Takemitsu and the Lydian Chromatic Concept of George Russell

Abstract

Takemitsu frequently hinted that his harmonic language had been greatly influenced by his 1961 reading of the The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization for Improvisation (1959, Concept Publishing Co.) by the American jazz musician George Russell (b. 1923). However, he gave little indication as to how this influence might actually be reflected in the specific harmonic practice of his own music. The following article attempts to suggest some tentative answers to this question, albeit for the most part rather hypothetical ones. Beginning with a summary of Russell's Concept , it goes on to suggest points of similarity between Russell's theories and Takemitsu's music, concentrating in particular on the latter's use of modally derived harmonic types; it also addresses one or two important differences between the two composers' harmonic thinking. The paper ends by considering in detail the Takemitsu score in which the debt to Russell's theories is most explicitly acknowledged: his 1996 work for seventeen solo strings The Dorian Horizon .