Toward the "SEA" of Toru Takemitsu

Matthew Gould

Composed in 1981 for Green Peace, Toru Takemitsu's Toward the Sea is a series of three pieces, "The Night", "Moby Dick" and "Cape Cod" (each title is taken from the Melville epic) for alto flute and guitar. As in many of his fluid mosaics, Takemistu's use of octatonic pitch collections provides an essential background from which a variety of other tonal and motivic colors and structures emerge. While the expanding and contracting of pitch fields - from whole-tone to whole-tone/semitone (octatonic) cells to diminished, augmented and even quartal sonorities - may in some way represent the ebb and flow of the ocean, Toward the Sea also presents a rich combination of pitch and motivic metaphors which add a further dimension of symbolic significance to the work.

The "SEA" of the title of the work is "spelled" in the pitches E (the German "S"), E natural and A. While its appearances in its exact pitches are rare, its exact contour (ascending semitone, ascending fourth) on various pitches is clear and distinctive throughout the work and will be referred to as the "SEA" motive. Other less obviously related dispositions of the intervals of the "SEA" motive are common and the unordered pitch-class set (0,1,6) which the motive defines is an integral background element in the fluctuating octatonic/whole-tone harmonic fabric of the composition.

Closely connected with the "SEA" motive is another apparent musical pun on the pitch "C#" in the prominent and numerous chromatic lines and figures rising "toward the C#".⁽¹⁾ The last movement of the work presents the most conspicuous development of these relationships in its opening motto of G-G#-C# which is the actual "SEA" motive rising to C#.

Other important figures emerge in Toward the Sea which can be seen in other works ⁽²⁾ including an "empty" and "falling" minor third (often C-A natural, away from the C#), and the use of a referential sonority, in this work, a B minor seventh often associated with the C#/D goal of the ascending chromatic figures, and once more perhaps hinting at the "SEA" of title the since B is "'si bémol" in French note names. Each piece of the series relates to the central motivic metaphors and processes of the work, but also seems to have its own particular story.

"The Night"

The opening establishes the fluctuating scalic framework⁽³⁾ of the work. The symmetrical chord of the opening line of the score (see Figure 1, first system) in which the flute leaps from its unison A with the guitar to take the F# on the bottom of the structure gives way to a whole-tone color which harmonizes the flute's upward shift to B - an initial embryonic step towards the goal which we will later see to be the C#. Following a three-second pause, the other whole-tone collection is presented against which the verbatim "SEA" motive rises in the lower tones of the guitar. We find here the "dissonance" of the "SEA" motive's E natural with the whole-tone collection (in the upper tones of the guitar) and it's "consonance" with the partial octatonic fragment B-A#-C#-G; the D#, however, from the "SEA" motive does not belong to the octatonic structure. While the A natural of the "SEA" motive is clearly present in the guitar figuration, it is perhaps more significant in the return of the opening A natural of the flute and its quaver with B and E (see Example 1).

The next gesture is equally significant as the alto flute sweeps to its high A (a half-step below the central A natural but in the new register) and falls in a dramatic descending minor third motive. An interchange ensues with the mid-register rising motion (from A through B and C to D/C#, end of first system, Figure 1) and further falling thirds, in a descending upper-register chain: E-C, C-A (Figure 1 second system, note the momentary rising inflection from the A back toward the C through Band B natural), and G-E. The harmonic developments in this section are of consequence, in particular the initial appearance of the B seventh sonority which returns at key moments throughout the work. The octatonic complex at this point evolves quickly from the combination of the B and E minor sevenths (the octatonic "Z" collection, however the flute's E-C is independent of this complex), through a D minor seventh to an A diminshed-seventh (plus G natural) disposition of the same collection, and into a passing whole-tone collection in the intensifying arabesques in the flute. The return to octatonic elements at the climax of the second page/ third system of the score (Figure 1 middle of second system) recaptures the intense low D-natural in the guitar beneath the return of the initial falling third (the A-F in the upper tones of the guitar, from Figure 1 end of first system in the flute) and at the cadence in the flute, produces a new, extended "SEA" motive C#-D-G/B-C#-F (Example 2 also Figure 1, toward the end of the second system) which is explored more fully in the second movement.

The remainder of "The Night" (the end of the second and all of the third system of Figure 1) echo rising lines in the flute to the D or C#, in various octatonic harmonizations but importantly bring back the B minor seventh/E minor seventh (octatonic "Z") mixture before the flute rises once more from B to C but unexpectedly closes in a falling third C-A. Note also the shift in the guitar sonorities at this point from the G# whole-tone seventh to the B minor seventh and finally an open quartal sonority on the low D natural.

Figure 1: Pitch Structure Synopsis of "The Night"

Example 1: Opening Measures of Toward the Sea

(Note: the alto flute transposes a P4 down from the written pitches.)

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Example 2: Page 5 Line 3 of Toward the Sea

(Note: the alto flute transposes a P4 down from the written pitches.)

"Moby Dick"

"Moby Dick" focuses immediately on the (0,2,6) extension of the "SEA" motive, descending in the guitar (C, B,E) within a whole-tone complex; an inner voice within the complex also descends, but chromatically from the C# through C natural to B natural (see Example 3). Following a long, 4-5 second resonance, the flute slowly begins the rising "SEA" motive on middle C against the falling third motive from middle C down to A natural in the guitar; the guitar quickly echoes the rising ""SEA"" motive on B natural (B-C-F) in its upper register and the "verbatim" "SEA" motive backwards E-A-S (E).

Various octatonic figurations ensue against the flute's reiteration of the ""SEA"" motive accentuating the lower mid-register F# and a D# half-diminished seventh. The latter supports a chain of descending minor thirds (F# E C A) anticipating the emphatic, "longing" mid-register ascent A-C in the flute. Downward echoes of the minor third emerge on A-F (Figure 2, second system) anticipating the slow upward shift in the harmonic background (an A major seventh chord to a B major seventh against the persistent low F#) which produces once again the B minor seventh as the flute asserts the extended "SEA" motive on C# (C# D G / B FC#, see Figure 2 part-way into the second system).

Intense insistence on the F natural, at first in tremolo with the C# but then fff and fluttertonque by itself, initiates an immense rising motion from the C# through F natural which is completed by a descending and intensifying trilled arabesque from C natural to G# (see Example 4, also Figure 2, middle of system 2). As a polar opposite to the C#, G# then dominates the melodic figuration of the flute through the end of the second page of the piece before dying out in the high register (note the ascending minor thirds in parallel half-diminished sonorities in the guitar at this point - Figure 2, end of second system). One further echo of the G# is heard (as a harmonic) in the flute amid the embellished rising third A-C which anticipates the return of the opening figure of the movement in the guitar (Figure 2, toward the middle of the third system).

The descending A-C persists in augmentation over the following extended arabesques (Figure 2, end of system 3 in the flute, indicated by beams) evoking once more the falling thirds A-F (see Figure 2 beginning of system 4 - this can also be seen as a reversal of the earlier ascending motion from F to A through the second system of Figure 2) - however now without the earlier motion to the B minor seventh sonority. Here the rising harmonic motion of the A major seventh to the B major seventh against the low F# is merely suspended as the flute presents once more the extended "SEA"" motive, echoing the B - F natural - C# against a chord sequence in the guitar which recalls, in its upper tones, the central C#-F-G# development of the movement but closes in an ascending arc, C#-A-B-D, in the upper notes of half-diminished sonorities.

Figure 2: Pitch Structure Synopsis of "Moby Dick"

Example 3: Toward the Sea beginning of "Moby Dick"

(Note: the alto flute transposes a P4 down from the written pitches.)

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Example 4: Toward the Sea Page 8 Lines 2 and 3

(Note: the alto flute transposes a P4 down from the written pitches.)

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"Cape Cod"

As the closing piece in the series, "Cape Cod" has as a fleeting rondo-like character with its distinctive metric profile, it's lively flow of ideas and its brief and simple binary design (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Formal Scheme of "Cape Cod"

The upper line of the chords of the introduction (Example 5) traces the "SEA" motive in retrograde inversion F-E-B, then fills in the E-B tritone with two descending whole steps and two half steps, returning to the initial descending F-E natural. The (0,1,6) intervallic element figures prominently as a vertical component in the colorful accompanying succession of seven sonorities: in the three (0,1,4,7) sonorities (the second, sixth and seventh in the series - see Example 5 ) and the one (0,1,3,7).sonority (the third of the series). Both half-diminished (0,2,5,8) sonorities are appogiaturas to respective (0,1,4,7) sonorities and the middle (0,2,4,7) and final (whole-tone) sonorities of the sequence are distinguished by their concentrations of major seconds.

The B minor seventh persists in a non-octatonic alternation with a D# half-diminished against the thematic fragment G#-C# tossed between registers in the flute but reverts (page 11, 2nd line, see Figure 5 first system) to a completely octatonic ("Z") scalic figuration against a symmetrical harmony composed of overlapping (0,1,6) elements. The ensuing sequence of quasi-diatonic "SEA" motives (0,1,5 figures instead of 0,1,6) gravitates harmonically back to the B minor seventh but deflects through a d half-diminished to a quick pause on a quartal/diatonic sonority (Figure 5, end of first system). Arabesques settling around the mid-register B(Figure 5, beginning of third system) surge upward through the mid-register in a clear, directed scalic motion, through diatonic and half-diminished colorations to a trilled cadence on D - a gesture which is then abbreviated down an octave and fades to a punctuation of the opening "SEA"-to-C#" (G-G#-C#) motto.

The central episode of the form expands the first phrase based on the flute's thematic G#-C# in a colorful layering of against a B minor diatonic ostinato (filling in G in the B minor seventh sonority - see Example 6a, also Figure 5, third system) against a resonant harmonic underpinning of G major. The episode is brief and enticingly transient; F# pentatonic figurations in the flute are reflected in the guitar (the E and B amid the persisting D-F# dominant) rising to an intense octatonic flourish and descent to the empty mid-register minor third, C-A.

Here the turning motion around B (Example 6b) returns from the end of the opening section of the movement, pursuing the identical scalic culmination on a trilled D which is repeated exactly however as at the end of "Night", more intensely in the upper register. The closing intonations to the G-G#-C# no longer echo the parallel (0,1,3,7) sonorities of the opening but, instead, a more reflective D minor seventh, D pentatonic (moving to the B minor seventh) and D# half-diminished sonorities, the A natural of which rises to B forming lower and upper leading tones to the closing B minor seventh (Example 7).

Figure 5: Pitch Structure Synopsis of "Cape Cod"

Example 5: Toward the Sea , Opening of "Cade Cod"

(Note: the alto flute transposes a P4 down from the written pitches.)

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Example 6: Toward the Sea Page 13 Lines 1 and 4

(Note: the alto flute transposes a P4 down from the written pitches.)

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Example 7: Toward the Sea Closing Measures

(Note: the alto flute transposes a P4 down from the written pitches.)

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1. The German note-name "Cis" for C# may also be related to the significance of this pitch

2. The reader is referred to Bruce Reiprich's online article "Toru Takemitsu's Garden Rain for Brass Ensemble" at http://home.sprintmail.com/emrichards/reiprich.html and also Timothy Koozin's "Spiritual/Temporal Imagery in the Music of Olivier Messiaen and Toru Takemitsu,"Contemporapry Music Review 7 (1993).

3. The arbitrary octatonic designations of "X","Y", or "Z" in Figures 1, 2, and 3 refer (respectively) to the scales C-D-E-E-F#-G-A-B, C-D-E-F-F# -A-A -B and D-E-F-G-A-B-B-C#. In Figures 1, 2, and 3 individual systems summarize the pitch relations in single pages of the score which itself has no measure numbers, thus a passage in the middle of page three of a movement would be found in the middle of the third line of the corresponding figure.