Completed in the composer's senior year of college, 1988. This song was written in memory of Mr. Shigehiko Fujimori (a junior at the composer's home school, Shakujii High School) who died at the age of 16 due to an accident. Quatre Serpents (Euphonium: Katsushi Ushiwata, Koichi Kaneda, Tuba: Hirotaka Mochizuki, Akihiko Yamagishi) commissioned to compose and premiere on May 30th of that same year. Later, when the group made a guest appearance for Roger Bobo's concert, it was again performed by the same members. It is written not as a song of mourning for the sudden loss of his life, but as a song of purification dedicated to his soul that will continue to exist forever. I feel an abundance of bari-tuba overtones is a perfect match for praying that the soul that rises to heaven in peace. By feeling silence and resonance equally, I wanted to sing a hymn to the invisible soul.
(Eiji Suzuki)
