Golden Slumbers

The long-awaited arrangement by Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) was published by Schott Music Tokyo to commemorate the anniversary of his death, 2016. The universally known song Golden Slumbers, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, was released on the Beatles' Album "Abbey Road" in 1969. The text is based on a ballad by Elisabethan dramatist Thomas Dekker, which McCartney is said to have discovered in a lullaby on his father's piano and, unable to read the music, he created his own music for the poem. This arrangement for piano solo by Takemitsu was written for "Hyper Beatles", a recording project by Aki Takahashi (piano) recorded on 10 August 1992 and premiered on 23 October at Yokohama City Education & Culture Hall. Takemitsu harmonises the simple melody using arpeggios, incorporating his distinctive colouring into the song even more than in his previous arrangements of Beatles' songs like Michelle and Hey Jude published in 12 Songs for Guitar (1977).