Moment in Time, A

Commissioned by Yamanashi Gakuin University for the Yamanashi Gakuin University Wind Brass Ensemble in celebration of the 50th anniversary, Professor Tadahiko Furuya, President of Yamanashi Gakuin University, Mr. Hitoshi Shiratori, representative of Wind Brass Ensemble, Professor Masaharu Shirakawa (YGJC), Professor Satoshi Sugimura (YGU) and Mr. David Hebert. Based on the poetry of Matsuo Basho (Japanese) and Henry David Thoreau (American), this symphonic poem in three movements for winds is an open window through which the listener can look into the thoughts of the two poets for whom oneness with nature was a way of life. Though they lived several hundred years ago and half a world apart, they were remarkably similar in their expression of the earth's beauty and in the joy and wealth that comes not from material success but from being awake to nature. Thought-provoking!