抄録
This essay examines the piano solo work Les Yeux Clos composed by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu in 1979 and clarifies the relationship between his compositional techniques and his aesthetics. Les Yeux Clos encompasses various techniques of motive manipulation, which gives the listener an experience of various temporalities. For example, the technique of randomly distributing motives draws attention to the present time, while another technique using repetition, juxtaposition and superimposition of motives, creates a relationship between the past and the present. This essay offers a new interpretation by claiming that the methods of motive manipulation and their resulting temporal effects have a close relationship with Takemitsu’s aesthetic notion of “dreams,” a notion that is exhibited in his book on film, The Quotation of Dream. As a work inspired by the French Symbolist painter Odilon Redon and dedicated to the Japanese Surrealist poet Shuzo Takiguchi, Les Yeux Clos exhibits Takemitsu’s aesthetic exploration of the theme of dream—the theme that both Surrealists and Symbolists favorably treated in their works. Through these examinations this essay demonstrates that Les Yeux Clos is important for considering both Takemitsu’s compositional techniques and his aesthetics, especially in his works composed after 1980.
