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

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Roberto Calabretto
Mastering the whole range of stylistic codes
Peter Burt emphasises how Takemitsu’s output for the cinema is very different to the
music he wrote for the concert hall: ‘In fact, the picture that emerges of Takemitsu the
film composer is that of a highly skilled, professional pastiche artist who can turn his
hand to a whole range of stylistic codes, each of which is perfectly adapted for the scenario
in question’ (Burt 2001: 47). In fact, as any cinematografaro knows, the universe of
moving images requires
A professional able to ‘provide for’ a historical film or science fiction, a thriller or
a comedy, a romantic blockbuster or a war movie. Capable of writing a motet in
the style of Palestrina, a full-blown symphonic poem or a piece of avant-garde
music. Without mentioning the particular awareness required of popular music,
whether of today or the recent past. And also the folk music tradition, and so on.
(Plenizio 2006: 34)
This description shows just how fitted Takemitsu was for working in the particularly complex
and problematic world of the movies. The following examples from his output exemplify the
eclecticism of his writing, which also drew on codes which were far removed from the music
of his homeland.
In Hiroshi Teshigahara’s José Torres (1959) the music seems to adhere to a jazz
atmosphere ‘adapted to the urban milieu’ (Richie 1997: 19).
Figure 1. Tru Takemitsu, Music of Training and Rest, from José Torres, mm. 1-8.