, among others.
- Middle period (1960-1972). First experimenting with Cage-inspired graphic notation. Followed by works with Japanese instruments.
- Later period (1973 - ). Takemitsu preferred melodic expressiveness over an avant-garde idiom, which led to a style with modal references, fewer sharp contrasts, more homogeneous forms and longer, horizontally extended phrases.
Here are some of the best compositions by Takemitsu Toru:
1. Requiem for Strings (1957)
An early piece which helped Takemitsu to attract international attention.
"Requiem is a one-movement work articulated in three sections that are very asymmetrical in terms of length. All musical material is derived from a single theme and the changes from one section to the next are vague and smothered by the "thematic tides" that characterize the piece [,,,] Requiem is a modal composition." (Cited from Yogaku, Japanese Music in the Twentieth Century by Luciana Galliano, p. 162).
See my blog article Best Music for String Orchestra Part Two (1937-1995) for the story about Stravinsky. Here is the link to the performance by the New York Classical Players:
2. ARC for Piano and Orchestra, Part I (1963) & Part II (1966)
The ARC cycle is one of Takemitsu's most important works. "ARC exhibits a structure different from the Western concerto. When writing for a solo instrument and orchestra, Takemitsu sees the orchestra as a garden where the soloist takes her walk. The orchestra and soloist of ARC do not maintain a relationship consisting of competition or cooperation, rather the soloist seems to pass through the orchestra as if it were just a background. Likewise, the orchestral effects of the six parts which make up the two parts of ARC (Pile, Solitude, Your Love and the Crossing, Textures, Reflection, and (Coda) Shall Begin from the End) consist of detailed accumulations of half notes by the string instruments, moving tone clusters created by percussive techniques, and uneven textures resulting from altering tone length and pitch." (From JVC CD Booklet by Yoko Narasaki, tr. Christopher Bladel)
Defined as a "cycle" rather than a concerto, ARC has been called one of Takemitsu’s most ambitious works for the concert hall, one that he revised intensely. Each movement can stand on its own, but all six movements are tied together. With an opening movement that recalls some of John Cage’s random works, the brief second movement, which presents ARC’s main theme, is more lyrical. The fourth movement slowly expands to sections of extreme dissonance. The fifth movement is similar in intensity, yet less extreme, and the final movement, the coda, ends gently in the strings.
Performance listed to: Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, piano soloist Ichiyanagi Toshi, conducted by Iwaki Hiroyuki (ARC I) and Wakasugi Hiroshi (ARC II) on JVC.
3. The Dorian Horizon (1966)
Commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation, premiered by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and conducted by Aaron Copland. A sparse and patient composition for 17 strings, Dorian Horizon creates a varied landscape of soft and harsh textures and gestures occurring intermittently with moments of silence or near silence. A key concept in understanding of the work of Takemitsu is the concept of "ma," which the composer defined as a “powerful silence.” The embrace of silence and the use of it as a device to create tension and resolution, the recognition of it as something that can keep a piece of music moving forward, is one of the most striking features of Takemitsu’s work.
Performance listed to: Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra conducted by Wakasugi Hiroshi on JVC.
4. November Steps for Biwa, Shakuhachi and Orchestra (1967)
November Steps is a musical work for biwa, shakuhachi, and orchestra composed by Takemitsu in 1967. It was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and brought the composer international fame.
"In his early career, Takemitsu had been reluctant to make use of traditional Japanese music in his compositions, as he said this music "always recalled the bitter memories of war". He began experimenting with traditional Japanese instruments in the early 1960s, using them in the soundtrack to Masaki Kobayashi's 1962 film, "Harakiri." Other film soundtracks in which Takemitsu used traditional instruments include Shinoda's "Assassination" and Masaki Kobayashi's "Kwaidan" (both 1964). Takemitsu's first concert composition for traditional Japanese musical instruments was Eclipse (1966) for the biwa performer, Tsuruta Kinshi, and the shakuhachi player, Yokoyama Katsuya. The combination of biwa and shakuhachi had never been used before in the history of Japanese music. When Seiji Ozawa played Leonard Bernstein a tape of Eclipse, Bernstein suggested combining the instruments in a composition with the western orchestra.
Of the title "November Steps," Takemitsu offered two explanations. Taking a literal view of the title, he wrote, "It was performed in November, and to me that project represented a new step: thus, I titled the work November Steps." He further explained, "In Japanese music, danmono are the equivalent of western variations, and the word dan means step. My 'November Steps' are a set of eleven variations."
During the composition of November Steps, Takemitsu secluded himself in a mountain villa, taking with him the scores of Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Jeux. At first intending to unite the Japanese and the western musical instruments in the composition, he came to the decision early on that the differences between the two musical traditions were too vast to overcome, and he instead decided to make the difference between the two traditions a theme of the work. Following this line of thought, Takemitsu stated that he did not attempt to integrate the Japanese and western sounds but to display them in juxtaposition to one another, thereby emphasizing their differences. Nevertheless, the work does present correspondences between the two sounds. The plucking of the biwa with the plectrum is echoed in the orchestra by percussive effects on the strings. The shakuhachi's breath effects are echoed by clusters and glissandi in the strings. In this way, Takemitsu creates a harmony between the two instrumental bodies while maintaining their unique sound characteristics." (From English Wikipedia article about November Steps)
On November 9, 1967, "November Steps" was premiered by the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, with solos by Tsuruta Kinshi and Yokoyama Katsuya, and conducted by Seiji Ozawa. This premiere was a great success and brought Takemitsu's name to the world. According to Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Krzysztof Penderecki, and others were present in the audience.
"The solo parts of the biwa and shakuhachi are written in stave notation, but only the balls are written, with no note values indicated, and the "intervals" are relatively free, but instead, detailed instructions are given on how to play them. In particular, the long cadenza part is written in graphic notation, leaving a great deal of freedom to the performer. These writing techniques were derived from the previous "Eclipse," but at the same time, they were meant to combine aleatoric music, which was popular at the time under the influence of Western experimental music, with the traditional sensibility of Japanese music.
The thorough avant-garde orchestral diction completely drowns out the impression of the traditional pentatonic scale of the biwa and shakuhachi, and maximizes the "obstructions" (noise) of the instruments. Some have described this piece as a "fusion" of Western and Eastern music, while others have called it an "antagonism" between Japanese and Western music, or even between the biwa and the shakuhachi. It is clear, however, that the textures of Takemitsu's works of the same period, such as "Arc," which seek a unified climax, are not so strong in "November Steps," but rather the tension of the orchestra is thoroughly distributed to maintain the tension of the Japanese instruments.
Takemitsu himself commented on this work, 'The composer's metier should not be a natural blend of traditional Japanese instruments against an orchestra. Rather, the composer should highlight the different sound territories of the biwa and shakuhachi by contrasting them with the orchestra. The sound of Western music walks horizontally, but the sound of the shakuhachi arises vertically like a tree.' " (translated and edited from article about November Steps in Japanese-language Wikipedia)
Listen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NaGTdSR1o88?si=KmQoRQyuCiv_HqUt
5. "Autumn" for Biwa, Shakuhachi and Orchestra (1973)
For biwa, shakuhachi, and orchestra. Takemitsu continued to experiment with the idea of composing for both Western orchestral instruments and traditional Japanese ones and achieved more of a complete integration of the two in this piece than he did in November Steps. Takemitsu himself seems to have had a preference for "Autumn."
Listen to Kakizakai Kaoru, shakuhachi, and Kubota Akiko, biwa, with the WDR Sinfonieorchester, Peter Eötvös, conductor:
6. A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden (1977)
"A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden" was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony orchestra, and premiered on November 30 of that year. One inspiration was the composer's dreams, including a vision of a flock
of white birds led by a single black bird. Another was his love of
traditional Japanese gardens. A spark was provided by the American
avant-garde composer John Cage, whose concept of indeterminate music -
in which passages are left to chance or improvisation by the performers -
was tremendously appealing to Takemitsu. The image of a five-sided
garden also informs the piece's structure: five brief sections are built
on five-note themes based on the pentatonic scale.
Takemitsu wrote “I love gardens. They do not reject people. There one can walk freely, pause to view the entire garden, or gaze at a single tree, plant, rock, and sand: changes, constant changes.”
Listen to: La Jolla Symphony conducted by Sameer Patel:
7. Toward the Sea II for alto flute, harp (or guitar) and string orchestra (1981)
"Towards the Sea" exists in three separate versions. The first (Towards the Sea I), was composed in 1981 for alto flute and guitar. This was later rearranged for flute and marimba. The second (Towards the Sea II), also composed in 1981, is for alto flute, harp and string orchestra. The third (Towards the Sea III), written in 1989, is for alto flute and harp, without orchestra.
The work is divided into three sections – "The Night," "Moby-Dick," and "Cape Cod." These titles refer to Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick. Takemitsu wished to emphasize the spiritual dimension of the book, quoting the passage, "meditation and water are wedded together". He also said that, "The music is a homage to the sea which creates all things and a sketch for the sea of tonality." Toward the Sea was written at a time when Takemitsu was slowly turning to some form of tonality after a period of purely experimental composition. Most of the work is written in free time, with no bar lines (except in the second version, to facilitate conducting). In each version, the flute has the primary melodic line, based in part on a motif spelling "sea" in German musical notation: E♭–E–A. This motif reappeared in several of Takemitsu's later works.
Listen to: Luciano Tristaino, alto flute, and Gisbert Watty, guitar with Orchestra Artes, Andrea Vitello, conductor:
8. Rain Tree (1981)
"There is a long list of works belonging to the "rain cycle." Rain Tree (1981) for vibraphone and two marimba exploits the timbre of these percussion instruments in a very interesting way. Rain Coming was written for chamber orchestra in 1982.
Rain Tree Sketch (1983) is a brief work for piano, the title of which comes from an image by Oe Kenzaburo of trees that continue to hold raindrops even when all the other trees have become dry. The music is elegant, with different lines and ostinati that interweave to create mosaic patterns in a free prose-like rhythm. Rain Spell (also 1983) for piano, vibraphone, harp, flute and clarinet, continues the same style of writing employed in the preceding works. The last work of this cycle is Rain Dreaming (1986) for harpsichord. (Cited from Yogaku, Japanese Music in the Twentieth Century by Luciana Galliano, p. 275).
Rain Tree is used as a metaphor of water circulating in the cosmos, and Takemitsu employed Messiaen's modes of limited transposition in order to construct the pitch collections evocative of cosmic imagery. Takemitsu's goal as an artist was to expand the possibilities of music, and to express himself through creation of a universal language. The music itself is quite sparse, like randomly falling drops of water. This compositional style makes each note more meaningful.
Listen to Members of the Yale Percussion Group (Vibraphone: Georgi Videnov, Marimba: Matt Keown and Marimba: Sam Um):
9. A Way A Lone (1981)
The title of this piece is taken from the avant-garde novel Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce ("The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a long the"). It is scored for string quartet and was later transcribed for string orchestra by Takemitsu. In this piece the "sea motive" E♭–E–A is again used by the composer, while he also makes greater use of the interval of the fourth. It was Takemitsu's first piece for string quartet after the brief string quartet Landscape from 1961. Melody is important in this piece, and there is greater uniformity in the rhythmic parameter - in contrast to the vivid use of time in his previous works.
Listen to: Momenta Quartet.
10. Riverrun for Piano and Orchestra (1984)
Another title based on Finnegan's Wake: “riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.” Takemitsu was greatly influenced by James Joyce and used other word phrases from this treasure trove of neologisms to title three other works of a Joycean inspiration.
The piece was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and given its first performance with Peter Serkin. It is written in Takemitsu's pleasant later style, which however is musically less interesting than the styles he used in his earlier works. “The music flows in the form of a musical tributary derived from a certain main current, wending its way through the scenery of night towards the sea of tonality,” Takemitsu wrote. “The motif, and the intervals of a major seventh and a minor third, almost like simple symbols, gradually disperse and always give birth to a variety of melodic sub-species. While they sometimes do confront one another, they do not necessarily represent a dialectic development, but continually keep occurring, disappearing and recurring.”
Listen to: Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Timothy Hoft-soloist and Taras Krysa, conductor:
11. From me flows what you call Time, for five percussionists and orchestra (1990)
Commissioned by Carnegie Hall to celebrate its centennial in 1990, Takemitsu drew inspiration from a sublime poem from “Clear Blue Water” by Japanese poet Ooka Makoto. The music is both visually and sonically stunning, harnessing the power of five forces of nature: water, fire, earth, wind, and sky.
Takemitsu intended the work to represent the music that had "flowed" through Carnegie Hall throughout its hundred-year history. As in many of Takemitsu's works, a blend of European and Japanese traditions creates a unique idiom. The piece includes several improvised sections, an element inspired by John Cage's indeterminacy. In the score, Takemitsu noted that "the performance should give the impression of being completely improvised." After a brief flute solo at the piece's opening, the five solo percussionists enter the hall. Each is wearing a pocket square of a different color, each meant to represent one of the natural phenomena (blue for water, red for fire, yellow for earth, green for wind, and white for sky). These colors are meant to represent the Tibetan Buddhist principle of Wind Horse. In the same colors are long ribbons, linking the stage to bells and chimes hung from the hall's ceiling. Later in the piece, the ribbons are used by the players to ring these bells.
The piece is separated into thirteen sections: Introduction - Entrance of the Soloists - A Breath of Air - Premonition - Plateau - Curved Horizon - The Wind Blows - Premonition - Mirage - Waving Wind Horse - The Promised Land - Life's Joys and Sorrows - A Prayer.
Listen to: Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa and Ensamble Tambuco, conducted by Lanfranco Marcelletti:
12. And then I knew 'twas Wind, for flute, alto and harp (1992)
The title of "And then I knew 'twas Wind" is from a poem by Emily Dickinson:
Like Rain it sounded till it curved
And then I knew 'twas Wind
It walked as wet as any Wave
But swept as dry as sand.
Takemitsu wrote that the work "has as its subject the signs of the wind in the natural world and of the soul, or unconscious mind (or we could even call it 'dream'), which continues to blow, like the wind, invisibly, through human consciousness."
One can consider And then I knew 'twas Wind as Takemitsu's final homage to Debussy, for not only does Takemitsu use the same instrumentation as Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp, he also quotes it in a rising figure that is first presented in the viola. The composition features a continuous stream of interconnected episodes, with a smooth, rhythmically varying flow that incorporates both sound and silence. The work uses modal melodies and subtle changes in tone color; and while the harmonies are complex, it is mostly calm and meditative.
Listen to: Ensemble intercontemporain (Sophie Cherrier, flute; John Stulz, alto; Frédérique Cambreling, harp):
See on Japanese music: Yogaku, Japanese Music in the Twentieth Century by Luciana Galliano;
See on Takemitsu: The Music of Toru Takemitsu by Peter Burt.
Also: “Japanese in Tradition, Western in Innovation”: Influences from Traditional Japanese Music in Toru Takemitsu’s Piano Works" by Niels Chr. Hansen.
Japanese Music: Akutagawa Yasushi - Hayasaka Fumio - Ifukube Akira - Matsudaira Yoritsune - Mayazumi Toshiro - Miyoshi Akira - Moroi Saburo - Takemitsu Toru - Yamada Kosaku - Yashiro Akio
Classical Music