"Toward the Sea III" (1989) is a version for alto flute and harp of the original "Toward the Sea" for alto flute and guitar. There is also a version "Toward the Sea II" for alto flute, harp and strings (1981) which adds several inner voices with the string parts. Version III is very similar to Version I except that the harp range is much extended compared to the guitar part. The flute part is the same in all three versions.

This work of 14 minutes duration unfolds in three movements all associated with mysteries and tales of the water world. The first movement is entitled "The Night" and opens with mysterious transitions (a kind of audio morphing, or timbre modulation) between hollow tones to normal tones on the flute, night calls underscored with rolling figures on the harp. Takemitsu employs a wide variety of special ways of playing the flute, including alternative fingerings, many varieties of vibrato, flutter-tongue, trills and combinations of these techniques. "The Night" is richly harmonic with variations on impressionist chords. Like other Takemitsu works of his later period, there are large arcing gestures separated by silent grand pauses - dream visions arising from the profound blackness of the night.

The second movement is "Moby Dick". The compositional approach is a kind of high abstraction of the traditional triplet-meter lilt given to sailing music (the boat over the waves, or a sailor's jig without of course imitating the actual dance, and so on) combined with floating arpeggios on complex chords and fluttering tremolos. A haunting call and echo on the flute (in whole tone scale) is varied throughout this movement, including a brief yet spectacular cadenza that gradually dies away at the end.

In the third and last movement, entitled "Cape Cod", simple sighing figures in triplet meter and duple meter develop into marvelously rich impressionist harmonies and arpeggiated motions that recreate the waves of the sea. A mysterious section with a repeated "minimalist" figure on the harp, and slowly developing flute variations on the perfect fourth interval, first heard at the movement's opening, makes a stunning, suspended effect.

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