Takemitsu’s “A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden”: A Shifting Panorama of Scenes

Tōru Takemitsu’s ephemeral 1977 orchestral piece, A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden, grew out of a dream. The Japanese composer attributed his vision of a flock of birds descending into a five-sided garden to an iconic photograph he viewed earlier in the day, which showed the artist, Marcel Duchamp, posing with the back of his head shaved in the “form of a star-shaped garden.” Takemitsu described the resulting piece as a “shifting panorama of scenes in which the main motif—introduced by the oboe and representing the so-called ‘Flock’—descends into the harmonious tone-field called the ‘Pentagonal Garden’, created mainly on the strings.”

As a composer, Takemitsu (1930-1996) once expressed a desire to “swim in an ocean that has no East and has no West.” In fact, throughout his music, elements of both are apparent. We hear the influences of Debussy, Messiaen, Schoenberg, Mahler, jazz, and John Cage. “In a sense,” notes Alex Ross in his essay, Towards Silence, “Takemitsu was taking back what his tradition had given to the West.”

Takemitsu wrote,

I love gardens. They do not reject people. There one can walk freely, pause to view the entire garden, or gaze at a single tree, plant, rock, and sand snow: changes, constant changes.

A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden is music which evokes time and space. It is an experience akin to the progression through a Japanese garden. According to Takemitsu,

It’s not a linear experience at all. It is circular…one always comes back. I write music by placing objects in my musical garden, just the way objects are placed in a Japanese garden…from gardens I’ve learnt the Japanese sense of timing and colour.”

The landscape architecture of the garden plays on the contrast of volume and void. Similarly, in A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden, silence becomes as important as sound. For Takemitsu, this was expressed in the concept of ma, or “powerful silence.” It is out of this silence that a hazy, time-altering, pentatonic soundscape emerges.

Here is Seiji Ozawa’s recording with the Boston Symphony Orchestra:

Recordings

Featured Image: “Ueno Park, Tokyo” (1953), Kawase Hasui

About Timothy Judd

A native of Upstate New York, Timothy Judd has been a member of the Richmond Symphony violin section since 2001. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where he earned the degrees Bachelor of Music and Master of Music, studying with world renowned Ukrainian-American violinist Oleh Krysa.

The son of public school music educators, Timothy Judd began violin lessons at the age of four through Eastman’s Community Education Division. He was a student of Anastasia Jempelis, one of the earliest champions of the Suzuki method in the United States.

A passionate teacher, Mr. Judd has maintained a private violin studio in the Richmond area since 2002 and has been active coaching chamber music and numerous youth orchestra sectionals.

In his free time, Timothy Judd enjoys working out with Richmond’s popular SEAL Team Physical Training program.

2 thoughts on “Takemitsu’s “A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden”: A Shifting Panorama of Scenes”

  1. this could well be used in a horror film, a lot of bizare notes and chords clashed together in a haphazard manner,. — not conveying the serenity of a park for visitors to relax and enjoy themselves

    Reply
  2. As an amateur enthusiast of “Western” classical music, this piece reminds me of the various attempts to explore atonality during the 20th century. How interesting to consider that those from a traditional Eastern perspective might interpret this music in an entirely different way.

    Thanks for sharing this music with us.

    Reply

Leave a Comment