Uninterrupted Rest: III. A Song of Love

Instrumentation

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Musical Terms (8)

• au loin French
  In the distance. Closely related to très lointain — indicates a sound quality that is spatially remote and tonally diffuse rather than simply quiet.
  Similar to très lointain but often applied to individual melodic events rather than textures. Imagine the note arriving from far away rather than being struck from close range.
• comme une brise French
  Like a breeze. An atmospheric indication calling for a gentle, flowing quality with no sense of pulse or weight.
  Allow the phrase to drift rather than move with rhythmic intention. Small dynamic fluctuations — like the natural variation of a breeze — are encouraged.
• en suspens French
  Suspended, in suspense. Used to mark moments of harmonic or temporal suspension — a note or chord held beyond its notated duration while the musical time seems to stop.
  Hold the indicated note or chord as if time has paused. Do not move forward until the resonance has fully decayed or the moment has been allowed to resolve on its own terms.
• flottant French
  Floating. Takemitsu frequently uses this marking to indicate a weightless, suspended quality in which individual notes seem to hover rather than land.
  Minimise finger pressure and attack. Use arm weight without downward impulse, allowing each note to hover at the surface of the key.
• ma Japanese
  The Japanese aesthetic concept of negative space or meaningful pause between sounds. In music it refers not to absence but to a charged silence that carries as much weight as the surrounding notes.
  Allow silences to breathe and resonate fully rather than filling them with movement. Ma is structural — treat pauses as events, not gaps.
• nébuleux French
  Nebulous, cloudy. Takemitsu uses this marking to describe passages with an intentionally blurred or hazy tonal quality, often achieved through overlapping sustain pedal and quiet dynamics.
  Pedal generously and keep the sound continuous to create a wash of overlapping harmonics. Avoid separating individual notes — the cloud effect depends on their blending.
• sawari Japanese
  A Japanese aesthetic quality of subtle roughness or impurity in timbre. Originally describing a specific tonal quality on the shamisen and biwa, Takemitsu translated this concept into piano writing through tone clusters and close voicings that introduce slight dissonance within an otherwise consonant surface.
  Do not over-smooth dissonant aggregates. The slight roughness is intentional — resist the urge to clarify or balance away the timbral complexity.
• très lointain French
  Very distant. A marking Takemitsu uses to indicate extreme pianissimo with an ethereal, far-away quality — not merely soft but receding, as if heard from another room or across water.
  Aim for a sound that seems to come from outside the instrument, without articulation or attack. Use the softest possible touch and allow the sustain pedal to blur the edges.