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

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Mitsuko Ono
which had a huge influence in Japan, and the “Suntory Hall International Program for
Music Composition”, which continues up to today.
“Music Today” was an international music festival held every year for twenty years,
from 1973 to 1992, under the auspices of the Seibu Department Store in Tokyo.
Takemitsu planned and organised it every year. A cultural division of Seibu allocated a
regular percentage of sales revenue for this festival: in this they followed the example of
Olivetti in Italy. Takemitsu himself negotiated with the performers and composers, by
telephone and in writing. It could be said that he had a network of musician friends both
in foreign countries and in Japan.
In this way, the works and composers representative of contemporary music such
as those that have been featured at “Milano Musica” – for example Berio, Cage,
Xenakis, Ligeti or Nono – were introduced to the Japanese public. In addition, Morton
Feldman, Vinko Globokar, Cathy Berberian, Peter Serkin, the London Sinfonietta,
Robert Aitken, Ensemble Tashi, and so on – in all, many composers and performers –
came to Japan in person.
On the tenth anniversary of this music festival, Takemitsu created an opportunity for
young composers under 35 to have their works played: the “Music Today Composition
Award”. Karen Tanaka, whose work is being performed in 2010’s edition of “Milano
Musica”, was one of the composers to receive this prize. 270 composers were introduced
to Japanese audiences in the twenty years of “Music Today” existence; and although this
figure includes Bach, Debussy and Satie, it was mainly the works of contemporary
composers who were so introduced.
Nowadays in the so-called information society, we can obtain vast amounts of information
from overseas easily and instantaneously. However, at the time when “Music
Today” was held, it was not easy to obtain information on overseas culture in Japan. The
Seibu Department Store which organised “Music Today” had a cinema, bookstore and
record/CD shop attached, as well as the theatre. Such facilities were valuable, and were the
only place where the Japanese could obtain information on the world’s contemporary
culture and art. Takemitsu was involved in the main part of this project.
Takemitsu not only curated the concerts, but also supervised the publication of Music
Today Quarterly from 1988 onwards. Its editorial motto was ‘to aim at a broad cross-fertilization
between contemporary music, art, and various other disciplines’. It tried to
consider music from every sphere of culture, and considered music globally by including
information about what was happening outside Japan. It was through this magazine, for
example, that I happened to find out about the opera Tieste by Italian composer Sylvano
Bussotti. I remember that the article was written by prof. Luciana Galliano.
Besides “Music Today”, Takemitsu initiated a new project which was to be held at
Suntory Hall, the first purpose-built hall for classical music in Japan. This was the “Suntory
Hall International Program for Music Composition”. For this series, Takemitsu served as
artistic director. His main responsibility was the selection of suitable composers. He