Page 316 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

314
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
East meets West
BEFORE
1903 Inspired by East Asia,
and the European trend of
exoticism, Claude Debussy
mimicked Chinese and
Japanese melodies in Pagodes,
the first movement of his
Estampes (Engravings).
AFTER
1991 In his Quotation of
Dream, subtitled “Say Sea,
Take Me,” from a poem by
Emily Dickinson, Takemitsu
quotes Debussy’s La Mer.
1998 Chinese American
composer Tan Dun dedicates
his Water Concerto for Water
Percussion and Orchestra to
the memory of Takemitsu.
US_314-315_Takemitsu.indd 314
I DESIRE TO CARVE … A
SINGLE PAINFUL TONE AS
INTENSE AS SILENCE ITSELF
NOVEMBER STEPS (1967),
TORU TAKEMITSU
akemitsu composed
November Steps in his
T secluded private cottage
on Mount Asama in central
Honshu, Japan’s main island. The
only materials he had with him
were Debussy’s original manuscript into the Western orchestra but to
piano scores of Prélude à l’après- contrast their timbre with those of
midi d’un faune and Jeux, with
their multicolored notation and
handwritten commentaries.
In November Steps, Takemitsu
employs traditional Japanese
instruments—the shakuhachi
(an end-blown flute) and biwa (a
short-necked lute). His aim in this
piece was not to blend their sounds
a Western ensemble. He succeeded
in reviving the essential nature of
the Japanese instruments, creating
a striking intensity against the
orchestra’s sound stream, couched
in a unique tone language.
A cosmic world of music
Takemitsu was first exposed
to Western Classical music,
represented by such figures as
Debussy, Alban Berg, and Olivier
Messiaen, during military service
in World War II. He would later
create his own cosmic world
of music that infused these
influences with Eastern and
Japanese sensitivity. Inspired by
Debussy’s rare intuition, Takemitsu
came to recognize the “light and
The traditional biwa, used in
November Steps, is played here in 2007
in New York by Junko Tahara to music
by Joji Yuasa, an early member of
Takemitsu’s experimental workshop.
26/03/18 1:02 PM