🇯🇵Toru Takemitsu ： Closed Eyes II

Toru Takemitsu’s *Closed Eyes II* is a character piece that places great importance on resonance and silence. Rather than bringing a simple melody to the foreground, it unfolds gradually through scattered tones, overlapping chords, and shifting sonorities. Groups of sounds and pauses emerge like breaths, and subtle changes become more apparent when the work is heard as a single continuous flow. In performance, avoid hurrying from one sound to the next, and carefully shape both the onset and disappearance of each note while taking care not to cloud the resonance created by the pedal. Even in passages with a restrained dynamic range, attention to the sense of distance between registers helps preserve the tension within the stillness, which is one of the work’s particular attractions.