Toru TakemitsuPresented by

Ritsue Nagadome

Introduction to Music 1010-045

Biography (Part 1)• Occupation:

Composer• Birthday:

October 8, 1930• Death:

February 20, 1996• Birthplace:

Tokyo, JAPAN

Biography (Part 2)

• Childhood:Spend his childhood in Manchuria, Dalian Came back to Japan alone and stayed with his

uncle for 7 years to attend elementary school

• Adolescent:While he was attending a private secondary

school he worked for the army supply depot in Saitama

Encounter with the usic• Chanson Music:

Lucienne Boyer “Tell Me about Love” • Jazz Music:

Radio broadcasts at the U.S. military campin Yokohama

• Influence:French composer

Claude DebussyOlivier Messiaen

FriendshipExperimental Workshop

Takemitsu’s Creation• “Lento in Due

Movimenti” (1950)• "Crazy Fruit" (1956)• "Journey Galactic

Railroad“ (1953)

• "Summer and Smoke“ (1954)

• “Wild woman“ (1955)

• Commercials for Morinaga chocolate (1954)

Takemitsu’s Creation“ REQUIEM FOR STRINGS ”

(1957)

Source: YouTube

Takemitsu’s Creation

Source: YouTube

Takemitsu’s Creation

“ ECLIPSE ”

Source: YouTube

Takemitsu’s Creation“ NOVEMBER STEPS ”

(1967)

Source: YouTube

Takemitsu’s Creation

•“ Crossing “•“ Four Seasons “•“ Years of Ear “

1970•“ Winter “ Sapporo Olympics 1971

•“ Music of Today “•“ Katoren “

Won the 24th Otaka Award

1973

Takemitsu’s Work

1968,69 •“ Canberra Spring Festival” theme

1975 •Visiting Professor at Yale University

1976-77 •“ New Music Concert ”

Takemitsu’s Passion

the Gulf War (1991)

Pupils

Takemitsu

Shinichiro Ikebe

Yoshio Yamura Mori

Kurando

Shinichiro IkebeYoshio Yamura

Mori Kurando

Quotation“The art music of the West has developed throughout 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.”

~Toru Takemitsu~

Composition History“To the Edge of Dream,

for guitar and orchestra” (1983)Composer: Toru Takemitsu

• Was originally performed by Julian Bream (guitar) and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1985

• CD version was released on January 28, 1992 by John Williams (guitar) and the London Sinfonietta conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen

Listening Guide• 0:00 It started off with a dreamy harmonic

combination sound of guitar and the orchestra.

• 0:09 Beginning of the melody of a strong flute sound.

• 0:20 The sound of the melody slowly start to build with the sound of the flute and the violent working in harmony together.

Listening Guide• 0:26 Suddenly the volume increases than

goes back right away to a soulful melody.• 0:35 Orchestra joins in with a short but sweet

melody.• 0:44 The orchestra slowly fades away in to the

back ground as a slow but sweet sound of guitar solo starts to unfold.

Listening Guide• 1:30 The orchestra slowly join s back in with

the guitar with a melody of beautiful soft sound of the harp, flute, oboe, and string instruments.

• 1:39 The sound of the guitar has this Spanish sound yet I hear the sound also this Japanese sound coming from his playing.

Listening Guide• 1:44 The orchestra blends in together with

guitar to produce a high pitch but beautiful sound.

• 2:20 The guitar slowly fades in the back as orchestra rebounds with soft but powerful Crescendo beautiful strokes on strings instruments with soft percussion sounds.

• 3:00 Smooth powerful orchestra accompany by strong and powerful sound from guitar.

Listening Guide• 3:30 The guitar solo back up by a strong

orchestra with very of sharp sounds.• 4:00 The connecting sounds of the string

instrument with the soft and dreamy sound of guitar, playing in the back ground.

• 4:18 Guitar solo gives me the feeling of drifting away into darkness.

Listening Guide• 4:30 The orchestra joint in with a very strong

and powerful sound then slowly fade away.• 5:55 A mix of string instruments and guitar

with the mellow sound of a harp.• 6:30 The end of a beautiful guitar solo follow

by orchestra with string instruments.

Listening Guide• 6:45 The sound of a coronet with flute, oboe

with the orchestra blending in.• 7:06 I hear the sound of the oboe and flute

flowing so softly together but with powerful feeling come over me.

• 7:57 String instruments combine with harp and flute send a beautiful message of harmonic. The sound of the harmonic is so simpler to the guitar.

Listening Guide• 8:15 One or two stroke on the guitar with the

orchestra play sweet melodies in the back ground.

• 9:00 The orchestra was sweet and mellow with the sounds of the flute and woodwind instruments playing in harmony. I think that there is the sound of a piano playing in the back ground with a light touch on a drum.

Listening Guide• 9:20 A beautiful sound of a harp solo joins with

guitar and orchestra make beautiful commendation that has a dreamiest sound. It makes you feel like you are on the edge of something.

• 9:33 It starts 4 seconds pausing moment with no music.

• 9:39 Music started again with combination of guitar and flute. Because the music is been playing very slow I can hear each guitar note.

Listening Guide• 9:57 Guitar started playing a little faster along

with the string instruments.• 10:03 Again, it changed to slow tempo of

guitar solo, and soft sound of guitar slowly building toward the end of the piece.

• 11:32 The orchestra performs with a momentary but magnificent ending with combination of guitar and the orchestra.

Listening Guide• 11:50 Continually very low sound with a

mysterious gong sound. The high sound of guitar contracted with a very dark background sound.

• 12:00 In the end, the music started slowly drift away with beautiful sound of the orchestra.

• 12:25 The End

Bibliography“Confronting Silence” (1995)

P. Burt,” The Music of Toru Takemitsu” (2001)

C. Zwerin, “Music for the Movies: Toru Takemitsu

REFERENCE• Toru Takemitsu. (2010). Columbia Electronic

Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 1. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

• Toru Takemitsu. (2011). Schott Music. Retrieved from http://www.schott-music.com.

• Toru Takemitsu. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.answers.com.

REFERENCE• To the Edge of Dream. (2011) MG Blog.

Retrieved from http://maurograziani.org.• Toru Takemitsu. (2011). Retrieved from

http://www.encyclopedia.com.• Toru Takemitsu Quotes. (2001-2011).

Retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com• All videos are retrieved from YouTube.