Confronting silence : selected writings / Toru Takemitsu ; translated and edited by Yoshiko Kakudo and Glenn Glasow ; with a foreword by Seiji Ozawa.

Author/creator Takemitsu, Tōru
Other author Kakudo, Yoshiko, editor, translator.
Other author Glasow, Glenn, 1924-2002, editor, translator.
Other author Ozawa, Seiji, 1935-2024, writer of foreword.
Format Book
Publication InfoBerkeley, CA : Fallen Leaf Press, 1995.
Descriptionxv, 155 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Subjects
Music--History and criticism.

Uniform titleLiterary works. Selections. English
SeriesFallen Leaf monographs on contemporary composers ; 1
Fallen Leaf monographs on contemporary composers ; 1. ^A682920
Contents Nature and music (from "A composer's diary"). -- On his contemporaries. -- John Cage -- Merce Cunningham -- Jasper Johns -- Conversation on seeing -- The landscape of the score -- On music. -- A single sound -- The distance from ud to biwa -- Noh and transience -- Sound of East, sound of West -- On art. -- Isamu Noguchi traveler -- Redon fantasy -- n his composing. -- A personal approach -- Notes on November steps -- Mirror and egg -- Dream and number -- Nature. -- People and trees -- Water -- Music is life: John Cage, the elegant revolutionary -- The passing of Feldman, Nono, and Messiaen -- Gardener of time.
Abstract Although internationally recognized as a major twentieth-century composer, Toru Takemitsu as author is relatively unknown except to Japanese-speaking readers. Since 1960, he has written numerous essays and commentaries, most of which have been published in Japan. Confronting Silence is the first collection of his writings to be translated into English. For the present volume, he has selected writings covering a wide range of subjects: art and artists, movies, his contemporaries, nature in all of its manifestations (a favorite topic), and, of course, music - traditional and contemporary, Eastern and Western, folk music, and his own compositions and approach to composing. Takemitsu's desire to express thoughts in prose as well as music, not typical of Japanese composers until recently, is more frequently associated with nineteenth-century European composers. With little interest in program music, Takemitsu does not believe that words explain the essence of music. Words are important in his own compositional technique, however, and his interest in writing is certainly more than casual. Words stimulate his imagination and give rise literally to images that in turn activate his sensibilities in his search for sound, the real essence of music.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
LCCN 95009884
ISBN091491331X (alk. paper)
ISBN9780914913313 (alk. paper)
ISBN0914913360 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN9780914913368 (pbk. ; alk. paper)