Toru Takemitsu

So 'woman of the dunes' is available?! Didn't think it would be, I'll def get it. thanks everyone, so far so great.

The first of those is the best - a lush, ghostly orchestral piece; Gémeaux is an audiophile dream - two orchestras build to a dual-crescendo, one dissonant, one major key cinematic. Cassiopeia is a great percussion concerto.

Tracklisting:
01. And Then I Knew 'Twas Wind 12:55
02. Rain Tree 12:34

Toward the Sea
03. I - The Night 03:33
04. II - Moby Dick 04:10
05. III - Cape Cod 03:36

06. Bryce 10:38
07. Itinerant 04:25
08. Voice 05:16
09. Air 06:09
10. Rain Spell 08:37

I also love the minimal concrete details of his score for Kwaidan though it works best in the context of the film.

A focused compilation of his concrete pieces is long overdue.

http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/archives20050901.shtml#102924

I'm off/on w/ gann's blog. more frustration, then. its partly to do w/not being able to hear much 'postminimalism' but I just can't identify with his comments on the um, "european scene" or whatever. needs to calm down on the anti-schoenberg posts, but maybe he's stopped that.

still wanna hear his disklavier disc tho'. and that takemitsu.

I know you saw these: http://www.earlabs.org/label/LC/LC010.htm

He still needs a good compilation of his tape pieces. I've been meaning to YSI Kwaidan.

are you using soulseek? if so, tell me your username.

ywbs -- I tried emailing you but it bounced back. mail me?

I'm dubbing the audio out of my DVD player into my laptop right now, super lo-fi, but the only other place I can find it, is, god help me, that 21 disc set of film music.

http://www.lib.osakafu-u.ac.jp/cgi-bin/opac/books-query?smode=1&code=20480378&key=

The DVD is a noisy video transfer, I'm going to try to clean up the tape hiss but I'll YSI it in a few, if only to increase the legions of people screaming for a compilation of his works for tape. The world suddenly seems out of balance that there isn't one already.

perfect bach-inspired string writing played in what, meantone? the strings sound unreal, certainly not equal temprament, then the strings are joined by traditional asian instrumentation & drones, the blend is impossible. what else of his sounds like this? what else of anything sounds like this?

the 22 minute version on JVC 'Film Music Vol 4' >>> the 15 minute one on that Elektra compilation. rob, should have taken you up on that offer to burn me that four volume JVC set.

a lot of his pieces written specifically for the concert hall are not sending me as much as his film works. that cantos cd did not end up grabbing me, though I should listen again.

er, but I... but you.. hmm

Like the 50s/60s stuff - Milton did you get that disc Gann talked about?

Sound track collector has done an OK job w/listing stuff. Would it be great if this 4 LP set was re-issued?

I've only really heard the later 80s/90s orchestral works, those are the only ones that seem to be in print in over here... I'd love to hear that 4 LP box.

it's ok stormy, I know you offered and I said 'ah no big deal', I'm looking forward to hearing the Francois Bayle

two tracks into volume 2, already completely laid flat

definitely a contemporary of the Taj Mahal Travellers albums, but... with a much, much, wilder range

(unfortunately all the liners in these things are complete Japanese, which I can't read, so I have no idea which piece corresponds to which film, i just wrote down the years..)

volume two: http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/catalog/soundtrackdetail.php?movieid=6277
volume three: http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/catalog/soundtrackdetail.php?movieid=6278

it is all about the film music series. that's where the wilder arrangements and juxtapositions happen. fans of Taj Mahal Travellers, Faust, late 60's acid-eating Stockhausen, light Quincy Jones jazz, but also Bach, Messiaen, John Dowland, Gagaku... all overlapping, dovetailing, coexisting -- in western hands this would be mere collage, or self-conscious fusiony meta-commentary, but in his hands it's something new

'Chinmoku' starts with a perfect Dowland-esque solo for lute, which proceeds for two minutes. Before being joined with abstract, atonal koto lines. Which are then slowly fed into ring modulation and reverb.

'Kaseki No Mori' is the particularly Taj Mahal Travellers-like track, recorded in 1973, I think Takemitsu was listening to Kosugi. Both of those are on volume two.

Volume four has the pitch-smeared concrete-layered violins of 'Woman in the dunes' and the heavy drones of the full version of 'Rikyu', and Volume One has 'Kwaidan', using the techniques of recent minimal EAI improv and microsound, but three decades early, and with emotional impact instead of absolute-musik chinstroking.

I guess I'm not surprised that more people don't know about these, when the JVC six volume 'film music of toru takemitsu' series came out about 10 years ago, they were $25 a pop if you could find them, and they're compiled by film director -- they've got a huge range. I bought volume one for 'Kwaidan' and when that's the only track on it I loved, I held back from investing further, but if I'd made it to volume two or four, I'd probably have gone for the others too.

Most of what's easily available are the works for traditional orchestra, which I've heard a few of -- perfectly lovely, but no collisions & heads remain attached. The DG 70's recording of a flock descends into the pentagonal garden is definitely the one to get of the trad orchestral concert pieces, the other pieces date from the early 60's and have strange arrangements. Most of the later 80s/90s recordings are nice too, but that disc is much better than 'nice'.

...

you lucky people in london should all take that day off

I found a record of his for 10 cents once, had no idea what it was. Took it home and played it. First there was this vocal choir which really had my attention. Then Water Music and AI played leaving me very very !!!!!!!!!!! and just excited I found this in such a crap midwestern college town (where I STILL LIVE). At the time the strangest thing I'd ever heard was the Godz' second record, which I also found here in a used vinyl bin for under 50 cents.

Man I gotta track down that film music series.

NYC cost of living being what it is, i paid $3 for same.
I wrote a little bit about the exfoliating properties of his soundtrack for Teshigahara'sWoman of the Dunes last year.

so, so, so, so, so, so classic. one of those composers whose work feels like it will just continue revealing new depths and shadings every time I listen, no matter how much I listen. listening to the requiem for string orchestra right now on the Carl St Clair/Pacific Symphony Orchestral Works album. God yes yes yes it's so awesome.

J0hn have you heard Kajia Saariaho's stuff? She's not really much like Takemitsu, but what you just said about Toru could be repeated with total veracity about her work (check either of the discs which feature Graal Theatre). A master of timbral detail.

I haven't, but I will check her out! there is a classical store a few blocks from where I'm staying, been there once already, can probably hit it again tomorrow

If you have free emusic creds, there's some good shit by her on there.

"classical store a few blocks from where I'm staying"

lol how very few places about which this can be said in 2009...

I know but I'm in Amsterdam right now, it's a pretty awesome store, I bought two very awesome records there earlier & had to stop myself from going on a big "fuck when am I gonna see that again" spree

I did go to emusic tho - only found one, am I doin something wrong?

Go see the Concertgebouw Orchestra! In many people's opinion the world's finest orch, and in almost everyone's opinion the finest venue acoustically. Not that I've ever been there.

Hmmm I can't access eMu from my workplace, but I would think a general search on Saariaho or an album search on Graal would turn something up. Maybe the relevant labels have pulled out in the last couple months...

the modigliani quartet is playing there tonight the first thing I did when I got to town was try to get tickets but they were sold out & i'm gone after tomorrow so the concergebouw will remain unexperienced by me

Been listening a lot to Garden Rain, which I like a lot. Need to hear some more of this stuff.

xpost Well I dare say you'll be back in town...

(says dude whose most exotic-ever destination has been Canada)

Been listening to a little Satoh too. Is he someone you enjoy Jon?

Have read abt but never heard him. Mostly solo piano right?

Takemitsu's film scores = classick

Have read abt but never heard him. Mostly solo piano right?

I've got Toward The Night on New Albion, which is strings plus voice. Kinda eerie, mournful stuff with the strings rising up out of this dim crepuscular fog. It's a lot more western in feel than I'd expected given what I'd read about his affinity with Japanese traditional music. Good though.

the piano stuff is, huge scarequotes here, the stuff that I think gets thought of as especially "Japanese"/eastern/other: to me, it recalls Debussy's piano works in feel, but there's a lot more use of space and silence and the chain of European tradition that Debussy's playing off of is a few more links removed for Takemitsu. But yeah that piano stuff, I can't listen to it unless I'm able to give it my full attention but when I can -- daaaaamn

Yeah, Debussy is never far from nervous. Even at his most spacious and quiescent: 'Des Pas Sur Le Neige' is so SAD, 'Reflets Dans L'Eau' becomes quite agitated, 'La Cathedrale Engloutie' is about a dead frickin city.

Takemitsu on the other hand explicitly stated that he wanted his music to be like a composed garden, where you can walk this way or that, view it from different perspectives, savor the arrangments. Debussy led to this, but neither he nor anyone else of his era was ready to really go that far.

Messiaen might be a kindred spirit with his eschewing of linear progress in music. But with him it's coming from a Catholic ecstatic desire to end/transcend time.

Bought a copy of Kwaidan and there is an interview w/Masaki Kobayashi which is quite revealing on Takemitsu. Kobayashi worships him anyway but apparently guy hangs out on the set throughout -- great passage where he is describing the visits on set for months to then come up with 9 minutes of music. Wouldn't matter but the results are so good.

By coincidence I youtubed Marker's AK and one of the parts has Takemitsu visiting Mount Fuji - where Ran was shot.

Dunno why I never posted on this thread before. Anyway, saw performances of Rain Spell, Tree Line and November Steps in London last night (along with a couple of fascinating documentaries and some pieces by other Japanese composers). November Steps especially benefits from actually being there watching it happen in front of you, the biwa and shakuhachi players didn't mesh with the orchestra so much as play alongside them (I think this was the thinking behind the piece anyway).

As far as his film music goes I only have the 7CD set on Victor, plus the Nonesuch comp. I really really need the 2 10CD (?) sets that came out a few years back, so if anyone has copies they don't need...

this is the holy grail for all takemitsu fans (part 3 and 4 are film music): http://www.shogakukan.co.jp/takemitsu/list/index.html