Written in 1966, this beautiful duet shares many of the characteristics of the composer's writing style in "Le Son Calligraphie I - III". There are graceful arcing phrases that seem to appear from an eternal silence and then return to it. Based on the sound material of "A song of love", the third part of Takemitsu's earlier work "Uninterrupted Rest" (1952), the musical style is a rich and fluid 12-tone lyricism.

"Hika" is the Japanese word for "elegy" and the tone of this piece is sorrowful with sudden bursts of dramatic emotion. The use of held tones and large skips in register gives a hint of romanticism to the work.

The violin and piano begin together with wide ranging gestures played quietly, the piano forming a shadowy harmonic background (with complex pedaling). Every once in a while a single tone or cluster will punctuate the texture and immediately be absorbed back into it. An odd high passage of cycling triplets in the high register of the piano leads into an extended unaccompanied violin section with delicate harmonics, fluttering tremolos, punctuated prose-like staccatos. The beginning is recapitulated, only slightly modified. The briefly pulsing ending leaves us hanging, more like a doubt half-expressed than an unanswered question.

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