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

Music Facing Up to Silence. Writings on Tru Takemitsu
our second question: ‘Is it important to ask this?’ Certainly, it is absolutely possible to
understand the music of Takemitsu without any knowledge of Japanese gardens, sawari,
ma, etc. But it is also possible to misunderstand it. It is possible, for example – as we
have already seen in the example of the record sleeve – to consider it from too ‘Eastern’ a
perspective, as a music pointedly ‘Japanese’ or exotic – above all when it demonstrates
the use of Japanese instruments, as in November Steps. But it is also possible to listen to it
from too ‘Western’ a perspective. My studies of the reception of Takemitsu’s music in
the West have shown me that those who approach his music from an insufficiently
informed Western perspective can not only misunderstand it, but even react negatively.
They do not hear, for example, ‘garden form’, but only an absence of form, an absence of
musical ‘logic’ – which, for them, also means a lack of musical quality. An understanding
of what Takemitsu aims to do, then, is important. It teaches us what he does not aim to
do, what he wishes to avoid – and not because he lacks compositional competence, but
because it would not be relevant to his aesthetic intention.
But, in the end, I believe that we still have a lot of work before us to make the musical
public understand this. Since the time when Takemitsu saw the record sleeve in the shop in
Paris, more than thirty years have passed. But even today one can see things which perhaps
might equally enrage the composer. I hope that today, in my modest fashion, I have been
able to do something to dispel this kind of misunderstanding.
Bibliography
Burt, Peter (2001), The Music of Tru Takemitsu, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Katoka, Hitaru (1979), Nipponjin to Kansei [The Japanese and sensitiveness], Ongaku no
Tomo sha, Tokyo.
Leblé, Christian (1990), ‘Takemitsu, Euronippon’, Libération, 21-22/07/1990.
Lieberman, Frederic (1963), Contemporary Japanese Composition: Its Relationship to
Concepts of Traditional Oriental Musics, MA Thesis, University of Hawaii.
Miyamoto, Kenjiro (1996), Klang im Osten, Klang im Westen. Der Komponist Tru
Takemitsu und die Rezeption europäischer Musik in Japan, Pfau, Saarbrücken.
Ono, Mitsuko (2008), ‘Toru Takemitsu and the Japanese sound of “Sawari”’, in Music
of Japan Today, ed. by Richards, Michael E. – Tanosaki, Kazuko, Cambridge
Scholars, Newcastle upon Tyne: 69-74.
Takemitsu, Tru (1971), Oto, Chinmoku to Hakariaeru Hodo ni, Shinchsha, Tokyo.
––––– (1987), Yume to Kazu [Dream and number], Libroport, Tokyo.
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