Toward the Sea II

• Takemitsu composed three iterations of his chamber work Umi e (Toward the Sea).¹ The work was commissioned by Greenpeace in support of their Save the Whales program.²
• Takemitsu composed the work’s second interation, Toward the Sea II, in 1981. It is scored for alto flute, harp, and strings.³
• Toward the Sea II premiered on June 27, 1982 in Hokkaido, Japan, in a performance by the Sapporo Symphony conducted by Hiroyuki Iwaki.⁴
• Water is a recurring theme in Takemitsu’s compositions. Starting with his 1960 composition Water Music, Takemitsu made use of a six-note motif (E♭–E–A–C♯–F–A♭) that starts by spelling the word “sea” (that’ possible because in German music notation, the note E-flat is called S, to E-flat, E, A spells “sea”). That “sea” cipher / motif appears in this work and many other water-themed pieces by Takemitsu.⁵
• Literary references also frequently appear in Takemitsu’s music.⁶The titles of the movements in Toward the Sea are all references to Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick.⁷

Movements 

1. The Night 
2. Moby-Dick 
3. Cape Cod⁸

1. Yoko Narazaki and Masakata Kanazawa, “Takemitsu, Tōru,” Grove Music Online (20010, accessed November 17, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000027403. 
2. Toru Takemitsu, Interview with Bruce Duffie, March 1990, accessed November 17, 2021, http://www.bruceduffie.com/takemitsu.html.
3. Narazaki and Kanazawa, “Takemitsu, Tōru,” Grove Music Online.
4. “Toward the Sea II,” Schott Music, accessed November 17, 2021, https://en.schott-music.com/shop/toward-the-sea-ii-no91138.html.
5. Narazaki and Kanazawa, “Takemitsu, Tōru,” Grove Music Online.
6. Ibid.
7. Joseph Stevenson, ”Toward the Sea I, for alto flute and guitar,” in The AllMusic Guide to Classical Music, ed. Chris Woodstra, Gerald Brennan and Allen Schrott (San Fransico: Backbeat Books, 2005), 1371.
8. Tōru Takemitsu, Toward the Sea (Mainz: Schott Music, 1982).