Takemitsu – And Then I Knew ‘Twas Wind

^{Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996)}

^{And Then I Knew ‘Twas Wind (1992)}

^{Toru Takemitsu’s And Then I Knew ‘Twas Wind is a valedictory work, written in 1992, four years before its composer’s death. Its title is drawn from Emily Dickenson’s poem “Like Rain it sounded till it curved,” and, as Takemitsu wrote, “has as its subject the signs of the wind in the natural world and of the soul, or unconscious mind (or we could even call it ‘dream’), which continues to blow, like the wind, invisibly, through human consciousness.”}

^{And Then I Knew ‘Twas Wind is written in one movement and shares its fragmentary melodic style with Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp. Most of its harmonic content is derived from a collection of six pitches that, though not tonal, strongly alludes to F major. Takemitsu’s aim to project the shifting quality of the wind led him to create a score that is highly gestural – that is, musical lines reflect the physical attributes of an object (in this case the wind), rising, falling, turning mid-phrase, etc.}

^{© Jonathan Blumhofer}

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