Toward the Sea

Toward the Sea (海へ, Umi e) is a work by Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu, commissioned by Greenpeace for the Save the Whales campaign.

The work is divided into three sections – The Night, Moby-Dick, and Cape Cod.

Takemitsu wished to emphasize the spiritual dimension of the book, quoting the passage, "meditation and water are wedded together".

Most of the work is written in free time, with no bar lines (except in the second version, to facilitate conducting).

In each version, the flute has the primary melodic line, based in part on a motif spelling "sea" in German musical notation: E♭–E–A.