Toru Takemitsu's Japanese gardens: an application of superset/subset networks to the analysis of the three orchestral compositions
Hideaki Onishi · Medical Entomology and Zoology · 2004
The music of Toru Takemitsu has been discussed largely in terms of its so-called Japanese-ness and viewed as a confluence of Japanese and Western musical traditions by historians and music theorists alike. While it might well be the case that certain features in his music could be labeled Japanese, it is not the only possible way of viewing it. This study examines, through the analysis of his three orchestral works, how we can approach his music from a more neutral and universal standpoint with a strict analytical methodology.The three works selected here, Dream/Window (1985), Fantasma/Cantos (1991), and Spirit (1994), all belong to the Garden Series, one of Takemitsu's major thematic compositions. The composer has made explicit mention of the Japanese garden as source of his inspiration for these pieces. There are actually two meanings in this single metaphor: the vertical aspect of his garden music is represented as his pan-focal (multi-focal) orchestration, but the more relevant here is its horizonal or temporal aspect that is comparable to the stroll in the Japanese garden. It is embodied in these three works as the recurrence of primary melodic/harmonic ideas in different guises through the principle of coloristic variation.A new concept called the superset/subset network is introduced to serve my analytical purpose; the network consists of all possible supersets and subsets of a referential sonority and makes it possible to examine the sonorities that are related to it and study the middle- and large-scale as well as small-scale structures of the entire compositions. My analytical methodology also strives for a comprehensiveness that is free from pre-analytical choice of referential sets and their cardinalities. The analysis reveals that each of the three works relies on its own referential sonority and the way it is deployed during the piece does have a certain similarity to the formal design of a Japanese garden, although they are musically self-sufficient wholes and do not necessitate such an extra-musical interpretation. Other topics such as musical influences, the concept of ma and Japanese perception of time, and titles in Takemitsu's works are also discussed.