All-in twilight: intercultural composition strategies in Toru Takemitsu's guitar works

Abstract

This thesis focuses on cultural hybridity in several of Toru Takemitsu’s late guitar works, especially during his third period (1970-1996), showing how modernistic composition techniques and aesthetic attitudes of his second period (1960-1969) contribute to the sonorities used in his chamber and orchestral music. The link with European modernists, for example Sylvano Bussotti, is examined in the composition "A Piece for Guitar." Orchestration techniques are examined in the composition "To the Edge of Dream." This thesis aims to contribute to greater understanding of Takemitsu’s aesthetic aims, expressed in his many essays, as well as the influence of Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen.