Stanza II was written during a period when Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), Japan's leading composer of the twentieth century, was completing one transition (a rediscovery of his own traditional Japanese musical heritage) and beginning another (toward simplification of textures and musical means). Takemitsu, who had been drafted for military service at the age of 14, had, along with others of his generation, come to associate the Japanese musical tradition with the militaristic regime that had used it in nationalist propaganda. In the 1950s, he was one of several composers who organized new music societies to promote the latest in Western classical music in Japan. Ironically, it was an American, John Cage, whose interest in Eastern musical cultures convinced Takemitsu that there was value in Japanese musical traditions and that it was time to reinvestigate the past. He began to use Japanese instruments in the 1960s. Around 1970 Takemitsu began writing in thinner textures, employing fewer Western-style chord structures. He ultimately emerged with a style that frequently reminds listeners of the spareness of Japanese poetry art, design, and garden planning.

Stanza II was originally written for harp and tape. It begins with nearly random-sounding bell sounds on tape, which are answered by harp sonorities that blend in with that texture. Throughout the piece, the harpist often plays near the sounding board or produces buzzing sonorities in the lower strings, at times striking the sounding box with the knuckles. While there are glissandi and rapid trills, the harp part is generally free of the use of arpeggios—i.e. broken chords—or standard Western chords, so the overall effect is non-Western. Also used are minute glissandi caused by releasing the pedals while the strings are vibrating. Individual notes tend to be attacked strongly, while glissandi are soft.

The tape part uses a few identifiable sounds (such as an occasional chirp of a bird and a sudden intrusion of the sounds of a few people laughing and chatting, as at a party), the chiming sounds already mentioned, and, for long stretches of the work, an electronic drone. It is not, however, a standard drone, but a pitch that wavers minutely and very slowly so that it often lies completely outside the scale system to which the harp is tuned.

The work ends with the taped sounds of the people, sounding as if they are leaving the party. Like all of Takemitsu's works with the name "Stanza," this is an important work in his output. It is a classic of the genre of tape-plus-live music performance, as well as being a major twentieth-century piece for harp.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.