Toru Takemitsu

Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) was a Japanese composer from Tokyo, largely self-taught, who wrote concert works and around a hundred film scores. His music draws on Debussy and Messiaen as well as the sounds and sense of space of traditional Japanese music. He is best known for November Steps, for biwa, shakuhachi and orchestra, and for his scores for directors such as Hiroshi Teshigahara, Masaki Kobayashi and Akira Kurosawa. Toru Takemitsu co-founded the artists' group Jikken Kobo in 1951. His Requiem for string orchestra (1957) was praised by Igor Stravinsky after he heard it in Japan in 1959.