Hing-yan Chan

Music of Japan Today III: Tradition and Innovation


Abstract:
Symmetry and Large-Scale Continuity in Toru Takemitsu's *November Steps*
Although *November Steps* is perhaps Takemitsu's best-known composition, it has received no thorough analysis since its premiere. In *Confronting Silence* (1995), the first collection of Takemitsu's writings translated into English, there are a few pages discussing the origin and genesis of *November Steps.*1 Noriko Ohtake's *Creative Sources for the Music of Toru Takemitsu* (1993) is the only monograph on Takemitsu's music to date in any language.2 Yet the book only provides a basic gazetteer to Takemitsu's compositions and includes no musical analysis. Edward Smaldone's short article of 1989 focuses on the large-scale pitch organization of Takemitsu's *November Steps* and *Autumn* (1973).3 Despite its thought-provoking insights, Smaldone's analysis of *November Steps* covers less than one-tenth of the entire composition.

This paper will explore the unusual formal techniques which Takemitsu uses in *November Steps.* I will limit myself to an investigation of the musical architecture; this will allow me sufficient space to delve into important details which would, by virtue of necessity, be glossed over if I attempted to elucidate every aspect of the entire work. Matters such as orchestration, pitch organization, and timbre will be considered in detail only in so far as they are pertinent to the formal design.

According to Takemitsu, *November Steps* are a set of eleven variations.4 In the full score of *November Steps,* Takemitsu denoted the beginning of each "step" with an encircle number.5 In fact, *November Steps* consists of more than eleven steps, in that the first step is preceded by an orchestral introduction and between steps 10 and 11 appears a cadenza featuring solely the two solo instruments.

I will look at these thirteen sections in two different ways. In the first, I will be concerned with the symmetry defined by various orchestration details; in the second, I will consider how the attributes of individual steps affect the large-scale continuity of the composition. Moreover, since the cadenza occupies nearly two-fifths of the entire composition, a detailed study of its architecture will also be included.

1 Toru Takemitsu, *Confronting Silence: Selected Writings* (Berkeley: Fallen Leaf Press, 1995), pp. 63, 67, 83-90.

2 Noriko Ohtake, *Creative Sources for the Music of Toru Takemitsu* (Hants: Scholar Press, 1993).

3 Edward Smaldone, "Japanese and Western Confluences in Large-Scale Pitch Organization of Toru Takemitsu's *November Steps* and *Autumn*" (Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 27, no.2, Summer 1989), pp. 216-31. *Autumn* is also scored for biwa, shakuhachi and orchestra.

4 Takemitsu, op. cit., pp. 67-72. Incidentally or not, in another article, "Notes on *November Steps,*" Takemitsu jotted down eleven short paragraphs, in the form of a memorandum, which were used as a program note to the composition. See Takemitsu, op. cit., 87-8; and "Composer's Notes," jacket notes for *Takemitsu: Visions, November Steps, Requiem and Far Calls, Coming Far! (Denon CO-79441), pp.3-4.

5 Since, according to Takemitsu, the eleven "variations" should not be understood literally in the Western sense (letter to the author, 21 April, 1995), in this paper, I prefer the term "step" to "variation." When I use the term "section," it may refer to one of the following: the introduction, the cadenza, or any one of the eleven "steps." Throughout this paper, references to different sections of my analysis will be in capitals, so as to distinguish them from references to sections of *November Steps.*

Hing-yan Chan
Chan graduated from the Music Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in June 1992 with First Class Honours. After his graduation, he received two scholarships which enabled him to pursue his studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

At Illinois he studied composition with Profs. William Brooks and Sever Tipei; and ethnomusicology with Bruno Nettl. He has also been a teaching assistant with both the Composition and Ethnomusicology Divisions, teaching music theory and the Chinese instrument erhu (a two-stringed fiddle). Chan received his doctoral degree in 1996.

As a performer of traditional Chinese music, he has received numerous awards, including the Arts Festival Prize of the Hong Kong Schools' Music Festival (1979, 1981). Chan has toured to Britain, Japan, Canada, and Taiwan both as a soloist and as a conductor. As a composer, he was the first runner-up (Composition for Chinese Ensemble) at the 1987 Hong Kong Young Musicians' Awards. Chan has received commissions from the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (1994), the Hong Kong International School (1995), the Hong Kong Chinese Music Troupe (1995), and the Hong Kong Composers' Guild (1996). He is the author of an article entitled "Composition in Western Idioms (in China)" in the forthcoming "Garland Encyclopedia of Ethnomusicology".