Toru Takemitsu: Confronting Silence

My writing is rarely influenced by writers’ ideas about writing, but more often the ideas of visual artists and musicians. I’ve been reading Confronting Silence, a book by the late Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu (whom I had never heard of until Daishin introduced me to his music and writing a few weeks ago). Much of it articulates what I’m trying to do.

A friend visited me, bringing with him his rough sketches—white space filled with notes, all bound by a rubber band. How do those sounds ge...