Sounds like patches of fog, of a sometimes intolerable beauty. This is how Takemitsu's music could be characterized, at least the music with which he broke through in the West. He combined Japanese influences with the colors of
Debussy and
Messiaen, filtered through the minimalism of Webern. The oeuvre of this self-taught composer does not seem to have been self-consciously planned. It contains
… everything from Hollywood film music to hardcore avant-garde. He broke through in the West with November Steps (commissioned by New York Philharmonic, 1967), which is a kind of double concerto for biwa, shakuhachi and orchestra. The orchestral works on this CD are later. All four were inspired by works by others. In Spectral Canticle (1995), it is the poetry of Emily Dickinson. To the Edge of Dream (1983) refers to the eerie paintings of Belgian surrealist Paul Delvaux. Vers, l'Arc-en-Ciel, Palma (1984) was inspired by the almost eponymous gouaches of Miro. Twill by Twilight (1988) is an in memoriam for Morton Feldman. (HJ)more
