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

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Angela Ida De Benedictis
In much of Takemitsu’s music the events develop in a dimension which is far removed
from the sort of horizontal continuum characteristic of the majority of Western music:
sounds are experienced moving in a stasis. Perhaps the closest equivalent in the West is
in the experimentation of Morton Feldman, and it is no coincidence if Takemitsu considered
him one of the greatest friends among all his Western colleagues. One of his
most inspired works for orchestra, Twill by Twilight, was composed in ‘memory of a
man who was both a great friend and a great composer, Morton Feldman, who died in
1987’ (Takemitsu 1988). Separated by an ocean and a continent, the two composers
rarely met, but those encounters left various traces whether in the published writings of
each of them 24 or in the letters they exchanged (some, unpublished, are conserved in the
Feldman Collection of the Paul Sacher Foundation, Basle). The two men had various
things in common, not least the pursuit of soundscapes dense with resonant silences,
obtained above all by reiterating microcellular motifs or the slightest of aural figures.
As always, Takemitsu acted on such affinity and affection by importing Feldman’s music
into Japan and disseminating it. In an essay he wrote commemorating Feldman in
1992, Takemitsu alludes to a recent performance of Coptic Light (which he himself had
promoted) and the late composer’s music in general:
Recently Morton Feldman’s music was premiered in Japan in a program by the
NHK Philharmonic’s MIF (Music in Future – a title as cumbersome as Don Quixote’s
armor). That was the first time Feldman’s orchestral music was performed
in Japan. His Coptic Light reflects his interest in the pattern of Middle Eastern
rugs, which have a regular and very fine harmony. As usual his music was quiet,
the sound reminding us of pleats of soft layered light, with time standing still. And
yet an indescribably rich musical space emerged. [...] His music was without
strong contrasts, unassertive, arising from his sensitivity – a unique minimalism
without excesses. Thus the inner content of his music is clearly defined. He disliked
excessive decoration. (Takemitsu 1995b: 139-140)
Clearly these last phrases could stand as an accurate description of Takemitsu’s own
music (just as, in saying that Takemitsu has a natural rather than a historical vision of
time, Feldman could well be talking about himself).
The circumstances of their first meeting have never been properly clarified. In an
unpublished letter to Feldman dated 19 December 1978 (reproduced here in the original,
written when Takemitsu’s English was still decidedly shaky) it emerges that they
had already been friends for some time – Takemitsu refers to previous visits he had
made to the States – and that plans for Feldman’s music to be performed in Japan
were already made:
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Feldman, for example, made more than one reference to Takemitsu in the lecture he gave in Darmstadt in
1984 (Feldman 1985: 181-213).