''Valeria'' () is a 1965 chamber music composition by

Toru Takemitsu TORU or Toru may refer to: *TORU, spacecraft system *Tōru (given name), Japanese male given name *Toru, Pakistan, village in Mardan District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan *Tõru Tõru is a village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County in western Es ...

, 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 The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, two bandoneons and two

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

s. Four years later he adjusted its scoring, replacing the bandoneons with an

electric organ An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since develop ...

and the flutes with

piccolo The piccolo ( ; ) is a smaller version of the western concert flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" or piccolo flute, the modern piccolo has the same type of fingerings as the ...

s, 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 The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

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''
{{italic title Compositions by Tōru Takemitsu 1965 compositions Music of Japan Chamber music compositions