Toru Takemitsu Tickets

Tōru Takemitsu (武満 徹 Takemitsu Tōru, October 8, 1930 – February 20, 1996) (pronounced [takeꜜmitsɯ̥ toːɾɯ]) was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre. He is famed for combining elements of oriental and occidental philosophy to create a sound uniquely his own, and for fusing opposites together such as sound with silence and tradition with innovation.

He composed several hundred independent works of music, scored more than ninety films and published twenty books. He was also a founding member of the Jikken Kobo (experimental workshop) in Japan, a group of avant-garde artists who distanced themselves from academia and whose collaborative work is often regarded among the most influential of the 20th century.

His 1957 Requiem for string orchestra attracted international attention, led to several commissions from across the world and established his reputation as one of the leading 20th-century Japanese composers. He was the recipient of numerous awards and honours and the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award is named after him.

Awards
Takemitsu won awards for composition, both in Japan and abroad, including the Prix Italia for his orchestral work Tableau noir in 1958, the Otaka Prize in 1976 and 1981, the Los Angeles Film Critics Award in 1987 (for the film score Ran) and the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1994 (for Fantasma/Cantos). In Japan, he received the Film Awards of the Japanese Academy for outstanding achievement in music, for soundtracks to the following films:

• 1979 Ai no borei (愛の亡霊)
• 1985 Fire Festival (film)
• 1986 Ran (乱)
• 1990 Rikyu (利休)
• 1996 Sharaku (写楽)

He was also invited to attend numerous international festivals throughout his career, and presented lectures and talks at academic institutions across the world. He was made an honorary member of the Akademie der Künste of the DDR in 1979, and the American Institute of Arts and Letters in 1985. He was admitted to the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1985, and the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1986. He was the recipient of the 22nd Suntory Music Award (1990). Takemitsu was posthumously awarded the fourth Glenn Gould Prize in Autumn, 1996.

The Toru Takemitsu Composition Award, intended to "encourage a younger generation of composers who will shape the coming age through their new musical works", is named after him.

Notable compositions
Further information: List of compositions by Tōru Takemitsu
Orchestral works

• Requiem for String Orchestra (1957)
• Music of Tree (1961)
• The Dorian Horizon (1966)
• Green (1967)
• Winter (1971)
• A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden (1977)
• A Way A Lone II for string orchestra (version of A Way a Lone for string quartet)
• Dreamtime (1981)
• Rain Coming for chamber orchestra (1982)
• Dream/Window (1985)
• Twill by Twilight—In Memory of Morton Feldman (1988)
• Tree Line for chamber orchestra (1988)
• Visions (1990)
• I Mystère
• II Les yeux clos
• How slow the Wind (1991)
• Archipelago S. for 21 players (1993)

Works for soloists and orchestra

• Scene: for cello and string orchestra (1958)
• Arc Part I for piano and orchestra (1963–1966/1976)
• I Pile (1963)
• II Solitude (1966)
• III Your love and the crossing (1963)
• Arc Part II for piano and orchestra (1964–1966/1976)
• I Textures (1964)
• II Reflection (1966)
• III Coda ... Shall begin from the end (1966)
• November Steps for biwa, shakuhachi and orchestra (1967)
• Asterism for piano and orchestra (1967)
• Eucalypts I for flute, oboe, harp and string orchestra (1970)
• Autumn for biwa, shakuhachi and orchestra (1973)
• Quatrain for clarinet, violin, cello, piano and orchestra (1975)
• Far calls. Coming, far! for violin and orchestra (1980)
• Toward the Sea II for alto flute, harp and string orchestra (version of Toward the Sea for alto flute and guitar (1981))
• To the Edge of Dream for guitar and orchestra (1983)
• Orion and Pleiades for cello and orchestra (1984)
• riverrun for piano and orchestra (1984)
• I Hear the Water Dreaming for flute and orchestra (1987)
• Nostalghia—In Memory of Andrei Tarkovsky for violin and string orchestra (1987)
• A String Around Autumn for viola and orchestra (1989)
• From Me Flows What You Call Time for five percussionists and orchestra (1990)
• Fantasma/Cantos for clarinet and orchestra (1991), winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.
• Quotation of Dream for two pianos and orchestra (1991)
• Fantasma/Cantos II for trombone and orchestra (1994)

Electronic and tape music

• Static Relief, magnetic tape (1955)
• Vocalism A・I, magnetic tape (1956)
• Water Music (1960)
• Kaidan (1964)

Chamber works

• Le Son Calligraphé I–III for four violins, two violas and two cellos (1958–1960)
• Ring for flute, terz guitar and lute (1961)
• Corona II for string(s) graphic work in collaboration with Kōhei Sugiura (1962)
• Arc for Strings graphic work (1963)
• Valeria for violin, cello, guitar, electric organ and two piccolos (1965)
• Eucalypts II for flute, oboe and harp (1971)
• In an Autumn Garden for gagaku orchestra (1973/1979)
• Garden Rain for brass ensemble (1974)
• Waves for clarinet, horn, two trombones and bass drum (1976)
• Quatrain II for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1977)
• A Way a Lone for string quartet (1981)
• Rocking Mirror Daybreak for violin duo (1983)
• Signals from Heaven—two antiphonal fanfares for two brass groups (1987)
• I Day Signal
• II Night Signal
• And then I knew 'twas Wind for flute, viola and harp (1992)

Piano works

• Romance (1949)
• Lento in Due Movimenti (1950, unpublished/original lost—rewritten as Litany, 1989)
• Piano Distance (1961)
• Corona for pianist(s) graphic score (in collaboration with Kōhei Sugiura, 1962)
• Crossing graphic score (in collaboration with Kōhei Sugiura, 1962)
• For Away (1973)
• Les yeux clos (1979)
• Rain Tree Sketch (1982)
• Litany—In Memory of Michael Vyner recomposition of Lento in Due Movimenti (1950/1989)
• Rain Tree Sketch II—In Memoriam Olivier Messiaen (1992)

Guitar

• Folios (1974)
• 12 Songs for Guitar (1974, 1977)
• The Last Waltz (1983)
• A Boy Named HIROSHIMA (1987)
• All in Twilight – Four pieces for guitar - written for Julian Bream (1987)
• Bad Boy (1961, 1992)
• A Pieces for guitar – For the 60th birthday of Sylvano Bussotti - (1991)
• Equinox (1993)
• In the Woods – Three pieces for guitar - (1995)

Film scores

• Pitfall (Otoshiana), dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara (1962)
• Harakiri, dir. Masaki Kobayashi (1962)
• The Woman in the Dunes, dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara (1964)
• Kaidan, dir. Masaki Kobayashi (1964)
• Assassination, dir. Masahiro Shinoda (1964)
• Pale Flower, dir. Masahiro Shinoda (1964)
• The Face of Another, dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara (1966)
• Samurai Rebellion, dir. Masaki Kobayashi (1967)
• Double Suicide, dir. Masahiro Shinoda (1969)
• Dodesukaden, dir. Akira Kurosawa (1970)
• Empire of Passion, dir. Nagisa Oshima (1978)
• Ran, dir. Akira Kurosawa (1985)
• Black Rain, dir. Shohei Imamura (1989)
• Rising Sun, dir. Philip Kaufman (1993)
• Other instrumental
• Masque, for two flutes (1959, 1960)
• Eclipse, for biwa and shakuhachi (1966)
• Voice, (1971)
• Itinerant—In Memory of Isamu Noguchi, (1989)
• Paths, for solo trumpet (1994)
• Air (1995, last published work)

Literary works

• Takemitsu, Toru (1995). Confronting Silence. Fallen Leaf Press. ISBN 0-914913-36-0.
• Takemitsu, Toru, with Cronin, Tania and Tann, Hilary, "Afterword", Perspectives of New Music, vol. 27, no. 2 (Summer, 1989), 205–214, (subscription access) JSTOR 833411
• Takemitsu, Tōru, (trans. Adachi, Sumi with Reynolds, Roger), "Mirrors", Perspectives of New Music, vol. 30 no. 1 (Winter, 1992), 36–80, (subscription access) JSTOR 833284
• Takemitsu, Toru, (trans. Hugh de Ferranti) "One Sound", Contemporary Music Review, vol. 8, part 2, (Harwood, 1994), 3–4, (subscription access) doi:10.1080/07494469400640021
• Takemitsu, Tōru, "Contemporary Music in Japan", Perspectives of New Music, vol. 27 no. 2 (Summer, 1989), 198–204 (subscription access) JSTOR 833410