The late Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) is generally considered Japan's most important composer of the 20th century. As a teenager, he was deeply influenced by the music of the French Modernist composers and was later among the leaders of the movement trying to find a new direction for Japanese music. He went on to become the first Japanese composer to win recognition among the top rank of international composers, and his compositions were heard everywhere from New York's Philharmonic Hall to film soundtracks.
Although his training was in Western-style music, Takemitsu had a great interest in Japan's own instruments, and wrote a number of compositions for them, both by themselves and in combination with Western instruments or whole orchestras. Perhaps the most famous is "November Steps," for shakuhachi, biwa and orchestra, premiered by the New York Philharmonic in 1967.
The combination of shakuhachi and biwa attracted him again to write a duo, "Eclipse," which will be performed July 19 at the Yokohama City Kaiko Kinen Kaikan by Kodo Uesugi on the shakuhachi and Thomas Ranjo Marshall on Satsuma biwa. Instead of using standard five-line staff notation, Takemitsu used a personal, original graphic notation style to describe the effects he aimed at, which the performers were to interpret directly using their own musical skill.
"Eclipse" has usually been performed in the past by biwa players of the Tsuruta school of Satsuma biwa, but Irish expatriate Marshall is a student of the distinguished senior seiha Satsuma player Yoshinori Fumon, so his approach to Takemitsu's famous piece will be from a new and fresh angle.
The program will also include traditional Satsuma biwa pieces played by Fumon's official successor, Shijo Morizono, and Keijo Matsuda.