Takemitsu reached back 40 years for the basic material used in the two-movement, approximately 12-minute long "Litany" (1950; 1989). This piece (as well as "My Way of Life" for baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra) was written in memory of entrepreneur and New Music enthusiast Michael Vyner.

The two movements are simply labeled Parts I & II. Part I, of slightly more than 6 minutes duration, opens with a beautiful, elegiac Phrygian ("Japanese") mode melody in the middle range. There are some simple arpeggio figures that end each phrase but mostly the mood is still and even archaic with sudden bursts of emotion. There are occasion single "atonal" harmonies for shading. The piece ends on an unresolved chord.

Part II, of slightly less than 6 minutes duration, uses brighter harmonies but still moves at the same pace as Part I. The harmonies progress with whole tone and other clusters, and wide-ranging polytonalities created by amassing regular triadic harmonies. A sudden swiftly on-rushing passage disturbs the even flow, but then we return to the contrast of major and even Edward "Duke" Ellington-type harmonies. A rolling, peripatetic passage briefly expresses an inner restlessness. Two repeated deep bass tones and a major chord with third on top leaves a hopeful tone hanging in the air.



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