This work was written in the winter of 1993/94, a commission by Tokyo Trombone Quartet. I intended to write of the remarkable phenomena that Kenji Miyazawa, inspiration of "Ginga Tetsudo no Yoru",envisioned throughout his life, especially of a pastoral prelude leading to a unique fantasy world in space. But after listening to the premiere and its recording, I noticed the emergence of my own strong homage to Kenji, and felt my writing was compelled by the force of a spiritual world from within his spirit. The piece consists of five titled movements. I didn't follow the original story, but described its imagery as I saw it. In the beginning and end of the last movement, "Song of the Wandering Stars" composed by Kenji himself is quoted. It concludes with fragments of Kenji's favorite Symfonie No. 9 "Z noveho sveta": From the New World, second movement.
(Tomohiro Tatebe)
