Toru Takemitsu
Toru Takemitsu's music listens closely to timbre and space: sparse lines, carefully placed silence, and a late fascination with water that runs through pieces such as Toward the Sea.
His scores often treat a single sound as complete in itself, shaped by the Japanese sense of ma, the tensed interval between events. He set biwa and shakuhachi beside Western orchestra, and let garden form and interlocking colour patterns inform the writing. Later chamber and orchestral works open into modal harmony and water imagery rather than drive to climax. In Toward the Sea III, flute and harp move through The Night, Moby Dick and Cape Cod in quiet panels. Pedals, pentatonic shadows and restrained allusions keep the surface breathing.
Compositions by Toru Takemitsu appear on
Enchanted Dreams... Exotic Dances
Geoffrey Collins and Alice Giles have played together since their school days. Their partnership works at an international level, and this carefully chosen programme shows their complete accord while avoiding the clichés often tied to flute and harp.