Takemitsu, T :: Toward the Sea

Toru Takemitsu s Toward the Sea for alto flute and guitar was commissioned by Greenpeace for the Save the Whales campaign, and the work refers largely to Melville s novel. Written for Alto Flute and [Guitar], Toward the Sea is in three sections: The Night, Moby-Dick and Cape Cod. The composer describes his music as a homage to the sea which creates all things and a sketch for the sea of tonality . The first movement: The Night refers to the setting of the novel's action in a cold and gloomy night of December. The captain is obsessed with a sperm whale named Moby Dick. He has decided to dedicate the rest of his life pursuing and hunting the whale, which has become a morbid obsession. This ambiguous and devouring obsession - between hatred and twisted love - is depicted in Takemitsu's second movement: Moby Dick . The piece by Takemitsu conveys the feelings of obsession, cold, and anxiety as well as the evocation of the sea in a form of a musical Haiku. Given this, the numerous pauses in the piece, shall not be seen or interpreted as a suspension or a merely resonance of the musical discourse, contrary to its usual use in western music. These suspensions following the structure of the Japanese art of poetry, and have to be seen and understood as time that reflects what has just been said. This reflection give the audience the possibility to assimilate the discourse, thus to trigger an inner resonance in their soul and being - by awaking imagination and spirituality.

- The Center for Fiction, 2015