Toru Takemitsu, Toshio Hosokawa: Works for Solo Guitar

Toshio Hosokawa

»SWIMMING IN THE OCEAN WHERE THERE IS NO EAST OR WEST«

The checkered history of the appropriation of Western models in Japan's culture and lifestyle has unfolded in its own unique, fateful way: where Europe had imposed itself, mostly by force, for centuries, without the slightest interest in any culture already existing there, it has Japan after 200 years of complete isolation (in the sakōku so-called isolation policy) from the second half of the 19th century decided of their own free will to orientate themselves towards Europe, especially on an economic level. In return, Western philosophy and art have repeatedly succumbed to the fascination of the Far East, especially since the Paris World Exhibition in 1889, but also in the years that followed, even if knowledge of its actual reality was often quite superficial.

In the Land of the Rising Sun, European music began to spread from the Meiji period (1868-1912) through the emergence of orchestras and music academies. But at this point it is still a simple juxtaposition without interaction: the differences between an 18th-century symphony and a Japanese melody played by one of the numerous traditional instruments are too great. Even the first attempts at exchange are still of little interest and usually result in the loss of their identity on the part of the Japanese.
Before there could be any truly mutual, profound influence, one had to overcome another period of isolation from the outside world that coincided with World War II, then the period of composers like Toshiro Mayuzumi or Yoritsune Matsudaira, until finally in the Person of Toru Takemitsu a turning point has been reached.

Takemitsu, born in 1930 and thus unknowingly belonging to the avant-garde generation of Berio, Boulez and Stockhausen, was first and foremost a great autodidact, open to everything he heard and interested in the relationship to other arts, especially painting, immune to any cultural dictate , keenly aware of his roots but able to see the greater complexity of European music. His thinking, the ethereal, floating moods, his feeling for nature and that ma (the silence between two tones) are undoubtedly autochthonous Japanese, while his sound material very obviously draws on the musical currents of the European 20th century - with the freedom, however, not to have to belong to any of these currents like his western contemporaries, who usually very much were more militant.

A CD project like this is particularly interesting for understanding the interpenetration of styles and cultures because the way the guitar string is struck and dies out is similar to playing on Japanese stringed instruments like Koto and Shamisen similar, and because the sound, how it lingers and loses itself in emptiness and silence, brings us very close to a Far Eastern concept of sound and life. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Takemitsu has such an extensive production for this instrument, which is characterized by extraordinary care in idiomatic spelling and constant search for expanding its technical possibilities.

Let's take the one written in 1974 folios as a starting point. The musical flow is thematic, continuous and discursive, the most direct reference seems to be Alban Berg: the beginning of the first of the three pieces is that of Piano Sonata op. 1 (1908) by the Viennese composer is not dissimilar, and while there are some dance-like twists in it, it is probably Berg's spirit that leads at the end to a quotation from a chorale by Bach, just as in the violin concerto by Berg (1935).

In All in Twilight (1987), on the one hand, the silence between two musical events is even more pronounced, on the other hand, there are even clearer symmetries in the phrasing and a hint of tonality with references to Debussy and jazz, until the appearance of an unexpected canzonal twist in the last part.

Equinox (1993) is surely Takemitsu's masterpiece for guitar: The equinox in Japan is the day of the dead, the moment when day and night meet in perfect balance, the world of the living and the afterlife. The clarity of the formal structure supports the focus of attention on the precision of the required timbres, on the importance attached to the aftertaste and on the handling of special effects such as that of an unconventional tuning.

In the three pieces from which In the woods (1995), the sense of nature and the reference to the imagination of three American forests lead to a trade-off between a return to diatonic and rhythmic-thematic sound materials that can be traced back to Messiaen and their floating in the void, where the ma particular weight.

Thus, via Takemitsu, one arrives at the most important Japanese composer of the following generation: Toshio Hosokawa, who was born in Hiroshima in 1955. With him, the deeply Japanese composer, but who studied in Germany (first in Berlin with the Korean Isang Yun and then in Freiburg with the Swiss Klaus Huber), the increasing overcoming of the borders between the two worlds described above is now definitely realized.

Hosokawa no longer needs to refer to material from Western music, his vocabulary is wholly original and at the same time timelessly classic. So with him there is an osmosis between European techniques on the one hand and an endemic Far Eastern conception of the sense of time and the course of things, the Taoist, on the other Yin and Yang and the form of the sounds is now complete and knows no contradictions. Such a symbiosis, in turn, is now able to feed back into the West and exert a powerful influence on the young generation in Europe. He himself says: »My music is calligraphy painted on the free edge of time and space. Each sound has a shape similar to that of lines and dots drawn by a brush. This line is painted on the fabric of silence. The edge of that fabric, which is part of the silence, is just as important as the audible sounds.«

Serenade (2003) is a particularly fine example of this aesthetic and a personal universe in which East and West, new and old coexist, as evidenced by the use of playing techniques pointing to the Koto are due. This makes it the perfect finale to the music featured on this CD.

Catherine Di Cecca
Translation from Italian: Birgit Gotzes

September 26, 2015

Prize Le Ghitarre d'Oro

February 2015

CD of the month

Issue no. 119 April-June 2014

Pipe Takemitsu (1930-1996)

All in Twilight Four Pieces for Guitar (1987) 11:34
[01] I. 03:12
[02] II.Dark 02:53
[03] III. 02:30
[04] IV. Slightly almost 02:59

[05] Equinox (1993) 05:27

folios (1974) 09:13
[06] I. 03:03
[07] II. 02:59
[08] III. 03:11

[09] A Piece for Guitar (1991) 01:12
for the 60th birthday of Sylvano Bussotti

In the woods Three Pieces for Guitar (1995) 13:22
[10] I. Wainscot Pond after a painting by Cornelia Foss 03:36
[11] II. Rosedale 04:11
[12] III. Muir Woods 05:35

Toshio Hosokawa (* 1955)

Serenade (2003) 13:44
[13] I. In the Moonlight 08:51
[14] II. Dream Path 04:53

total time: 54:46

Marco Del Greco guitar

September 26, 2015

Prize Le Ghitarre d'Oro

February 2015

CD of the month

Issue no. 119 April-June 2014

The Londoner Gramophone writes about Marco del Greco's recording of "In the Woods", starting with a quote from the premiere interpreter Julian Bream:

“‘Music of extraordinary stillness, music that dissolves gently into silence,’ Bream has said of the piece – and Del Greco captures that dissolution here.”

23.07.2015

06.03.2015

Music as a meditative process
The guitar works of Toru Takemitsu and Toshio Hosokawa find their ideal interpreter in Marco del Greco. Apparently there are no technical limits for him, but he puts his virtuosity completely at the service of subtle musical expression. (...) Of course, the interpreter has to approach these notes in a completely different way, he has to immerse himself contemplatively in the score. There are probably similarities here to tending a traditional Japanese garden; Here, too, meditative immersion plays an important role. Marco del Greco seems to be the adequate interpreter for this. With compelling naturalness, without any pretentious-mannered attitude, the guitarist faces the subtle timbres of this music; his superior touch culture does justice to its charm, its weightless elegance to the highest degree. He never loses himself in the ornamental detail, those dangerous idylls of guitar music - above all he always keeps the great rhythmic breath in mind.
(...) Here it finally becomes clear that for Marco del Greco there are no technical limits on the instrument. But ultimately, with these two Japanese composers, that's not what matters.
(...) Marco del Greco's ability to play music in an extremely lyrical way, where others struggle with the intricacies and imponderables of the musical text, he sets intimate, calm islands of sound with a guitar tone that is extremely sustainable even in the quietest ranges.
(...) It cannot be emphasized enough: The enchanting aspect of Marco del Greco's approach results from the fact that he dispensed with any guitaristic virtuoso gestures and thus allowed a kind of self-realization of the work that exaggerated its value, the performers modestly in the background, but ultimately creates the impression of unsurpassable authenticity of the music-making. An interesting text by Caterina Di Cecca and a convincing audio technique complete this recommendable CD.

Michael Pitz-Grewenig

06/2014

«My music is something like a signal that I send into the unknown. I imagine and even believe that this signal meets the signal of another and the physical exchange that results creates a new harmony different from the original. This is a continuously changing process. And that's why my music is not complete in the form of a score. Rather, she refuses to complete this. This is quite contrary to the artistic intentions of the West” (Toru Takemitsu 1993).
Marco Del Greco, born in Rome in 1982, studied in his hometown with Carlo Carfagna and later with Stefan Schmidt at the Basel Music Academy. Del Greco has competed in numerous international competitions, winning the 53 2010rd Tokyo International Guitar Competition, which included an extensive concert tour of Japan that took place in late 2011. The now published album with works by Toru Takemitsu and Toshio Hosokawa is also his first solo CD. With the exception of arrangements of songs by Akira Nakada, the Beatles, George Gershwin and others, it contains all the pieces for solo guitar composed by Takemitsu and the Serenade by Toshio Hosokawa.
The guitar was the instrument that Takemitsu loved and was particularly familiar with because he played it himself. Julian Bream, who commissioned the four pieces All in Twilight (1987), and John Williams were among the early performers. Franz Halász and Shin-ichi Fukuda also played Takemitsu's guitar works superbly.
The new recording by Marco Del Greco, on the other hand, does not leave a favorable impression. The pieces should sound unintentional, so to speak, flow "naturally" despite the pauses and certain reflexive breaks. It may be that Del Greco had too much respect for Takemitsu's music; it may also be that he misinterprets the space notation. He hardly phrases, but spells out every detail. The sound engineering does the rest by zooming in too close to the sound to prevent the flow of the music and the possible impression of cohesion. Do you really need to hear the performer's every breath in detail?
Takemitsu's pieces are structured in octatons, inspired by the format of sheet music (three folios, 1974), images by Paul Klee (All in Twilight), Joan Miró (Equinox, 1993) and forests in North America (In the Woods, 1995). Its basic character is restrained, nobly entertaining, but not cramped ... Folio II became famous, the end of which surprisingly leads to a quotation from Bach, to the first five bars of the chorale Wenn ich ein soll to divorce, which Takemitsu found in the St Matthew Passion. With his Serenade (2003), consisting of the movements In the Moonlight and Dream Path, Toshio Hosokawa, who was able to work with Del Greco on the pieces, remains in his personal style of meditative music.

Walter Wolfgang Sparrer

Music:
Technique:
Booklets:

n. 168, October 2014

[…] La musica di Hosokawa è profondamente radicata in una “antichità senza tempo” (il virgolettato è tratto dalle note al CD) e “l'osmosi tra tecniche europee e concezione orientale del corso delle cose è totale e senza contraddizioni”. Si tratta di Serenade del 2003, bellissimo dittico dove “coesistono Oriente e Occidente, nuovo ed antico” a testimoniare come l'eredità di Takemitsu non sia andata perduta, ma trovi proprio in Hosokawa il suo più naturale continuatore, nelle forme e nei contenuti. A particolare plauso va a Del Greco per averci fatto conoscere questo importante pezzo che si snoda in due sontuosi movimenti per una durata totale di quasi 14 minutes. […]

Francesco Biraghi

September 2014

August 29, 2014

Website

El joven guitarrista romano Marco Del Greco atesora a sus 32 años una maestría y una exquisita sensibilidad que viene avalada por toda una serie de primeros premios internacionales. Una larga y relatively reciente gira por Japón le ha ido permitiendo crecer en su empatía y profundizar en el conocimiento de la música de aquel país y llevar a cabo este proyecto discográfico para el sello Neos sobre todo a través de dos compositores clave: Toru Takemitsu ( Tokyo, 1930-1996) and Toshio Hosokawa (Hiroshima, 1955), ambos, como bien es sabido, músicos japoneses de conocida proyección internacional amén de excelentes conocedores de las técnicas musicales occidentales conjugadas con las particularidades de su propia tradición cultural.

Takemitsu, prolífico compositor que atendió largamente la guitarra, tiene en su haber un extenso catálogo de piezas escritas para dicho instrumento dentro del que no faltan incluso eventuales y muy personales incursiones en el terreno del jazz o la música pop aunque las piezas escogidas para esta grabación por Del Greco son de hecho las mas significativas del autor para guitarra sola. La vibrante sonoridad, la claridad y precisión del músico se adapta como anillo al dedo a unas piezas de atmósferas suspendidas, de calladas resonancias y positivos silencios que provienen culturalmente de una atenta observación de un flujo del tiempo en la naturaleza, una percepción que se aparta del funcionalismo y se sumerge en una soñadora vaguedad que sin embargo precisa y armoniza con la medida, con el número.

Seducido Takemitsu siempre por la figura de Claude Debussy, All in Twilight (1987) se compone de cuatro piezas que trabajan el color tonal, las simetrias y los silencios entre notas aunque de un modo genuinamente japonés. Anterior a esta y más discursiva musicalmente, el lirismo de folios (1974) tiene más reminiscencias de la segunda escuela de Viena y en concrete a algunas piezas de Alban Berg, otra de sus reconocidas debilidades musicales.

Equinox (1993) it una pieza ya más madura y de mayor contenido simbolico en la que se emplea una particular afinación. Su título alude a la fiesta japonesa del equinoccio y establece un paralelo musical con el objeto de producir un encuentro entre los vivos y el más allá en el que ciertos efectos sonoros y resonancias cobran una definitiva presencia. De nuevo la naturaleza, su color y sus ecos son evocados a través de tres bosques americanos en In the woods (1995) pero esta vez sus inclinaciones se decantan por soluciones y estructuras rítmicas que evocan a other de sus referentes, Olivier Messiaen, en la que los vibrantes tonalidades quedan limpiamente suspendidas en el vacío.

Y casi tan breve como un haiku, A Piece for Guitar (1991) consists of a home name by Italian composer Sylvano Bussotti and his sex age cumpleaños.

Pero añadamos que mientras que Takemitsu construye en buena parte de su trabajo unas atmósferas complejas que se resuelven flexiblemente sin alarde de contrastes y simbiosis formales sin violentas confrontaciones, a veces de sedosa textura, Toshio Hosokawa acentúa el plano expresivo con un sentido más dram ático y de mayor claroscuro las dos parts que componen su serenade (2003). Más inclinado en este caso que Takemitsu hacia el uso y revalorización de técnicas tradicionales y sonoridades de los cordófonos japoneses como aquí es el caso del koto, Hosokawa deja a las claras la atracción por las armonias de color que crea dicho instrumento traducido a la técnica de la guitarra classica. In the Moonlight y Dream Path recuperan ese sonido interior, el valor y contraste de los silencios y la concreción de los gestos caligráficos para volver al clima simbólico de un poema nocturno que enlaza con All in Twilight a través de acogedoras penumbras y elipsis que permiten el vuelo de la imagination.

Excelente disco del sello Neos al que desde mi óptica le pondría la pega de no alcanzar plenamente en ocasiones las creo que necesarias cotas de misterio que posiblemente requieran estas excelentes, soñadoras y sutiles piezas para guitarra que a su modo mantienen un difícil pero conseguido equilibrio entre Distintas sensibilidades culturales que hay que considerar realmente valuable.

Manuel Luca de Tena

04/17.

guitar love
How much Toru Takemitsu loved the very European side of the guitar is revealed by his arrangements of jazz standards and Beatles songs in the “12 Songs For Guitar” […], but also his “serious” compositions for solo guitar: “All in Twilight” occasionally seems like the improvisation of a jazz musician; the three “Folios” conjure up Berg just as they evoke Bach at the end.
For Toshio Hosokawa, Takemitsu was one of the first landmarks in Europe. His “Serenade” reveals a haunting concentration on the tension between sound and silence, based on the characteristics of the Japanese koto. Marco del Greco gives these sounds a lot of depth and beauty, drawing the finest harmonic engravings in these melancholic sound images.

Who

Music:
Sound:

Gendai Guitar Magazine
05.2014

Ö1, Zeit-Ton-Magazine on June 25.06.2014th, XNUMX, author: Reinhard Kager

[…] Pieces for solo guitar by Tōru Takemitsu and Toshio Hosokawa were also published on the Bavarian label. In his “Serenade” for guitar, Hosokawa also integrates playing techniques that are otherwise used in the Japanese Kōto. “In The Moonlight,” the title of the first movement of the serenade, also takes advantage of the staying power of Japanese music. Here is an excerpt.

MUSIC 5: Toshio Hosokawa, “Serenade”, track 13,
T: Serenade, I: In The Moonlight, K: Toshio Hosokawa, I: Marco del Greco,

When Spain meets Japan: an osmosis of European and Japanese playing techniques in Toshio Hosokawa's “Serenade” for guitar, played by Marco del Greco on a CD by Neos. […]

02.06.2014 (Website)

Nueva incursión del sello alemán NEOS en la música japonesa, en esta ocasión de la mano de dos de sus más reconocidos creadores contemporáneos, el más joven de ellos, Toshio Hosokawa (Hiroshima, 1955), con una nutrida y nutritiva presencia en el menú musical que desde su discográfica nos sirve ese exquisite gourmet que es Wulf Weinmann. Los platos que hoy nos ofrece NEOS, de la mano del guitarrista romano Marco Del Greco, son de fácil digestión, con propuestas amables de notable lirismo y un lenguaje tonal en el que el discurso melódico es el ingrediente fundamental de su receta, en unas partituras que se escuchan por si solas, al tiempo que sugieren universes de enraizado diálogo intercontinental y sabio sincretismo transfronterizo.

El compositor con más presencia en este compacto es Tōru Takemitsu (Tokyo, 1930-1996), cuya creación para guitarra es prolija e intercultural, en el sentido de que en sus partituras, como en la concepción tímbrica del instrumento y en sus dinámicas de ataque - resonancia, podemos percibir un uso de la guitarra que nos remite a modalidades niponas de esta familia, como el koto o el shamisen. Tal y como señala Caterina Di Cecca en el libreto de este compacto, la forma en que las cuerdas vibran en la guitarra, su modo de irse desvaneciendo sobre el silencio, presentan analogías con la sonoridad de estos cordófonos orientales, además de permitir a Takemitsu dar sustancia sonora a su modo de concebir el sonido musical como hecho existencial en un sentido oriental.

Sin Embargo, La Música de Takemitsu Nunca dejó de Nutrirse Tanto de Sus Raíces Niponas Como de la Tradición Europe, Y de Ello Folios (1974) es un ejemplo paradigmático, con sus reminiscencias (valley y como señala di cecca) de la músca de Alban, de su Soberbia sonata para piano Opus 1 (1908); y, a través de ésta, the propio Johann Sebastian Bach, with the multiplicidad de ambientes que convoca, the confrontation of themes and su vocación de verticalidad, with a breath more amplia y ambiciosa que algunas de las restantes partituras, más concentradas, con character de haiku.

Las cuatro piezas para guitarra que conforman All in Twilight (1987) poseen un lenguaje más libre, de articulación más flexible en sus eventos sonoros, de más amplia resonancia en el silencio. En ellas fluye una mayor diversidad estilística, que para Di Cecca comprende ecos desde Debussy al jazz. No obviaría uno entre as references to the rock experimental de los años setenta y ochenta, con grupos como Popol Vuh, especialmente en su primera pieza; así como las baladas, en su nocturnal 'Dark'; o la canción ligera mediterránea, en 'Slightly fast'. Teniendo en cuenta sus adaptaciones de temas de los Beatles, it showsta la permeabilidad estética de Takemitsu, algo con respecto al pop especialmente explícito en su música para guitarra, como aquí.

A Piece for Guitar (1991) is a great example of a minute of writing time to celebrate the sesenta cumpleaños of the Italian composer Sylvano Bussotti. Muchas de las señas de identidad estilísticas de All in Twilight permanecen en este regalo de aniversario, de concentrated abanico armónico y espaciosidad generosa en el silencio, sobre el que Takemitsu hace converger los registros extremos del instrumento. Equinox (1993) it una pieza más compleja en sus texturas en cuanto a matices tímbricos y afinación, con un discurso melódico-armónico más enrevesado en sus capas y relieves, si bien dando vueltas de tuerca a los planteamientos hasta aquí explicitados, por lo que resulta un tanto reiterativa. Algo similar sucede con In the woods (1995).

Marco Del Greco's lectures on all of these parts are suman with special disco compact recordings, and Sean reads from John Williams on the classic Sony recording (SK 46720), not included folios y various piezas de cámara con guitarra, o la más completa compilación de Shin-ichi Fukuda en Naxos (8.573153), donde encontramos todas las piezas de Takemitsu presentes en este disco, además de algunos de sus arreglos a partir de los Beatles (y piezas para guitarra de Leo Brouwer). For comparison, las versions de Del Greco son más modernas en su concepción del sonido, poseen una gran solidez, una exquisita combinación de técnica y sentimiento, y su tempo me parece en todos los casos idóneo: denso y expresivo, muy unitario. Interpretaciones inmaculadas, por tanto, desde cualquier punto de vista, con un ataque preciso, muy limpio, bien espaciado, muy resonante y de respiración medida.

This is the beginning of the attacks, with resonance and glissando, Serenade (2003) nos (de)muestra que el lenguaje para guitarra de Toshio Hosokawa es otro, más actual y menos tendido a lo pop, sin por ello eludir esa pátina de lirismo que impregna todas las partituras de este disco, con su filiación con la tonalidad, con la tradition, si bien depurada con personalidad, refinamiento y notable elegancia. Vuelve a ser esta pieza un puente, un ejercicio de sincretismo entre Oriente y Occidente, con sus reminiscencias de la tecnica del koto japonés en su dialéctica de ataque-resonancia, por Hosokawa explorada en diversas estructuras de ritmos, alturas y técnicas instrumentales sobre el lien zo del silencio, sobre el vacío, en ejercicio caligráfico de inspiration tradicional que Hosokawa dice es su música.

La interpretación vuelve a ser de una profunda sensibilidad, de un balance entre el ataque, la resonancia y el silencio muy bien calibrada, honda y de gran empaque sonoro. In the libreto de este compacto is recognized by one of the palabras of Hosokawa and the composer is nipón alaba ya no solo la interpretación que de Serenade Realiza Marco Del Greco, sino el misterio y la comprension con que el guitarrista italiano desgrana la musica del que califica como su mentor: Toru Takemitsu. It is así que el continuum que este compacto establece no hace sino reforzar uno de los rizomas más solidos de la música nipona contemporánea, en interpretaciones de referencia, con una sabiduría impactante. No son estas, ni mucho menos, las partituras más destacadas en los respectivos catálogos de Takemitsu y Hosokawa, entre los que las considero obras menores, pero permiten conocer, en condiciones óptimas, algunas de sus afirmaciones lírico-melódicas más delicadas. La excellent toma de sonido, de una magnífica presencia, peso y definition, que visita cada resquicio del instrumento, cada matiz en el rasgado de las cuerdas, no hace más que ayudar a que el producto resulte redondo, como las notes de Caterina Di Cecca y su sintético acercamiento a las relaciones entre la música japonesa y Europa desde a punto de vista oriental.

This disco has been delivered for your review The Art of the Fuga.

Paco Yanez

September 26, 2015

Prize Le Ghitarre d'Oro

February 2015

CD of the month

Issue no. 119 April-June 2014

Prize Le Ghitarre d'Oro

February 2015

CD of the month

Issue no. 119 April-June 2014