Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996)

[Serial_Apologist]

For me, time for re-assessment, along with a welcome chance to hear a number of this much-loved composer's previously unheard works. Did he really end up as one-dimension in mood and expression as I have come to think of him?

[Joseph K]

I'm afraid I can't answer your question, but I'll just add that I greatly admire this work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqHQGW6BUNc

[Stanfordian]

I like to hear Takemitsu's music from time to time. For some reason he is one composer that I can't listen to in such an extended manner such as in Composer of the Week.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The problem with the "biographical" format of BaL is often that we have to listen to quite a lot of juvenilia in the first programme - as happened here; and Takemitsu's juvenilia just doesn't offer very much, especially one after another.

Having said that, the 1992 Family Tree, with its blend of Ravel, Alfred Newman, and Copland (all three having off-days) and sentimentalism had even less enjoyment to offer this listener.

[Richard Barrett]

one-dimension in mood and expression as I have come to think of him?

However "Western" the surface of Takemitsu's music might be, its heart so to speak is completely Japanese - very many manifestations of Japanese culture from its contemporary novels to its traditional forms of theatre often strike Western readers/audiences as meandering and shapeless, but the truth I think is that these things just don't depend on a play of tension and resolution in the way that traditional Western structures do. Hence Takemitsu's enthusiastic adoption of both impressionistic and (earlier in his life) post-serial styles, as relating more closely to a Japanese sense of form and expression. I think he was one of the most subtle orchestrators of all time (although this can be obscured by performances that fail to bring out every smallest nuance) and this orchestration isn't something added to make the music more interesting, it really is the music. Whether that makes it superficial depends on one's point of view I suppose. There are moments when I need to hear Takemitsu and nothing else will do.

[Quarky]

November Steps - absolutely brilliant.

That sums up what I feel about the essence of music.

[Serial_Apologist]

November Steps - absolutely brilliant.

That sums up what I feel about the essence of music.

My first experience of Takemitsu was with this work, comprising Side 4 of the Ozawa Turangalila double gatefold sleeved LP. Tbh, in the light of Takemitsu's better output it has lost its early appeal now, for me not being a satisfactory combination of idioms, mainly because I've never been able to relate the sections for biwa and shakuhachi in any way to those for the orchestra. Perhaps one needs to be Japanese born and encultured, particularly in the composer's generation and all that it had gone through, to fully appreciate this work, rather than approaching it from the outside. From the evidence of programmes 1-3 this week it is to the earlier, more serially-based stuff I relate the most strongly - the later music, for me at any rate, representing a diminution in expressive and timbral range. A piece such as the short and beautiful orchestral "Winter" from 1970, sadly no longer on youtube or I would link to it, conveys the sheer exquisiteness with which that earlier idiom could evoke its subject. I love the anecdotes: the meeting and handshake with Stravinsky; the household cat, allowed to strum the piano keys at night, and described by Takemitsu's daughter as having a better technique than her father. I shall listen to programmes 1 and 2 as often and for as long as I can, while they are iPlayerable.

[Beef Oven!]

My first experience of Takemitsu was with this work, comprising Side 4 of the Ozawa Turangalila double gatefold sleeved LP. Tbh, in the light of Takemitsu's better output it has lost its early appeal now, for me not being a satisfactory combination of idioms, mainly because I've never been able to relate the sections for biwa and shakuhachi in any way to those for the orchestra. Perhaps one needs to be Japanese born and encultured, particularly in the composer's generation and all that it had gone through, to fully appreciate this work, rather than approaching it from the outside. From the evidence of programmes 1-3 this week it is to the earlier, more serially-based stuff I relate the most strongly - the later music, for me at any rate, representing a diminution in expressive and timbral range. A piece such as the short and beautiful orchestral "Winter" from 1970, sadly no longer on youtube or I would link to it, conveys the sheer exquisiteness with which that earlier idiom could evoke its subject. I love the anecdotes: the meeting and handshake with Stravinsky; the household cat, allowed to strum the piano keys at night, and described by Takemitsu's daughter as having a better technique than her father. I shall listen to programmes 1 and 2 as often and for as long as I can, while they are iPlayerable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH_ONJsnFco

1971

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh many thanks Beef Oven - last time I checked, the one youtube link to the piece I could find had been removed.

[Quarky]

My first experience of Takemitsu was with this work, comprising Side 4 of the Ozawa Turangalila double gatefold sleeved LP. Tbh, in the light of Takemitsu's better output it has lost its early appeal now, for me not being a satisfactory combination of idioms, mainly because I've never been able to relate the sections for biwa and shakuhachi in any way to those for the orchestra. Perhaps one needs to be Japanese born and encultured, particularly in the composer's generation and all that it had gone through, to fully appreciate this work, rather than approaching it from the outside. From the evidence of programmes 1-3 this week it is to the earlier, more serially-based stuff I relate the most strongly - the later music, for me at any rate, representing a diminution in expressive and timbral range. A piece such as the short and beautiful orchestral "Winter" from 1970, sadly no longer on youtube or I would link to it, conveys the sheer exquisiteness with which that earlier idiom could evoke its subject. I love the anecdotes: the meeting and handshake with Stravinsky; the household cat, allowed to strum the piano keys at night, and described by Takemitsu's daughter as having a better technique than her father. I shall listen to programmes 1 and 2 as often and for as long as I can, while they are iPlayerable.

Well, putting Orchestras, Serialism and other European inventions to one side, I did feel with November Steps that I was peering into the Composer's mind, and the sounds being produced were completely instinctive.

Winter is something else......

[Richard Barrett]

This morning I listened to November Steps which I hadn't done for a while. Actually I feel that everything is rather beautifully integrated. S_A, when was the last time you heard it? (I was listening to the more recent recording on Brilliant Classics)

By the way, there's another Takemitsu thread under "Composers" which some kind admin type might be so kind as to tack this one onto the end of when the opportunity arises.