Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996)

All I can say is: if you're seriously interested in contemporary music and you don't know Takemitsu's music you should. He was the first Japanese composer to gain a considerable international reputation - and was extremely prolific. His first big break came when Stravinsky heard his music and made a big fuss about it. From then on his reputation as one of the leading composers of his time spiralled upwards until he died.

Some of his best works (I think) include:

Requiem for String Orchestra (1957) [the piece that caught Stravinsky's attention]

November Steps for Orchestra, Biwa and Shakuhachi (1967) - A reveolutionary work that incorporates traditional Japanese lute and flute into an entirely new setting

A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden (1977) (for Orchestra)

Nostalghia - In Memory of Andrei Tarkovsky for violin and string orchestra (1987)

He was extremely prolific though, and 100% definitely worth looking at.

His music is characterised above all by its intricacy of colour, orchestration and sound. Which is why he is often refered to as the "Japanese Debussy".

Some recordings of his early works are available legally and for free on the avant garde project - here.

Enjoy.

Matt

The greatest japanese composer-ever.

No Video Games 2-bit composer here.

We should mention some of the O.S.T.s he composed for Kurosawa's films.

There are some great videos in Youtube as well. Enjoy.

Good idea, Matt! Cheers!

I looked him up on youtube and I quite liked his piece called "Cross Hatch". It was quite relaxing. I also liked the piece called "Rain tree sketch". Anyway thanks for recommending him because I've never heard of him before and its always nice to find out about a new composer.

Glad you like him. Really is worth knowing about, especially to anyone hoping to become a serious composer - he's one of the most important composers of the second half of the 20th century.

Check out the wikipedia article! Tōru Takemitsu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Toru Takemitsu is supreme!

Other works noted to check-out are:

Water-ways *(Especially this)*

Fantasmos

Quatrain

I really do not like his music. I heard three pieces from some movies, but his work just is too modern.

Spot on. His later works are criticised for not being modern enough. If you can't take it then why call yourself a composer?