Toru Takemitsu
Post-War · 1930–1996
Toru Takemitsu taught himself composition in postwar Tokyo, listening to whatever Western music he could find. As a young man he rejected traditional Japanese music, associating it with the war years, then came back to it on his own terms, and finding the meeting point between Japanese and Western sound became his life's work.
His orchestral music moves like weather: slow, luminous, more concerned with color and silence than with driving rhythm. In 1967 the New York Philharmonic premiered November Steps, which sets two traditional Japanese instruments, the biwa, a lute, and the shakuhachi, a bamboo flute, against a Western orchestra without forcing them to blend. He was also a prolific film composer, scoring dozens of Japanese films, including Kurosawa's Ran.
Start with the Requiem for string orchestra, an early work of quiet intensity, then November Steps to hear the two traditions face each other.
102 works in the catalog, across 5 genres. Log what you listen to with Opus, the classical music journal for iPhone.
Chamber
- A Bird Came Down the Walk, for viola and piano
- Air for solo flute
- All in Twilight, 4 pieces for guitar
- And Then I Knew 'Twas Wind, for flute, viola, and harp
- A Way A Lone, for string quartet
- Between Tides, for violin, cello, and piano, SJ1091
- Bryce, for flute, 2 harps, and 2 percussionists
- Distance, for oboe and sho ad lib
- Distance de fée, for violin and piano, SJ1050
- Eclipse, for shakuhachi and biwa
- Elegy, for violin and piano
- Equinox, for guitar
- Eucalypts 2, for flute, oboe, and harp
- Folios, for guitar
- Garden Rain, for 10 brass instruments
- In an Autumn Garden, for gagaku ensemble
- In the Woods, 3 pieces for guitar
- Itinerant, for flute
- Landscape, for string quartet
- Le son calligraphié, for string octet
- Mori no naka de, for guitar
- Paths, for solo trumpet
- Rain-Tree, for 3 percussionists
- Rain-Tree, for 3 percussionists
- Rain Spell, for flute, clarinet, harp, piano, and vibraphone
- Ring, for flute, terzguitar, and lute
- Rocking Mirror Daybreak, for 2 violins
- Sacrifice, for alto flute, lute, vibraphone, and cymbals
- Seasons, for percussion ensemble
- Signals from Heaven, 2 antiphonal fantasies for brass ensemble
- Stanza 2, for harp and tape
- Tabi, for 3 biwa
- The Dorian Horizon, for 17 Strings
- The Last Waltz
- Toward the Sea I, for alto flute and guitar
- Toward the Sea III, for alto flute and harp
- Valeria, for 2 piccolos, violin, cello, guitar, and electric organ
- Voice, for solo flute
Keyboard
- For Away
- Lento in 2 Movements
- Les Yeux Clos
- Litany: in Memory of Michael Vyner
- Piano Distance
- Piano Pieces for Children
- Romance
- Uninterrupted Rest
Orchestral
- November Steps, for shakuhachi, biwa, and orchestra
- Requiem, for string orchestra
- A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden
- Aki, for biwa, shakuhachi, and orchestra, "Autumn"
- Archipelago S., for 21 players
- Asterism, for piano and orchestra
- A String around Autumn, for viola and orchestra
- A Way a Lone II, for string orchestra
- Cassiopeia
- Dream/Window
- Dreamtime
- Eucalypts 1, for flute, oboe, harp, and strings
- Fantasma/Cantos 2, for trombone and orchestra
- From Me Flows What You Call Time, for 5 percussionists and orchestra
- Green For Orchestra
- How Slow the Wind
- I Hear the Water Dreaming, for flute and orchestra
- Nostalghia, for violin and strings
- Orion and Pleiades, for cello and orchestra
- Quatrain, for clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and orchestra
- Quotation of Dream: Say Sea, Take Me!, for 2 pianos and orchestra
- Rain Coming
- Riverrun, for piano and orchestra
- Solitude Sonore
- Spirit Garden
- Star Isle
- Toward the Sea no. 1, for alto flute and guitar
- Toward the Sea no. 2, for alto flute, harp and strings
- Tree Line, for chamber orchestra
- Twill by Twilight
Stage
- Black Rain Film score
- Face of Another Film score
- Glowing Autumn Film score
- José Torres Film score
- Nami no Bon
- Ran Film score
Vocal
- All Alone, "Potsunen"
- All that the Man Left Behind When He Died, "Shinda otoko no nokoshita mono wa"
- A Marvelous Kid, "Subarashii Akujo'; Theme Song for the Film 'Subarashii Akujo"
- A Song of Circles and Triangles, "Maru to Sankaku no Uta"
- I Just Sing, "Utau dake"
- In a Small Room, "Chiisana Heya de"
- In the Month of March, "Sangatsu no uta'; Theme Song for the Film 'Saigo no Shinpan"
- La Neige, "Yuki'; theme song for the film 'Shiro to kuro"
- Sayonara
- Small Sky, "Chiisana Sora"
- Stanza I, for female voice, piano, guitar, harp, and vibraphone
- Take off for the Clouds, "Kumo ni mukatte tatsu'; for the TV Drama 'Kumo ni mukatte tatsu"
- The Encounter, "Meguriai'; Theme Song for the Film 'Meguriai"
- The Game of Love, "Koi no kakurembo"
- To the Island, "Shima e"
- Unseen Child, "Mienai Kodomo"
- Waltz, "Warutsu'; Theme Song for the Film 'Tanin no kao"
- Will Tomorrow, I Wonder, Be Cloudy or Clear?, "Ashita ha hare kana, kumori kana"
- Wings, "Tsubasa"
- Yesterday's Spot, "Sakujitsu no shimi"
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