Book123

    Free register and download UseNet downloader, then you can FREE Download from UseNet.

    Download without Limit " Toru Takemitsu: November Steps / Seiji Ozawa (2008) " from UseNet for FREE!

More

Classical | Label: Red Seal ( BEST100, vol.83) | Time: 54:58 | hotfile, filesonic

& 8220;

Toru loved his country; particularly it's most refined traditions. He always expressed delight with our world's diversity and sadness at the passing of unique cultural traditions from which he believed other people could learn important lessons. Toru was not interested in merging cultures. On the contrary, he wanted every culture to retain its unique characteristics as parables for the enlightenment of all. He wanted peace but valued individuality above uniformity, principle above compromise. He expressed ambivalence about his November Steps; a blend of western orchestra and traditional Japanese instruments that some people saw as a bridge between East and West and a template for a world music.

& 8221;

Toru Takemitsu

Widely considered modern Japan's greatest composer in the classical music tradition, Toru Takemitsu (1930–1996) merged Japanese and Western instruments and techniques in his music. Equally important, perhaps, was the way he humanized some of the intellectual devices used by contemporary classical composers of the West, not diluting their rigor but attaching them to concrete images rooted in nature and in Japanese aesthetics.

Growing up amid the destruction of World War II, Takemitsu learned to despise the culture of his native country. Almost completely self-taught as a composer, he immersed himself in Western techniques, returning to Japanese music only later, at the suggestion of an American associate. Takemitsu's music is sensuous and accessible, and he was an acclaimed and enthusiastic composer of film music, the classical genre most oriented toward mass appeal. The detail and density of his music also drew the admiration of specialists, including many of his fellow composers. Some of his music involved tonal depictions of Japanese gardens, and he often acknowledged the garden as a source of inspiration. "I can imagine a garden superimposed over the image of an orchestra," Takemitsu was quoted as saying on England's Soundintermedia website. "A garden is composed of various different elements and sophisticated details that converge to form a harmonious whole."

Drafted into Labor Gang

Born October 8, 1930, in Tokyo, Japan, Takemitsu spent his early life in China with his family. By the time he was brought back to Japan to attend school in 1938, Japanese militarism was on the rise and Western music and films were mostly forbidden. Takemitsu kept up a secret fascination with the West. After war broke out he saw a newsreel film of a British destroyer, the Prince of Wales, being sunk by a Japanese attack, but felt only awe at the sophistication of the British ship. In 1944, at 14, Takemitsu was drafted and put to work in a labor gang assigned to build a Japanese army camp. While he was working, an officer played a recording of the French popular song "Parlez-moi d'amour" (Speak to Me of Love, 1930). "I did not know there was such beautiful music in the world," Takemitsu later recalled, according to the Economist.

Buy It at Lowest Price on Amazon

|

Rating:
2.5 out of 5 by Book123