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• Series: Orchestra
• Publisher: Zen-On
• Format: Softcover
• Score
• Composer: Akira Nishimura
• Price: 19.99 (US)

This work was written from September to December in 2015 at the request of Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka. Instrumentation follows a standard form of this orchestra, but the minumim size of the string section can be the form of a string quintet (one person for each instrument). I used a vocal solo (soprano) in this work for the first time in my chamber symphony series. This work consists of two movements, which are played without pause. The scene in which the soprano appears is the opening of the second movement.

The first movement has a unique title, 'Postlude and Interlude'. Postlude describes an ending of a life with a soul. If you compare it to the changing seasons, it shows scenery in the late autumn. Or if you compare it to a whole day, it shows scenery at twilight. Both the late autumn and twilight make the world look shining and vivid in yellow and red color.

Interlude of Lento misterioso is played by strings, which represents the winter scenery or chaotic darkness of the night. furthermore, this part depicts the span of Chu-u of Japanese Buddhism or of Bardo of Tibetan Buddhism, the intermediate state in which the soul stays between death and reincarnation.

The title of the second movement is Awakening, which depicts scenery of the early srping and cherry-blosson season or scenery of the dim light at dawn. And it also represents a state of half asleep, the beginning of Reincarnation. A new lifefeels light in the chaotic darkness and its five senses start to be stimulated through awakening. The soprano solo appears as a symbol of the soul that comes back to life through reincarnation.

Related to spring, the text consists of words derived from several waka, classical Japanese poems, in Spring Songs vol. 1 of the Shin-Kokin-Wakashu (New Collection of Ancient and Modern Waka) Book 1. The theme of the volume is, of course, the spring, and the Book I includes selected poems composed about early spring season.

Most words of the text are fragmentary, but two poems that appear in the latter half of the movement are almost direct quotations from the original.

Akira Nishimura

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