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

Music Facing Up to Silence. Writings on Tru Takemitsu
both quantitatively and qualitatively. In a decade which saw the decline of the Japanese
majors, Takemitsu collaborated with the directors who were most closely involved with the
renewal of Japanese cinema. In 1961 he wrote the score for Bad Boys (Fury Shonen) by
Susumi Hani, a film clearly based on the tenets of cinéma vérité, in which many commentators
have seen affinities with the masterpieces of Roberto Rossellini and François
Truffaut. 5 The following year he began a collaboration with Hiroshi Teshigahara, 6 taking
part in the making of several important films: Pitfall (Otoshiana, 1962), Woman in the
Dunes (Susa no onna, 1964), The Face of Another (Tanin no kao, 1966) and The Ruined
Map (Moetsukita chizu, 1968). In the same years he began to work with Masaki Kobayashi,
writing the music for Harakiri (Seppuku, 1962) and Kwaidan (1964), 7 and also with the
figures responsible for renewing the Shchiku, Nagisa Oshima, Masahiro Shinoda and Kiju
(Yoshihige) Yoshida. 8 During the 1970s his collaboration with these directors continued,
and he also met Akira Kurosawa, for whom he wrote the music for two films: Dodes’kaden
(1970) and Ran (1985). Thereafter his production gradually diminished until his collaboration
with Philip Kaufman on a film which caused no little dissent: Rising Sun (1993). 9 At
the same time we must not forget his collaboration with Shhei Inamura, one of the main
artificer of the Nikkatsu, 10 who made Black Rain (Kuroi Ame, 1989), an apocalyptic
evocation of the bombing of Hiroshima and its on-going consequences.
5 The film is shot in a borstal with non professionals who volunteered to take part; at times they are so natural that
one wonders whether they were filmed unknowingly, while frequent use was made of the zoom. ‘Hani explored the
universe of childhood and youngsters in general with the greatest possible stylistic liberty, taking care above all
never to alter the genuine spontaneity of his subjects; on the contrary he preferred to use a delicate approach,
manifesting a tender affection in portraying the crudeness of instinctive gestures. In this way Hani, like Shimizu
Hiroshi before him, became a masterful observer of the world of young people’ (Novielli 2001: 212-213).
6 ‘Both fortunate and independent, Hiroshi Teshigahara, the son of an eminent teacher of ikebana, came from an
artistic background where he had met other people, like the writer Kb Abe, some of whose important works
he would later adapt’ (Tessier 2008: 101). In 1962 Hiroshi Teshigahara created Teshigahara Productions so as to
produce films independently from the majors. He is perhaps the epitome of an independent producer,
deliberately flouting the rules of the production system. I can recall that at the Sgetsu School in the 1960s
Teshigahara organized some performances with John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Maria Roberta Novielli has
a section on him entitled: Simboli della mente nel cinema di Teshigahara (2001: 216-218).
7 On Masaki Kobayashi I refer the reader once again to Maria Roberta Novielli (2001: 147-149; 282-283).
8 Not only did they criticise the academic outlook of their precursors but they also declared their admiration
for such French directors as Alain Resnais, François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, as well as Michelangelo
Antonioni, and it is surely legitimate to suppose that they also appreciated the sound world of these Western
films. On the three French directors see Tessier (2008: 88-95).
9 While subscribing to the criticism that has greeted this film, I would emphasise that the function of
Takemitsu’s music here is very different to what it is in all his other films. In particular one is struck by the
banality he is forced into at several places in the story.
10 ‘I want to espouse these two problems with all my strength: the lower part of the human body and the
lower part of the social structure on which daily Japanese life is obstinately founded’ (Shhei Inamura in
Tessier 2008: 96).
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