,

Takemitsu

By

For some reason the classical music of his native land did not appeal to the young man. Toru Takemitsu was more attracted to music from the distant West. But it was a bad time to develop a taste for western things. Toru Takemitsu grew up in Japan during World War Two.

Takemitsu was born on October 8th, 1930. His formal education ended when he was fourteen and drafted into the depleted Japanese military. Toward the end of the war, as American forces prepared to invade Japan, Takemitsu was put to work constructing defensive bases in the mountains. It was a bitter experience and served to drive him even further from any appreciation of classical Japanese music.

One day an officer led a group of young servicemen to the back of the barracks, where he had a record player. Using a carefully trimmed piece of bamboo for a stylus, he played them a record of Josephine Baker singing “Parlez-moi d’amour.” It was a moment of revelation. Young Takemitsu thought it was splendid.

Stay informed on the latest news

Sign up for WPR’s email newsletter.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

A year after the war ended, the sixteen-year-old Takemitsu set his mind on becoming a composer. Rejecting any further formal education, he went straight to work and began to write compositions that were influenced by French composers–Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen. By the 1950’s, when Takemitsu’s music was being recorded and sold in the West, he was surprised and dismayed to find that it was being packaged in a jacket with a picture of Mount Fuji and a Geisha girl.

It was not until he was in his thirties that Takemitsu finally confronted–and appreciated–Japanese music. The confrontation came at an unlikely place–at a puppet show. It was the tone quality and timbre of the samisen–the long-necked banjo-like instrument–that he found particularly moving.

From that point on, Takemitsu systematically studied his country’s traditional music in order to bring out the sensibilities of Japanese music that had always been within him.

The result was music neither Western nor Japanese, but a synthesis of many influences that was uniquely his own.