List of Concert Music that I composed in 2012

This is the list of concert music that I composed in 2012.




●"Umigame-no Uta (Sea Turtle Songs)"
for Children's Chorus and Mixed Chorus (Piano accompaniment)
Text by Kentaro Sato (Ken-P)
1. White Hope
2. Whispers of the Night Sky
3. Departure in the Moonlit Night
4. White Miracle




●"Te Deum"
for Mixed Chorus (Organ or Piano accompaniment, optional percussions)
1. Te Deum Laudamus
2. Te Gloriosus
3. Tu Rex Gloriae
4. Te Ergo Quesumus
5. Salvum Fac




●"Omoide-wo Hiraite (Opening Our Memories)"
for Children's Chorus and Mixed Chorus (Piano accompaniment)
Text by Kentaro Sato (Ken-P)




●"The Waters of Prayer"
for Female Chorus (a cappella)
Text by Vassar Miller
1. Heritage
2. Renewal
3. Prayer Upon Waking
4. Invitation




●"A Boy's Inspiration"
for Male Chorus (Piano accompaniment)
Text by Henry W. Longfellow
1. An April Day
2. The Day is Done
3. The Rainy Day
4. A Psalm of Life
5. The Arrow and the Song
6. My Lost Youth






●"Teppen-heno Michi (The Road)"
for Mixed Chorus (a cappella)
Text by Kentaro Sato (Ken-P)






●"Christmas Overture"
for Orchestra






●"Neko-no Okurimono (A Gift from Cats)
for children's chorus, female chorus, and/or mixed chorus (Piano accompaniment)
Text by Kentaro Sato (Ken-P)




●「Title to be announced」
for Children's Chorus (Piano accompaniment)
Text by Kentaro Sato 
1. "Sora-no Stahto Rain (A Starting Line on the Sky)"






●「Title to be announced」
for Female Chorus (Piano accompaniment)
1. Wisteria in the Morning




I will do my best to compose wonderful music in 2013!!!

Y2011 Review

There were a lot of things happened in 2011. Although I could not do a lot of things, I can say proudly that I gave my best effort and did what I could in the given situation. The following is a short list of what I did in Y2011.

My Compositions and Arrangements written in 2011

New Choral Compositions, One movement, Standalone

1)　"The Word from Above"

　SATB, with Piano, English

2) "Mae-e (Forward)" Text by Kentaro Sato

   SA ver, SATB, ver, SSAA ver, TTBB ver, a cappella, with piano, or with strings, Japanese

3) "Tsunagari (Connection)" Text by Kentaro Sato

   SA ver, SATB, ver, SSAA ver, TTBB ver, a cappella, with piano, or with strings, Japanese

4) "Title to be anounced later" Text by Kentaro Sato　

  SATB, a cappella or with Piano, Latin

5) "Egao-no Maho (The Magic of a Smile)" Text by Kentaro Sato

 SATB, a cappella or with piano, Japanese

6) "Ima (This Moment)" Text by Kentaro Sato

 SAB, with Piano,  Japanese

7) "Ne Timeas, Maria"

 SATB, a cappella, Latin

8) "Lux Fulgebit"

 SATB, a cappella, Latin

9) "O Filii et Filiae"

 SATB, a cappella, Latin

New Choral Suites, Multi-Movement

1) "Title to be announced later" Text by Kentaro Sato, 6-movement work

 TTBB, with Paino, Latin

2) "Fabulae Persei (Tales of Perseus)" Text by Kentaro Sato

 TTBB, with Piano, or Organ, optional percussions, Latin Lyrics with English/Japanese Narrations

3) "Requiem Pacis"

 New piano accompaniment version now available upon the request from Panamusica, a Japanese publisher.

New Choral Arrangments

1) " Anpanman-no March"

  SA, with Piano, Japanese

2) "Tenohira-wo Taiyo-ni"

  SA, with Piano, Japanes

3) "O Christmas Tree"

TTBB, a cappella, English

Music for Theater and Musical

1) Music for Opening Ceremony of the All-Japan High School Cultural Festival in Fukushima

2) "Niji-no Kakehashi" a children's musical produced by the City of Iwata (Japan)

Library CD

1) "8bit World"

Game Music

1) SQUARE ENIX "Final Fantasy Type-0" Orchestral/Choral Arrangement, Orchestration, Master Recording Production, Lyrics writing and etc.

Country that I visited in 2011

Australia: for recording with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Cantilation for "Final Fantasy Type-0"

What I could do in 2011

1) To construct better work environment

  I moved to an apartment with sound-proof. I also moved to Tokyo-metropolitan area.

2) Conducting　

  More guest-conducting gigs

3) Educational Activity　

  Besides the private lessons and workshop that I do, I started to teach composition/arrangement at Shobi College of Music

4)Composition/Arrangement

  I wrote a lot of choral music in 2011. And for the firtst time, I wrote a multi-movement works for men's ensemble. Also, for the first time, I wrote a piece with can be performed by many types of ensemble (alone or together), and with multiple accompaniment possibility.Technically, I did not write a lot of piece with divisi. I wrote a lot of lyrics too (and in this regard, I would like to acknowledge tremendous scholarly helps from Dr. Robert Zaslavsky).

5) Narration

 I started Japanese narration service mainly for foreign company, and it is going a lot better than I expected.

6) Staying healthy

Besides the a lot of natural disaster and very busy schedule followed, I was able to stay healthy.

(I would like to continue and expand what I did in 2011 into 2012)

What I could not do in 2011

1) Writing blogs

 Men... I did not write at all...

2) Forming my own choral groups and start recording projects

  I really did not have enough free time to do so.

3) Publishing new books

  Because I was very busy for composing and conducting, I have not able to finish books on orchestration, choral technique and etc...

(I would like to improve this in 2012)

Premiere of "Sweet Days" male chorus version

   A Japanese male chorus ensemble “Yutokora!!” premiered the male ensemble version of “Sweet Days” at the Tokyo Male Chorus Festival.

   A lot of people doesn’t know but “Sweet Days” were originally sketched for TTBB, then later re-written for SATB. This “new” male chorus version is very different from original male chorus sketch (done in 2003). When I look at the sketch and new male version, I see how much I grew as a singer and composer. For example, F is the highest note for Tenor in the original sketch (it is same for mixed voice version). This is because when I composed the original sketch, the highest note that I could produce was F. New male chorus version goes up to B, because I can sing this note comfortably now (although it would be falsetto).

   Here is the rehearsal recording of the male ensemble version by Yutokora!!.

   And here is the video from premiere of mixed chorus version by the Sheldon High School Choir.

Oh, by the way, I originally wrote Sweet Days after singing Vaughn-Williams's "Sweet Day" and thinking "I should be able to write a better piece." :)

The 63rd All-Japan Choral Competition

   There was the final round of the 63rd All-Japan Choral Competition in Hyogo, Japan. The junior high and high school categories were done a month early, and it was the time for colligate, work, general chamber, and general large choir categories. Since there were two colligate choirs performed my “Agnus Dei (from Missa pro Pace),” I was able to get tickets for all the performances.

   One of the interesting categories is “work choir.” A work choir is something that I only find in Japan. This is a club activity choir at work. There were choirs from banks, manufacturing companies, city halls, and etc, and the singers are employees of those companies or organizations. It is very nice for companies or employers to support this kind of club activity. An old saying, “all work and no play makes Jack dull boy,” is certainly true. People who have good balance between work, hobby, and family life are the happiest people, and I am sure that they are also the most productive people at work.

   For many reasons, among the all the hobbies one can choose, choral singing is certainly one of the greatest ones. Congratulations to those who won, congratulations to those who were able to sing on the one of the greatest concert hall in Japan at the final round, and congratulations to those who love singing choral music!

 I also attend the reheasal of Tsuru University Mixed Chorus which performed by Agnus Dei. Here is the rehearsal recording mp3 and the YouTube video. Enjoy!

MindManager

   I have been using software called “MindManager” for a while. This software was developed by Mindjet Corporation, and it does help us to create flexible graphic-based outline. This is a great tool when I organize or brainstorm thesis/book ideas. The software’s look resembles Microsoft Office Suite, so anyone who are familiar with Office can use MindManager immediately. Anyone who have experiences writing long documents knows that importance of outline, and MindManger has been helping me a lot.

   I know that in this world, a word-processor software (like Word), a chart software (like Excel), and a presentation software (like PowerPoint) is default tool for business. Since I started to use MindManager, I felt that this software would be “the fourth” software. If you are looking for a tool to organize your idea, I recommend you try MindManager a chance!

The Goonies

   One of my favorite movies is “the Goonies.” I loved this movie since I was a kid, and still watch it from time to time (Yes, I own a DVD). In summary, this movie is an adventure of a group of teenage friends that try to find pirate’s treasure in order to save their families from foreclosure. I will not go into the details of the movie here, but one of the aspects of this movie that I love is music. The main theme songs were by Cindy Lauper and they sound really 80s, and the underscore soundtrack done by Dave Grusin contains some of the most wonderful and memorable underscores ever written in my opinion.

   Anyway, I had been looking for a CD of the underscore soundtrack, but it was impossible to find it. Fortunately, recently a record label named “Varese Sarabande” released the complete original underscore CD, and I finally got it the other day. It made me very happy, and also made me rethink about what makes a piece of music (or other art like movie etc.) timeless and borderless. When it comes to the Goonies, it captured the childhood’s adventurous and curious souls that every kid has and every adult unconsciously wishes to maintain somewhere in his/her heart. Of course, the presentation of the movie is lower than today’s standard with CG and high-resolution audio. However, ultimately those things are not the deciding factors of the quality of the work. 

   I am living in the 21st century, so as a creator, I need to create a work to fit into today’s society, but the survivability of the work is decided by how much the work reaches to the core part of us which doesn’t change over time. I believe that we have been and will value love, friendship, wisdom, effort, beauty and etc, though society and technology changes over time. At least, as long as I can believe that, I can involve in creative work.

Tears at the Competition

　I was fortunate to involve in this years NHK National Choir Competition (N-Con). There are three categories and they are; elementary school, junior high, and high school. One of the features of this competition is that all choirs are “club-activity choir” in school. Because they are club activities, each student’s passion to involve the club does matter a lot for a success of the choir. And when it comes to the final round of the competition, all students are singers who voluntarily spend time to choral music in the morning before class starts, during lunch breaks, and after school.

　Because it is “competition,” the judges have to give the ranking at the end. And it is, indeed, heart-breaking to see many students shedding tears of vexation and regret after the results are given. I wished I could give the gold medal to each one of these students!