Toru Takemitsu

Japan, 1950–1996

Japanese composer (1930-1996), largely self-taught, who combined Debussy's harmonic colour with Japanese instruments and a structural use of silence. He wrote Requiem for Strings, November Steps and scores for close to a hundred films.

MusicRoots documents 3 artists who influenced Toru Takemitsu and 0 artists Toru Takemitsu influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Toru Takemitsu?

• Claude Debussy — Debussy was the decisive influence on Takemitsu's harmonic language - the colour, ambiguity and love of timbre that let him write Western music with Japanese ears.
• Olivier Messiaen — Messiaen's modes and static, contemplative harmony were the other formative model for Takemitsu's language.
• John Cage — Meeting Cage in 1964 was the shock that sent Takemitsu back to Japanese tradition and to indeterminacy and graphic scores.