Tōru Takemitsu - And Then I Knew ’Twas Wind (1992) Score video

Performers: Robert Aitken (flute), Steven Dann (viola), Erica Goodman (harp). Composed in 1992, this composition belongs to what Peter Burt distinguishes as the final period in Takemitsus creative output. His compositions in the 1990s develop and exaggerate the late style the composer reached during the late 1970s and 1980s. Here Takemitsu gives full rein to what he called ’Romanticism’: modernist techniques get relaxed, the music has emphasis on melos and has an unapologetically positive outlook in the ’sea of tonality’ that he developed in the 1980s. This particular piece ends with a clear Db triad. His musical language stabilizes and normalizes to the extent that pieces begin to resemble one another more and more. To add to this, they often share thematic materials or make allusions to other composers. Rather than each piece being a separate musical discourse, one could see how Takemitsu takes a new stroll in his musical „garden“, composed of the same basic repertory of musical paradigms. Particul