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Piano Distance

Toru Takemitsu

℗ 1961 

℗ 2013 barin.livejournal.com BR LLJ 42717

Toru Takemitsu • 1961 • Piano Distance

The three brief works known as 'Uninterrupted Rest' were composed in the composer's early period from 1952 - 1959. They are based on poems by Takiguchi Shuzo: (I) 'Slowly, sadly, as if to converse with' (1952), (II) 'Quietly and with a cruel reverberation' (1959), and (III) 'A song of love' (1959). 'Slowly, sadly, as if to converse with', of approximately two minutes duration, features a plaintive chromatic melody with soft chordal accompaniment. The tension increases with the addition of another voice in octaves that seems to want to remind the contemplative voice of something. Their brief dialogue ends in a sustained pause. The melody is then stated in octaves. And quietly concludes. The music segues directly into 'Quietly and with a cruel reverberation', of approximately 3 minutes duration, which is a pointillistic declamation in the manner of the Stockhausen/Boulez early piano works with sharp, dissonant block harmonies and isolated deep bass tones. The succession of events is constantly re-ordered.

'A song of love' contrasts mostly descending chromatic melodies in a slow, almost jazz ballad timing (like Monk, or Paul Bley's early style; Takemitsu was deeply taken by Ellington's music) in an approximately 2 minute framework. The silences are the longest of all the pieces in this set. The piece gives the impression of searching, of trying something out and then starting again, and then just stops, leaving the listener interested and hanging. Wonderfully. 'Piano Distance', of approximately 5 minutes duration, was composed in 1961. It's musical language is a mix of Takemitsu's later sensual, Messiaen and Debussy-influenced chords and the angular, dissonant sensibilities of the European avant-garde of that time (Stockhausen / Boulez). The imagery of the piece, however, is entirely that of Takemitsu, carried out in his usual clearly outlined yet deeply poetic manner. The music is built around gestures that are immediately mirrored in some way and contrasted, traveling along a pitch, amplitude or event sequence (tempo) dimension: for example, at the beginning we hear a distant tone followed by a sharp repetition of the same tone, much nearer. Then, a simple three-note motif becomes much quicker upon its repetition. Sometimes the sequence is reversed, and the louder series is played first with the quiet repetition arising from the resonance. Thick chords are played emphatically descending and then are mirrored by chords (not much quieter) arising from the deep bass and ascending. At the end, a quiet repetition of the motif, and only a hint of an answer on two chords that are held and fade away into the distance.

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