Contemporary Music in Japan - Toru Takemitsu
Contemporary Music in Japan - Toru Takemitsu
Contemporary Music in Japan - Toru Takemitsu
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CON'TEMPORARY
MUSICIN JAPAN*
TORUTAKEMITSU
we face problems which are both political and economic in
IN
nature. To free ourselves from
THIS AGE
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ContemporaryMusicinJapan
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Perspectives
of NewMusic
in Japan, they soon established a radio station for the American troops. At
that time I was sick and had to spend every day in bed. With my ears
turned to the radio I spent all my time listening to music on the U.S.
Armed Forces Network.
From the time I was very young my entire family were great movie fans;
we particularlyloved seeing American movies. During that dark era before
Japan and the United States finally went to war, when we could still see
American movies, it was our greatest pleasure to see films like those of
Frank Capra and others-It HappenedOne Night, for example, and High
Hat. It was while viewing these films that I came to recognize the great differences that existed between the culture of my own country and that of
America. America appeared like a great, shining dream. For example, I
rememberwatching American women brushing their hairin the films-luxuriant, glowing hair, brushed with a hairbrush. At that time Japanese
women did not use hairbrushes;they only combed their hair. It was a very
striking image: a brush being pulled through the hair. Or another memory
was seeing curtains hung on American windows-the two layers of draperies, one layerbeing a very rich fabric, and then, behind it, a lovely, filmy,
lacy curtain blowing in the wind-which, of course, we never saw in Japan.
It has always seemed to me that the invention and the development of
photography and film have very much changed human culture. This is not
the time nor the place to go into this subject in greatdepth, so I'll leave it at
that. But I think the kind of communication that is possible through photography has enabled us, people everywhere together, to hatch something
which has been called the "universalegg."
Going back to those days at the end of the war, when I heard that French
chanson at a time when all examples of Western culture had been shut out
from our lives, this experience released in me enormous energy. Energy
reallyexploded within me, and it's interesting that, at that time, the object
of my attention was not Japanese but Western. Right after the war, as I
said, I listened constantly to American music over the Armed Forces Radio.
I also went very, very frequently to the libraryof the Civil Information and
Education branchof the U.S. Occupation government. There I also sought
out American music. Through hearing the music of Roy Harris, Aaron
Copland, Walter Piston, Roger Sessions, and such great American composers, I was introduced to an unknown world, and I gradually began
to develop a sense of my own musical taste. For me, after having tasted
the bitter, miserable experiences of the war years, this music seemed full
of hope.
When I was a child I lived in Tokyo with my aunt, a koto teacher. I heard
traditional classicalJapanese music around me all the time. For some reason, it never really appealed to me, never moved me. Later, hearing traditional classicalJapanesemusic alwaysrecalledthe bitter memories of war.
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In time I began to try composing myself, working on my own music, little by little, step by step. At first my music was not particularly well
received in Japan, and perhaps, looking back, that was only right and natural. But one day, my music came to the attention of Igor Stravinskywhen
he was visiting Japan, and he praised it very highly. When Stravinsky
praised my music the Japanese critics suddenly began to pay attention to
what I was doing. Naturally,for me, to have Stravinskypraisemy music was
a matter of great pride-although it doesn't seem to reflect well on the Japanese music critics who had ignored me until then. Of course, this was an
ideal instance of a seed of mutual understanding taking sprout naturally,
spontaneously, on its own, transcending any human preconception or
intent.
For a long while, I permitted myself to gaze only into the mirrorof Western music and Western art. However, one day I chanced to see a performance of the Bunraku puppet theater and was very surprised by it. It was in
the tone quality, the timbre, of the futazao shamisen, the wide-necked
shamisen used in Bunraku, that I first recognized the splendor of traditional Japanese music. I was very moved by it and I wondered why my
attention had never been captured before by this Japanese music. I wondered, perhaps, if it wasn't precisely the fact that I had studied Western
music so deeply that enabled me laterto be so moved by the Bunrakumusic
that I heard. Had I never been under the sway of Western music I know my
appreciationof Japanesemusic would have been very different. I think this
is an extremely important point. From that time on I devoted a great deal
of energy-as much as possible-to studying Japanese musical traditions,
with particular attention to the differences between Japanese music and
Westernmusic. With great diligence I tried to bring forth the sensibilitiesof
Japanesemusic that had alwaysbeen within me.
It was in 1967 that I received a commission for a new work from the New
York Philharmonic. What I tried to do was to create a piece for Western
orchestra playing together with biwa and shakuhachi. I called it November
Steps.I owe a great debt here to Leonard Bernstein, for, more than anything
else, this came about through his deep and very sincere appreciation of
Japanesemusic, of Japaneseculture as a whole. For me, it was a challenging
and terribly difficult task that I was given. The attempt to bring together
Japanese instruments with a Western orchestra was so difficult that many
times along the way I felt like giving up. To try and blend the two drastically different forms of music seemed virtually impossible; I myself
doubted very strongly whether I could accomplish the task. Eventually I
think that we did manage to succeed in bringing together the two, but
doing so was a terrible trial for me. However, difficult though it was, I
think that making the attempt was very worthwhile because what resulted
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sensitivity to color and tone. But I don't want to say that as Orientals, or as
Japanese, we have any particular monopoly on these qualities in music.
There are gaps, certainly, in the traditions of the West and of the East, but
in studying each other's music and learningfrom each other's music we are,
together, beginning to fashion a "universal egg" of communication
between cultures.
In our present world severe demands are made on the artist and the creator. Some artists have succumbed to the contradictions, the problems, of
national systems and nationalism. But, as we all strive for an ideal world,
what we must do is find what is genuine in ourselves, the unique qualities
in ourselves, and affirm these in a universalfashion. We must all share this
common goal. The role of the artist is to serve as a bridge for all men to
accomplish this and the artist must be fully and completely aware of this
task. For Japaneseto be learningfrom the West, and for Westerners-Europeans and Americans-to be deepening their appreciationof Oriental culture, is a difficult undertaking, a very serious one that we must all confront.
I'm not sure that our mutual interculturalunderstandingis complete or has
reachedan ideal state yet. There are still problems that separateus: senses of
differencesof race and color. These are the things which we must strive to
transcend.
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