Conference Agenda

Roger Woodward presents a performer's perspective of sound, silence and meditation in collaboration with Tōru Takemitsu, featuring the performance of works which were dedicated to Woodward and recorded with the participation of the composer.

Takemitsu's contribution to the Orient-Occident cultural dialogue came to the attention of most Western musicians in 1959, when Igor Stravinsky praised his Requiem for Strings. The composer’s juxtaposition of sound and silence in Piano Distance, Music of Trees (1961), and of dimensions of time and space throughout such early works as The Dorian Horizon (1966) and November Steps (1967), had memorable impact on emerging Western composers of the time.

In  a 1973 interview for BBC Radio 3’s Music Now, John Amis asked Takemitsu, “Well what's all this silence about then Mr. Takemitsu?” After a very long pause, Takemitsu replied: “I think silence is the mother of music.” He paused again before adding: “No, maybe grandmother.”

During the same visit, in an interview with Dominic Gill, Takemitsu revealed more fully his concept of “Ma” and juxtaposition of silence with sound: “To make the void of silence live is to make live the infinity of sounds. Sound and silence are equal. But this conception cannot work without extracting to the full the expressive potential of a musical sound or phrase, which then will become an abstract, anonymous entity freely offered to the executant.” (...) “I would like to develop in two directions at once, as a Japanese in tradition and as a Westerner in innovation. Deep within myself I would like to keep two musical genres, both of which have their own rightful form. Making use of these basically incompatible elements at the heart of many processes in composition is, in my view, only the first stage. I don't want to resolve this fruitful contradiction. On the contrary, I want to make the two blocks fight each other. In this way I avoid isolating myself from the tradition while advancing into the future with each new work. I would like to achieve a sound as intense as silence(...)” (Takemitsu, 1973).

This program will not follow chronological order, starting with the one-movement pieces For Away (1973) and Piano Distance (1961), before moving on to three expressionist pieces titled Uninterrupted Rest (1952-1959), based on a text by the poet Takiguchi Shuzo. This is followed by Les yeux clos I (1979) and II (1988), inspired by the French Symbolist painter Odilon Redon. As Takemitsu counseled Woodward: “The most important thing is to produce subtle changes of color and time as if they were floating” (Takemitsu, 1979). Next are the two Rain Tree sketches. The first of these pieces was composed in 1981 and was simply entitled Rain Tree, for a pitched percussion trio of marimbas, vibraphone and crotales. Within a year Rain Tree Sketch followed for solo piano and in 1986 a solo harpsichord piece entitled Rain Dreaming. To complete the series as well as Takemitsu’s works for solo keyboard, Rain Tree Sketch II was dedicated to Olivier Messiaen upon his death in 1992.

The final work on the program is Corona - London Version (1973) which Takemitsu created with Woodward in the Decca recording studio from Corona for pianist/s and Crossing for pianist/s (1962). Takemitsu’s graphic sound designs were of indeterminate duration but both works came out at approximately twenty-two minutes. For Crossing the composer lent Woodward his own “objet” and for the graphic realization of the five Corona movements he permitted the use of two pianos (one prepared; the other not), celeste, harpsichord and organ. At one stage during the recording, Takemitsu entered the studio and seated himself at the harpsichord. As Woodward continued, so did Takemitsu, and with the organ as well, to effectively update his 1962 “codes and arrangements” (Takemitsu 1973). At the end of the session they met in the control room to hear their endeavors while Takemitsu and James Mallinson edited. Takemitsu then turned and grinned before requesting Mallinson to superimpose one work over the other to create Corona- London Version. Of the keyboard performances documented during his lifetime, this rare example of the composer’s contribution to his 1973 Decca recording, as well as to its sound engineering and mixing, might well prove to be of interest to future performers and scholars.