composer

Takemitsu was born in 1930 in Tokyo and died in 1996. He achieved worldwide renown for works that combined the tradition of Western classical music and the sounds of traditional Eastern instruments, especially the biwa (a short-necked lute) and the shakuhachi (a bamboo flute), in addition to serial music and musique concrète. His compositions also used percussion in unusual ways, electronic alteration of orchestral sounds, and even silence to return to music the sensuality he thought it had lost.

Takemitsu was born in 1930 in Tokyo and died in 1996. He achieved worldwide renown for works that combined the tradition of Western classical music and the sounds of traditional Eastern instruments, especially the biwa (a short-necked lute) and the shakuhachi (a bamboo flute), in addition to serial music and musique concrète. His compositions also used percussion in unusual ways, electronic alteration of orchestral sounds, and even silence to return to music the sensuality he thought it had lost.

In addition to concert works, he composed more than 90 film scores, including Woman in the Dunes (1964) and Ran (1985). Takemitsu was, for the most part, self-taught, though he did study intermittently with the composer Yasuji Kiyose. He first performed in public in 1950 and the following year helped found a new group, the Experimental Workshop. Takemitsu's first composition to attract international attention was Requiem for Strings (1957), which became one of his most popular works. Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland promoted his music, and it began to be performed abroad. Major orchestras also began to commission and perform his compositions, among them what was possibly his best-known work, November Steps (1967).

Takemitsu's later music reflected the influence of Claude Debussy, George Gershwin, and Olivier Messiaen and incorporated elements of tonal harmony along with those of serial music. He also claimed that the Japanese formal garden inspired the structure of his music, as illustrated by such works as A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden (1978) and Tree Line (1988). Takemitsu was active in festivals of modern music and was director of the Space Theatre at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. Among his awards were the Gravemeyer Award (1994) and the Glenn Gould Prize (1996). Takemitsu's last work was a piece for the flute, and he was working on his first opera at the time of his death.

Performances

Moonshine Room at Club Café | March 5, 2012
Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory | May 27, 2005
Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory | October 6, 2000

News and Press

[Interview] Highbrow big band: Boston Modern Orchestra Project swings both ways

I believe I’m supposed to blame Theodor Adorno for this, but somewhere along the way in the 20th century’s formative years, modern music got divvied up between “serious” and “popular” ears. As lame distinctions go, this one has proven particularly persistent, hanging around to this day in boiled-down form as an opposition between fun and not-fun. In any case, it has left us with an unnecessary schism in the way we understand American music.

The Weekly Dig Full review
[Concert Review] Tribute's mix of cultures unleashes stirring sounds from East and West

Toru Takemitsu, nearly a decade after his death at 65, remains Japan’s best-known composer. His many concert pieces and more than 90 film scores echo Debussy, Messiaen, and Webern, as well as traditional Japanese music. But the largely self-taught Takemitsu maintained that his ultimate masters were Duke Ellington and nature.

Saturday night, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project presented a stirring tribute to Takemitsu, including two memorial pieces, one by up-and-coming Japanese-American composer Ken Ueno, the other by well-known, Chinese-born Tan Dun.

The Boston Globe Full review
[News Coverage] BMOP salutes Toru Takemitsu

Next Friday at Jordan Hall, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project will celebrate the 75th birthday of one of the most individual and iconoclastic composers of the 20th century. Not that Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) is a household name, even in classical-music circles. And it’s hardly simple-minded to ask who exactly he was, since Takemitsu has been assimilated into Western tradition more fully than any other Asian composer.

The Boston Phoenix Full review