“Rain Tree Sketch II —In Memoriam Olivier Messiaen—” (1992) is the last solo piano piece composed by Tōru Takemitsu. He remembered Messiaen, whom he had been influenced since his youth, and composed this song for the memorial concert for Messiaen held at the Orleans International Music Festival in France. Like “Rain Tree Sketch”, which was composed ten years before, this piece is inspired by the short stories “Atama no ii, Ame no Ki (The Clever Rain Tree)” by Kenzaburo Oe, a famous Japanese writer.

The song is written in ternary form. Following the opening, which is marked as Tempo I and played in high tones, the part of Tempo II is played somberly in low tones. After that, you reach the middle section marked “Joyful” while traversing both tempos. There, the beautiful dreamy melodies are superimposed in Canon style. At the end, the melody heard in the beginning returns, and the song is closing in deep resonance. You can express the sea of tonality unique to Takemitsu’s later works by carefully representing indications about Tempo and dynamic while you listen to the reverberation of the sounds.