THE NEWEST DIMENSIONS OF GUITAR SOUND INTERPRETATION IN THE WORKS OF TORU TAKEMITSU

Abstract

The article deals with the newest dimensions of the guitar’s sound interpretation in the works of the outstanding Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu (1930–1996). The relevance of the research is due to the significance of Takemitsu’s creative personality, artistic heritage and philosophical and aesthetic concept, the essential need to understand the role of the artist in the musical space of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and the practical absence in Ukrainian musicology of studies specifically devoted to his work, in particular, guitar music. The purpose of the study is to determine the newest dimensions of the guitar’s sound interpretation in the works of Toru Takemitsu in the context of his philosophical and aesthetic concept and compositional style. The research methods used are historical, biographical, cultural, genre- stylistic, and interpretive.The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that it is the first study in Ukrainian musicology devoted to the artistic personality and creative heritage of Toru Takemitsu. The article reviews foreign scientific works in which the conceptof sound interpretation of the guitar in Takemitsu’s work is revealed through performative, aesthetic and cultural aspects.It is determined that the composer’s aesthetics is formed at the intersection of Eastern philosophy and Western musical tradition, with a focus on the concepts of silence, time, space, and acoustic presence. It is noted that Takemitsu’s guitarwork represents a sound poetics in which each sound is a self-sufficient gesture, and silence is an active componentof the structure. It is proved that the guitar in the works of Toru Takemitsu appears not as a virtuoso instrument, but asa means of deep auditory experience, in which pause, resonance, flagellation, and dynamic semitones are important. It hasbeen established that the composer’s artistic heritage can be a valuable resource for comprehending the latest interpretiveparadigms in academic performance. The importance of introducing the guitar works of Toru Takemitsu to the fieldof Ukrainian music science and performing and pedagogical practice is emphasized.The conclusions summarize the artistic innovations in the works of Toru Takemitsu. Prospects for further research of the composer’s heritage are outlined, in particular, related to performative analysis, the electroacoustic context of guitar sound, and intercultural parallels.