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

Music Facing Up to Silence. Writings on Tru Takemitsu
Dear Luciano Berio,
how are you? this time, I came Hawai to participate “East West Festival Music & Art
20 th Century”. Then I loved to meet you very much so I visited San Francisco just for 4
days. I am very sorry that I couldn’t meet you at here. I must leave today from here to
Hawaii with Mr. John Cage (he also participate Festival). I brougt (bring) your tape
which you sent me in Japan. I must say Please forgive me. I had having this tape for long
time. I love this piece very much. Thank you. And I saw your new piece from Dr. Shlee.
Passaggio is great wonderful work for me. I would like to heare Passaggio very much. 30
By the way I & my friends are doing to contact with big sponsor, you & your wife will
be Japan. we like to know your schedule in 1965. please let me know. If you do have a
plan coming Japan I will to do try. Sometimes we can meet at somewhere. Good luck.
Best wishes, yours Tru Takemitsu.
Although Takemitsu referred in the previous letter to the summer courses at Darmstadt, on
all his frequent visits to the West he never actually set foot in the Mecca of European avantgarde.
There seems to have been a reciprocal lack of interest in the Ferienkurse, then in
their heyday: up until 1966 the music of Takemitsu was heard only once at Darmstadt, in
1959, and not even in a concert but during a lecture given by Yoritsune Matsudaira on
‘Neue Musik in Japan’. In this lecture Takemitsu received scant attention, and what was
said was not even particularly relevant to the music heard (an excerpt from the piece of
concrete music Eurydice – La mort): ‘Toru Takemitsu comes from the influence of
Messiaen. Now he seeks to use the avant-garde techniques of Messiaen and others in
pursuit of a static aesthetic which represents the main feature of Chinese monochrome
painting from the Tson era’ (Matsudaira 1997: 223). During the 1980s, thanks to the work
he did for the “Suntory International Program for Music Composition”, Takemitsu
consolidated some contacts he had made in the past and formed some new ones. Among the
latter we can single out an exchange with Lutoslawski which occurred between May and
December 1985 in view of the upcoming celebrations for the inauguration of the Suntory
Hall. Even though nothing came of it (Lutoslawski turned down the commission proposed
by Takemitsu), it is worth reproducing the first letter he sent to the Polish composer, since it
illustrates the cultural strategies of the commissions and the conditions offered to the
invited composers:
Dear Mr. Lutoslawski,
the “Suntory International Program for Music Composition” was set up to
commemorate the construction of the Suntory Hall, which is expected to open on
30 The reference is to Berio’s work put on in 1963 at the Piccola Scala, Milano.
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