Although internationally recognized as a major twentieth-century composer, Toru Takemitsu as author is relatively unknown except to Japanese-speaking readers. Since 1960, he has written numerous essays and commentaries, most of which have been published in Japan. Confronting Silence is the first collection of his writings to be translated into English. For the present volume, he has selected writings covering a wide range of subjects: art and artists, movies, his contemporaries, nature in all of its manifestations (a favorite topic), and, of course, music - traditional and contemporary, Eastern and Western, folk music, and his own compositions and approach to composing.