November Steps - Composition

Composition

During the composition of November Steps, Takemitsu secluded himself to a mountain villa, taking with him the scores to Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894) and Jeux (1912). At first intending unite the Japanese and the western musical instruments in the composition, he came to the decision early on that the differences between the two musical traditions were too vast to overcome. On the brink of abandoning the project, he instead decided to make the difference between the two traditions a theme of the work. Takemitsu later wrote, "It might well be that as a composition it would fail, but I completed the work in order to show as great a difference between the two traditions without blending them."

Following this line of thought, Takemitsu stated that he did not attempt to integrate the Japanese and western sounds, but to display them in juxtaposition to one another, thereby emphasizing their differences. Nevertheless, the work does present correspondences between the two sounds. The plucking of the biwa with the plectrum is echoed in the orchestra by percussive effects on the strings. The shakuhachi's breath effects are echoed by clusters and glissandi in the strings. In this way, Takemitsu creates a harmony between the two instrumental bodies while maintaining their unique sound characteristics.

Takemitsu reported that the natural sounds, such as birds and wind, at first disturbed his concentration. When he began listening to them more carefully, he came to view these sounds as not different from his own music. Later, when listening to November Steps while working in Africa, the cultural anthropologist Junzo Kawada commented that the sounds of nature did not interfere with the enjoyment of Takemitsu's composition.