Tōru Takemitsu

Tōru Takemitsu
武満 徹
Born8 October 1930
Hongō, Tokyo, Japan
Died20 February 1996(1996-02-20) (aged 65)
Minato, Tokyo, Japan
Occupations
  • Composer
  • writer
Spouse
Asaka Wakayama
(m. 1954)
Children1
RelativesKoji Shitara (nephew)

Tōru Takemitsu (武満 徹; pronounced [takeꜜmitsɯ̥ toːɾɯ]; 8 October 1930 – 20 February 1996) was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu was admired for the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre.[1][2] He is known for combining elements of oriental and occidental philosophy and for fusing sound with silence and tradition with innovation.[3]

He composed several hundred independent works of music, scored more than ninety films and published twenty books.[3] He was also a founding member of the Jikken Kōbō (Experimental Workshop) in Japan, a group of avant-garde artists who distanced themselves from academia and whose collaborative work is often regarded among the most influential of the 20th century.[4][5]

His 1957 Requiem for string orchestra attracted international attention, led to several commissions from across the world and established his reputation as the leading 20th-century Japanese composer.[6] He was the recipient of numerous awards and honours and the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award is named after him.[7]

  1. ^ McKenzie, Don, "Review: [Untitled] Reviewed Work(s): To the Edge of Dream, for Guitar and Orchestra", Notes, 2nd Ser., vol. 46, no. 1. (Music Library Association, September 1989), 230.
  2. ^ Narazaki, Yoko; Masakata, Kanazawa (2001). "Takemitsu, Toru". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.
  3. ^ a b Coburn, Steven. "Toru Takemitsu, Artist Biography". AllMusic.
  4. ^ Erickson, Matthew (11 December 2015). "The riotous inventiveness of Takehisa Kosugi". Frieze (176).
  5. ^ Kaneda, Miki (20 December 2007). "Electroacoustic Music in Japan: The Persistence of the DIY Model". University of California at Berkeley. Archived from the original on 2 October 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  6. ^ "Takemitsu, Toru", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, eds. Michael Kennedy and Joyce Bourne Kennedy, (Oxford, 2013), Oxford Reference Online, Oxford University Press (subscription access).
  7. ^ "Toru Takemitsu Composition Award". Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation.