Waves, for solo clarinet, two trombones, horn and bass drum
Igor Stravinsky first brought the music of Toru Takemitsu to the attention of western listeners, hailing his Requiem for strings as a masterpiece in 1959. Takemitsu came from an established tradition of Japanese composers using "western" instruments and he studied privately in Tokyo with the composer Yasuji Kiyose, (1900-1981) but was largely self-taught, listening to western classical music on American radio and absorbing modern influences through Kiyose, who was active in the Japanese branch of the ISCM. He developed a highly individual musical language, bringing together elements of Messiaen, Webern, Cage and Japanese traditional music into a very recognisable personal idiom. He frequently drew his inspiration from visual stimuli, often images of nature as portrayed in western and Oriental art — his orchestral works Vers l’arc-en-ciel, Palma, and A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden are well established in the repertoire. This gift for evoking atmosphere and visual imagery made him an outstanding film composer, and he wrote scores for such masterpieces of Japanese cinema as Akira Kurosawa’s Ran (1985) and Shohei Inamura’s haunting Black Rain (1989).
Takemitsu met Richard Stoltzman at a performance of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps by TASHI, the ensemble founded by Mr Stoltzman in 1973. Over twenty years of "admiration, collaboration and friendship" ensued, during which Takemitsu produced four major works for clarinet — Quatrain, Waterways, Fantasma / CANTOS and Waves. Waves was written in 1976, and uses a small ensemble whose range is expanded through the use of sympathetically-vibrating percussion instruments — two snare drums and a gong, which are not played but which respond, untouched, to the vibrations set up by the other instruments. The musicians are also directed to create ocean-sounds with their instruments. Richard Stoltzman writes that Waves "represents, I think, a special encapsulation of two salient aspects of Takemitsu’s art — namely dream-images of nature directly depicted in sound using techniques adapted from Japanese instruments (in this case especially the shakuhachi [end-blown bamboo flute]) combined with harmonic references to 20th century western Impressionist composers and Jazz (in this case especially Duke Ellington)". Waves is dedicated "to Dick Stoltzman and Toshiaki Morita".
R.G. Bratby, 2001
Copyright Classical Notes.co.uk 2000
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