Soundscapes narrativos en el cine: tres bandas sonoras de Tōru Takemitsu (1962-1966)

El presente trabajo propone un modelo de análisis musical-sonoro de bandas sonoras de cine del compositor japonés Tōru Takemitsu en tres colaboraciones junto al director Hiroshi Teshigahara y el novelista, dramaturgo y guionista Kōbō Abe: La trampa (1962), La mujer de la arena (1964) y El rostro ajeno (1966). Takemitsu se presenta en estas realizaciones como un precursor de la composición de soundscape narrativo (paisajes sonoros narrativos) aplicado al campo del cine. Su pensamiento musical y estético para la composición de música de cine posee una gran afinidad con el concepto de soundscape (paisaje sonoro) y la filosofía musical del compositor canadiense Raymond Murray Schafer. En gran medida, debido a su interés común por John Cage. El enfoque metodológico, combina categorías de análisis del entorno acústico provenientes de los estudios sobre soundscape, categorías del campo de los estudios en música y sonido de cine, nociones estéticas de la música y las artes tradicionales japonesas y también categorías conceptuales creadas por el propio Takemitsu. Se analizó especialmente, la función narrativa de la banda sonora en relación con los distintos planos narrativos propuestos por el guión cinematográfico.

‘Filming the invisible’: Barrie Gavin in conversation with John Wyver

Barrie Gavin (b. 1935) is a celebrated producer, director and writer who is best known for numerous programmes about music and musicians made primarily for BBC Television from 1964 onwards. He worked on numerous occasions with the conductors Pierre Boulez and Simon Rattle, and with them and other collaborators he has directed more than 90 films. In this conversation recorded in Leeds in June 2018 Gavin discusses with the writer and producer John Wyver his ideas about making music television, his innovative approaches to filmmaking, his profiles of composers including Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Toru Takemitsu, and his working relationships with Boulez and Rattle.

Absence, silence, and the shades of Takemitsu’s Ma in Venice

I propose to set up a dialogue between absence and silence; in particular, between my own interpretations of absence through layered images, and silence as it features in the musical works by Tōru Takemitsu. My layered images seek to re-present experiences of absence, as they appear to the senses in the built environment, responding to its capacity to evoke multiple, uncertain and distant presences that seem to be away from our grasp. In Takemitsu’s multi-layered and unstructured pieces, silence plays a key role in bringing about “ma” – a meaningful spatio-temporal gap or in-between condition with metaphysic connotations, of great significance in Japanese culture. Following a hint by composer Philip Dawson, and largely driven by intuition, I explore the –albeit distant– resonances of my visual work in the acclaimed Japanese composer’s music. In this way, I expand the interpretative possibilities of absence and layering in representing the vanishing atmospheres of Venice, an example of fragile existence and aggregated formation.

Técnica estendida para flauta transversal e criatividade transformacional

O sistema Boehm fornece um padrão estável para construção da flauta transversal, criando um espaço estruturado de ideias concebíveis. Este espaço está relacionado ao incremento tecnológico, metalúrgico e ao desenvolvimento de chaves e sapatilhas na flauta. O sistema incorpora uma “disposição para ação”, ou um “padrão estruturado de restrições”. O surgimento de técnicas estendidas para flauta transversal constitui um caso exemplar para investigação de fenômenos de criatividade transformacional, de sua dependência de artefatos cognitivos (notações e instrumentos) e da transformação produzida em espaços conceituais específicos. Mas a expansão técnica atua com grande variabilidade. Nós examinamos aqui exemplos paradigmáticos do repertório de técnicas estendidas para flauta transversal. Na obra Voice, de Toru Takemitsu (1971), a técnica estendida foi desenvolvida a partir de parâmetros vocais relacionados à fala, enquanto em Das atmende Klarsein (1981), de Luigi Nono, a escrita para flauta é transformada pelo aparato eletrônico. Nestes casos, observamos episódios de criatividade transformacional, que correspondem à criação de espaços conceituais, cuja continuidade se observa no repertório posterior para o instrumento.

Beat and Square Cold War Encounters

This chapter is focused on the transnational influences of Japanese music during the Cold War and on music’s role in U.S. cultural diplomacy efforts aimed at Japan. This includes examples of numerous American jazz musicians (David Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Herbie Mann) who were sent to Japan and who created musical “impressions” of their experience. A primary focus in on the 1961 Tokyo East-West Music Encounter organized by Nicolas Nabokov and attended by multiple American composers (Lou Harrison, Henry Cowell, Colin McPhee) and scholars (Robert Garfias). The chapter then details the broad influence of gagaku on European (Messiaen, Stockhausen, Xenakis) and American composers, focusing particularly on Alan Hovhaness. Experimental composers, such as Richard Teitelbaum, inspired by John Cage’s engagement with Zen also turned toward Japan. The chapter concludes with an extended discussion of the role of Japanese music and Japanese composers (particularly Toru Takemitsu) in the career of Roger Reynolds.

Sōgetsu Art Center’s Invitation Letters to International Composers

The article gives first insights into the correspondence of the Sōgetsu Art Center with the artist Henry Jacobs and the composer Edgard Vare`se, as well as – for the first time – into letters referring to the above-mentioned correspondence. At the same time, it reveals the Center’s responsible figures for the international exposure, notably Toshirō Mazuyumi, Hiroshi Teshigahara and Tōru Takemitsu.