About Me
(1930-96), Japanese composer, b. Tokyo.
A seminal figure in modern composition. Championed by Igor Stravinsky and central to the development of East/West music, he forged a style all his own: a dark and mysterious blend of Eastern and Western music and instrumentation, influenced by the likes of Debussy, Messiaen, serialism, and Japanese traditional music. Winner of numerous major awards and commissions, Takemitsu was also well known in Japan as a film composer, and has scored nearly a hundred films, including works by Akira Kurosawa, Hiroshi Teshigahara and Shohei Imamura. Takemitsu is today the inspiration for a new generation of composers such as Tan Dun, artists searching for a fresh language that utilizes both Western ritual and Eastern tradition.
In 1951, Toru Takemitsu organized the Experimental Workshop, the first of several avant-garde groups he founded. Championed by Igor Stravinsky, he was the first contemporary Japanese composer to become known in the West. In 1970 he designed the Space Theater for the exposition in Osaka.
His best-known work is the Requiem (1958) for strings. His other compositions include Undisturbed Rest (1952) for piano, Dorian Horizon (1967) for string orchestra, the piano trio Between Tides (1993), and many other works of chamber and orchestral music. He is also noted for the dozens of evocative scores he wrote for Japanese films, e.g., Woman in the Dunes (1964), Ran (1985), and Black Rain (1989). Takemitsu successfully combined serial music and other techniques from Europe and the United States with traditional Japanese modalities.
(The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.)
WORKS:
Orchestral:
Requiem, for strings (1957)
Solitude Sonore (1958)
In an Autumn Garden (1973-79), written for a gagaku (traditional Japanese court music) orchestra
A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden (1977)
Dreamtime (1981)
Spirit Garden (1994)
Toward the Sea, for flute, harp, and strings (orchestration of the original work for flute and guitar; see below)
Riverrun, for piano and orchestra
November Steps, for shakuhachi, biwa (a kind of Japanese lute), and orchestra
Chamber/Instrumental:
Distance de Fee (1951), for violin and piano
Between tides, for violin, cello and piano
Toward the Sea (1981), for flute and guitar (another version for flute and harp)
String Quartet A way a Lone (1981)
Eclipse, for shakuhachi and biwa (1966)
Voyage, for three biwas (1973)
Piano:
Rain tree sketch (1982)
Rain Tree Sketch II (1992)
Les Yeux Clos (1979)
Les Yeux Clos II (1988)
Film music:
Ginrin
Woman in the Dunes (1964)
Ran (1985)
Black Rain (1989)
QUOTES:
"Composition gives proper meaning to the natural streams of sound that penetrate the world."
"The art music of the West has developed through out its history by means of individual geniuses, and out of the soil supporting them; non-Western musicians were born, and grew like the grasses of the field."
"I probably belong to a type of composer of songs who keeps thinking about melody... I am old fashioned."
"Music is a form of prayer."
"Music should be able to invoke the natural emotions in all human beings. Music is not notes fixed on apiece of paper."
