Valeria (Takemitsu)

Valeria (Japanese: ヴァレリア) is a 1965 chamber music composition by Toru Takemitsu, recomposed from an earlier work, Sonant.

Composition and Scoring

Takemitsu wrote the piece for the 6th Modern Music Festival in Tokyo in 1965 for an ensemble comprising violin, cello, guitar, two bandoneons and two flutes. Four years later he adjusted its scoring, replacing the bandoneons with an electric organ and the flutes with piccolos, and applying the title Valeria.

Premiere and Recording

Hiroshi Wakasugi conducted the premiere in September 1969, and a recording at Polydor Studio 2 in Tokyo was produced at the end of that month.

Instrumentation

Violin, cello, guitar, electric organ and two piccolos.

Form

The work is in four sections and lasts about six minutes. Section I begins with banter and pauses for the three string instruments, the guitar used somewhat percussively. Near the end they are briefly joined by the two piccolos. This is the longest section, at nearly two minutes. In Section II, named "Recitative I", morbid measures for the electric organ are soon lightened by the guitar but then copied in the violin. The cello has the forlorn last word. Section III finds the string instruments and the organ in agitated opposition to each other, creating a tense sound-space. The piccolos join in, obbligati. Unity is upheld when "Recitative II" (Section IV) returns to the ideas of its earlier self with roles and material reversed.

References

• An analysis of Valeria