by Lena Pek Hung Lie, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Introduction

An understanding of the importance of a close correlation between the music and soundscape of a film and its images is essential in the making of a total cinematic art work, the Gesamtkunstwerk in films. When music is present in a film, it functions to reflect a certain idea, accentuate suspense, anticipate an impending situation, personify a metaphysical concept embedded in the narrative and many more as a tool to aid further the cinematic process in unfolding of the narrative structure.

As a secondary narrative element in films, music serves a significant function in communicating what the audience ought to experience and to recognize. An implicit dimension in the narrative, music holds the key to elevate an otherwise ordinary and mundane moment into a memorable scene, one that would be aesthetically charged. Besides these fundamental roles, if skillfully applied, music has the potential of becoming an indispensable tool to add an other space of equal importance to the existing narrative construct. A musical motif, a subtle harmonic nuance or a specific instrumental timbre may rouse our senses and prompt us to feel, acknowledge and possibly identify with the underlying concept of the accompanying image.

An analysis based on raw data that comprises of soundtracks, original music manuscripts and films as well as interviews with primary Takemitsu scholars conducted in Tokyo shows that Toru Takemitsu (1930 1996) employed the sounds of nature, unusual sound production procedures, traditional Japanese music and a variety of Western musical styles in his film scores. In the following sections, Takemitsu's representative film music and its corresponding film will be examined within the framework of aesthetics to uncover the composer's diverse compositional approaches.

Takemitsu: the Man and his Music

Toru Takemitsu, the most influential Japanese art music composer on the international scene, was an exceptionally prolific and versatile composer who not only had contributed immensely to Western contemporary art music, but had also scored music for more than 100 films, TV dramas and documentaries just under a span of 40 years.

Takemitsu was a very spiritual person who drew inspiration from nature; he emphasized in many of his writings the symbiotic relationship between human beings and nature, and the concept of "living harmoniously" with nature which constantly occupied his thoughts and motivated his compositional process (Takemitsu, 1995). Takemitsu's affinity for gardens and Zen Buddhist temples is strongly reflected in one of the last films he scored for, Dream Window: Reflections on the Japanese Garden (1992), which is named after Muso Kokushi (1275 1351) the landscape designer of Kokedera.i

Takemitsu's art music is graceful, atmospheric, slow pace and elegantly philosophical. Another interesting aspect of the composer and his musical style is that he had hardly written anything in tempo vivace. Slow, hyper controlled musical movements characteristically found in his music are one of the Japanese aesthetics closely observed in its culture such as the tea ceremony, Noh theatre and butoh. These musical characteristics permeate his film music for multiple film genres such as drama, thriller, documentary, war film, epic, biopic, period film, horror movie and short film.

Takemitsu's film music

Eclectic, flexible, and experimental are fitting adjectives to describe Takemitsu's compositional facility for film music. The first thing he always tried to achieve in his film scores was a unique sound that would be significant and memorable in the film. For someone who loved films and had boasted of watching three films a day, Takemitsu had developed enough critical insights to view the purpose of music in films as not to add musical sounds onto the narrative but to breathe life into a scene, a strategic moment in the narrative.

Takemitsu had successfully achieved a harmonious synthesis of music with narrative in films by combining the stylistic traits of his art music with his flexible approach in adapting a variety of musical styles for his film scores and bold experimentation with new compositional means.

By and large Takemitsu's sonic approach for films may be clustered together under three main categories i.e., acoustic music, electronic music and electro acoustic music. Under each of these categories are a number of subgroups which are further labeled according to musical stylesiii.

The sound source in all of the film scores stem from traditional instruments Japanese instruments, non traditional instruments Western musical instruments and exotic instruments, synthesizer, tape music, sounds in the environment and noise. Representative works of Takemitsu's large corpus of film music output are selected to illustrate the composer's overall sonic approach and musical styles in multiple film genres and his mode of translation of the visual narrative to music or conversely.

Sonic Approach, Musical Styles & Film Genres

On the broad spectrum, acoustic music appears to be the composer's sonic approach for dramas period drama and contemporary drama, romance, war films and documentaries. Electronic music musique concrète and music created by electronic manipulations, is often chosen for fantasy, thrillers and horror films. Interestingly, there is no specific trend in the utilization of electro acoustic music; this sonic approach is found in all film genres where acoustic and electronic music co exist in various films.

Although the way in which Takemitsu imposed certain musical style onto a particular film genre appears to be consistent, there are exceptions which go off at a tangent. These exceptions demonstrate his non consistency in the correlation between musical styles and film genres explicitly reveal his eclectic, flexible nature in film scoring. Complexities further surface where some films do not fall under one specific genre but can be treated as hybridized, for instance Empire of Passion, Rikyu and Ran. Overall, for Takemitsu, a film genre does not necessarily have a fixed musical stylistic association.

Takemitsu's multiple musical styles and unique orchestration techniques through acoustic sonic approach are appropriated unto various film genres. In general, it seems that ambient music scored for a combination of traditional and non traditional instruments is the general musical style for dramas as exemplified in Harakiri, Double Suicide, Empire of Passion, Sharaku and Ran. Ambient music is also mostly applied to the other documentaries with the exception of jazz and contemporary music for the two documentaries on Jose Torres, and symphonic music played by a string orchestra for war documentaries.

Takemitsu's sonic approach for thrillers, horror films and fantasy may be exemplified in several 1960s film scores in which his outstanding achievements in electronic music are documented.

Music written for Antonio Gaudi, Woman in the Dunes, Kwaidan, and a contemporary short film titled The White Dawn reveals Takemitsu's experimental traits as manifested in many unique and outstanding soundtracks as early as in the early 1960s. By using electronics, Takemitsu was able to create captivating sonic qualities apart from his usual acoustic language. His definitive film scoring techniques for electronic music are exhibited in Antonio Gaudi in which pre existing folk songs are adapted, skillfully combined with original soundtrack and electronically processed to take on the role of musical narration.
Besides composing electronic music for many films, tape music, electric guitar and electric bass were incorporated in some of the soundtracks of various films from 1956 to 1993.

By using two sonic approaches acoustic music and electronic procedures, in isolation or simultaneously in the music of a film as in The Ruined Map (1968) and Hymn to a Tired Man (1968), Takemitsu had created electro acoustic music as a third sonic approach at his disposal. The film scores for The Face of Another, Rikyu, Rising Sun reveal Takemitsu's well structured filmic musical design with regards to the application of electronic and acoustic music in the narrative. It seems that newly composed song and pre existing materials, as in The Face of Another, Rikyu and Rising Sun, are used not only to fulfill scenographic/cinematic purposes or to set the tone of a particular scene, but most significantly are employed to underscore an embedded message within the narrative. Ambient music whether electronically or acoustically created are used to illustrate an imminent danger, a mysterious plot and to accentuate suspense.

Conclusion

It seems that Takemitsu took into consideration various aspects far beyond the narrative, image and film genre when scoring his film music. Although he had demonstrated in some films a certain preference concerning sonic approach, for example acoustic music for dramas, documentaries and biopic, he also tossed in irregular compositional techniques in other films within the boundary of the same genre that reveals his wide musical aesthetics and his versatility in translation of narrative to music. This could be verified in his approach for Rikyu, Hymn to a Tired Man and Antonio Gaudi in which electro acoustic music is scored for the dramas and electronic music for the documentary. Takemitsu's sonic approach for horror films, thrillers and mysteries consistently includes some form of electronic elements.

Delicate ambient music has become established and signifies Takemitsu's general musical styles for films in all genres. The engaging nuances and timbre subtleties in his ambient music not only have successfully captured the audience's attention but also evoked the desired atmosphere and created suspense.

The soundtracks for Kwaidan, Woman in the Dunes and Ako clearly reflect the avant garde music aesthetics of the European Futurists movement of the early 1900 whereby sounds from nature, sounds in the environment, sounds produced by striking or breaking a non musical object, and industrial noise are often combined with the sounds of acoustic instruments and processed electronically thus generating a wide palate of tone colors and textures which is the essential raw sonic materials in Takemitsu's signature ambient music.

These film scores manifest his bold experimentations with musique concrète and electronic devices within the genre of film music and have set him apart from other film music composers in the 1960s.

Takemitsu was truly prolific, eclectic and creative; his enormous output in classical music and film music has distinguished him as an exceptionally talented composer in the history of Western contemporary art music as well as film music. A self taught composer whose education was cut short by military conscription at the tender age of 14 in 1944, this did not hinder Toru Takemitsu from becoming the one and only outstanding composer whose success may be measured in both classical and film music genres.

Acknowledgement

This paper is part of an ongoing research that was initially conducted under a grant of the Japan Foundation. Fieldwork conducted in Tokyo in November and December 2009 includes observation and acquisition of film scores, sketches and cue sheets at Nippon Kindai Ongakukan (Documentation Center of Modern Japanese Music) and National Film Center. Interviewees include Ms. Maki Takemitsu, Professor Tatsuhiko Nishioka (Tokyo University of the Arts), Professor Takashi Funayama (Tokyo University of the Arts), Professor Shinji Hori (Nippon Engineering College of Hachioji), Mr. Akira Tochigi (National Film Centre), Mr. Masato Hojo (EURSPACE Japan), Ms. Ono Mitsuko, and Mr. Shirai Fumito.

References

Anderson, J.L. and Richie, D. (1983). The Japanese Film: Art and Industry. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.

Andrew, Allan A. et.al. (2004). Keys to the Japanese Heart and Soul. Tokyo: Kodansha
International Ltd.

Brown, Royal S. (1994). Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music. Berkeley:
University of California Press.

Burt, George. (1995). The Art of Film Music. Massachusetts: Northeastern University
Press.

Burt, Peter. (2001). The Music of Toru Takemitsu. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Funayama, Takashi. (1998). Takemitsu Toru Hibiki no Umi e (Toru Takemitsu Towards the Sea
of Sonority). Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomosha.

Kondo, Jo. (2002). "Introduction: Toru Takemitsu as I Remember Him". Contemporary
Music Review, Vol. 21, NO. 4, pp. 1 3.

Monaco, James. (2009). How to Read a Film: Movies Media and Beyond. New York:
Oxford University Press.

O'hara, Tetsuo. (2003). Complete Takemitsu Edition. Volume 3 4. Tokyo: Shogakukan.

Ohtake, Noriko. (1998). Creative Sources for the Music of Toru Takemitsu. Aldershot:
Ashgate Publishing Company.

Prenderqast Roy M. (1997). Film Music: A Neglected Art. New York:
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.

Quandt, James. (2007). Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara. Video essay. The Criterion
Collection.

Richie, Donald. (1971). Janapnese Cinema: Film Style and National Character.
New York: Anchor Books.

____________ (2002) "Notes on the Film Music of Takemitsu Toru". Contemporary Music
Review, Vol. 21, NO. 4, pp. 5 16.

Takemitsu, Toru. (1995). Confronting Silence. Berkeley: Fallen Leaf Press.

Thorne, Roland. (2008). Samurai Films. Herts: Kamera Books.

Vick, Tom. (2007). Asian Cinema: A Field Guide. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

This is a shorter version of the original paper Toru Takemitsu's Film Music and its Corresponding Film Genres which was published in the International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 2011, VOLUME 4, NUMBER 1 (ISSN 1944 6934)

02 Feb 2012