Musica che affronta il silenzio - Scritti su Toru Takemitsu - Pavia ...

Music Facing Up to Silence. Writings on Tru Takemitsu
Makoto oka, the philosopher Yjir Nakamura, and the cultural anthropologist Masao
Yamaguchi.
Their editorial motto was ‘to search for new intellectual directions and truly rich
cultural creativity leading towards the 21 st century through collaboration between scholars
and artists representing Japan’. As though relishing the chemical reaction between one
intellect and another, Takemitsu set up opportunities for people in different fields to
converse with one another. For example, he introduced the Canadian composer Murray
Schafer to Masao Yamaguchi. The conversation between the cultural anthropologist and
the composer who advocated soundscape covered topics ranging from sound and music
to culture in general.
Another magazine for which Takemitsu served as a member of the editorial committee
was a quarterly journal specialising in cinema, Film. He was a member of a sevenperson
team, alongside film director Hiroshi Teshigahara, Toshio Matsumoto, media artist
Takahiko Iimura, film critic Kichi Yamada, graphic designer Kiyoshi Awazu, and
art critic Ysuke Nakahara. Takemitsu was also a member of the committee and examination
committee of the “Film Art Festival” held under the auspices of this magazine.
Takemitsu had a very passionate interest in film, the new art form of the 20 th century.
Though we of the 21 st century can readily see films at home, before the spread of the video
and DVD player Takemitsu said that he saw almost 300 films in a year at the cinema. The
film industry in Japan started to decline in the 1970s, and the number of films produced
decreased sharply. During these years Takemitsu voluntarily took on the role of
chairperson, inviting film directors Masahiro Shinoda and Nagisa shima to participate
in a symposium for the magazine. His intention might have been to encourage and stimulate
the film directors. He explained the importance of seeing films in the 1980s. After
he had learned that film directors didn’t watch any films themselves, whenever he met
one he would ask: ‘Did you see this film? Did you see that one?’.
Moreover Noriko Nomura, who was the film director Hiroshi Teshigahara’s manager,
recalls that when Takemitsu heard, to his great sadness, that Teshigahara was no
longer making films, he said, ‘I’ll persuade Hiroshi-san to make a film’ (Nomura
2007: 418). Eventually, in 1984, he directed Antonio Gaudi, his first work after an
interval of twelve years.
Let us now move on to the second area of Takemitsu’s activity in Japan, as organiser
of music festivals. Takemitsu was deeply involved with seven music festivals in Japan.
There are many other festivals which Takemitsu was involved in as a music director in
other countries – and, naturally, I would like to research this with overseas scholars in the
future. Today I am only going to talk about two projects. These are “Music Today”,
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