Toru Takemitsu: The Man Who Loved Films

By: Tristan P. Teshigahara

“The reason I love movies is because I experience them as music.” – Takemitsu

Japan’s greatest 20th-century composer, Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) was almost entirely self-taught, composing Western influenced compositions while still a rebellious youth, under the tutelage of Avant-garde composer John Cage, turning to traditional Japanese styles in the 60s. An avid moviegoer (who frequented the cinema while traveling overseas), Takemitsu has scored well-over 100 films, each radically different in style; from merry waltzes, elegiac gagaku, the oblique electro-acoustic sounds of nature, orchestrated relics of the past, and the most somber of elegies. Revered as Japan’s most indelible and influential composer, he was also an established poet, musical theorist, philosopher and chef. Bedridden after losing a long battle with bladder cancer, Takemitsu lamented, just before his death, "in all that time I haven’t seen a single movie.”
Here are some of my personal, favorite scores by the late maestro:

Woman in the Dunes (1964)
Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara

“Takemitsu’s music for Woman in the Dunes relies almost totally on a string ensemble. The sounds, alternately shrill, harsh, and menacing, form a perfect soundscape… but this ‘composed’ music is only part of Takemitsu’s unique contribution to the film. The weird environment is the dominating quality of the film, and, recognizing this, Takemitsu gives life to the sand through sound. It is there at all times, even when a scene seems completely silent. The soft, barely audible sizzle or hiss or patter of sand—dripping, shifting, and constantly in motion—
[it] inhabits every moment of the film, as it does every moment of the protagonists’ terrifying existence.” – Peter Grilli

“The sand has its own identity… And without Toru’s help, we never would have been able to realize this fully.” – Hiroshi Teshigahara

White Morning (1965)
Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara

The Ruined Map (1968)
Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara

Antonio Gaudi (1984)
Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara

“With the sound paralleling the images, it looses… [Gaudi’s] unique art… born of Catalonian culture. In the film, there are four arranged Catalonian folk pieces, all of which have been electronically altered or combined with other sounds.” – Takemitsu

Rikyu (1989)
Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara

Harakiri (1962)
Dir. Masaki Kobayashi

“[The film score was] revolutionary because it showed us how image and music ought to be combined.”
– Masahiro Shinoda

Kwaidan (1964)
Dir. Masaki Kobayashi

“A work of pure stylization, in this stunning film each episode is very creepy but also bewitching and hypnotic:

Every shot, every frame, is painstakingly composed (in ’Scope), an adventure in depth, color and texture. And the sound is just as richly textured.” – Martin Scorsese

“I wanted to create an atmosphere of terror.” – Takemitsu

Hymn To A Tired Old Man (1968)
Dir. Masaki Kobayashi

The Fossil (1975)
Dir. Masaki Kobayashi

Bad Boys (1961)
Dir. Susumu Hani

“An extraordinarily multi-layered and a multi-functional film which is also a brilliant cinematic experiment that only a few directors would dare undertake, even more so as a debut feature. Hani oscillates between depicting the present-day activity at the reformatory and flashbacks of the previous lives of the kids before entering it, when they were ‘bad boys’, accompanied by composer Toru Takemitsu’s bittersweet and nostalgic melodies.” – Midnight Eye

She and He (1963)
Dir. Susume Hani

Pale Flower (1964)
Dir. Masahiro Shinoda

Double Suicide (1969)
Dir. Masahiro Shinoda

Ballad Of Orin (1977)
Dir. Masahiro Shinoda

“Takemitsu uses music sparingly and evocatively to underline the emotion.” – Donald Richie

Dear Summer Sister (1972)
Dir. Nagisa Oshima

HOUSE OF FLAME (1979)
Dir. Kihachiro Kawamoto

Alone On The Pacific (1963)
Dir. Kon Ichikawa

“Toru’s score is his ‘Hollywood sound’ — à la Dimitri Tiomkin.” – Peter Grilli

Himatsuri (1985)
Dir. Mitsuo Yanagimachi

Dodes’kaden (1970)
Dir. Akira Kurosawa

“Takemitsu’s bright score is all primary colors.” – Donald Richie

An interesting note, Toru often envisioned pieces for specific conductors, performers and engineers – it seems as though it was the friendship that drove the music – Leon Kirchner states: “Toru Takemitsu was a giant of music, but equally as important, he was a giant of friendship.”