Kenji Sakai – Selected Works

ABOUT KENJI SAKAI

Kenji Sakai was born in Osaka and studied at Kyoto City University of Fine Arts and Music. Later, he studied composition, piano, electronics and analysis at Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève, and at IRCAM. He was a member of the French Academy in Madrid in 2012-2013 and a fellow of the French Academy in Rome (Pensionnaire de la Villa Médicis) in 2015-2016. His works have been premiered by prestigious orchestras, ensembles, and soloists. Sakai served as the composer in residence at the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra in the 2017-2019 season. 

Kenji Sakai has received several prestigious awards: First Prize in Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (2009), the Queen Elisabeth International Grand Prize (2012), the Akutagawa Composition Award (2013) and the Rome Prize. He has also been recognized by the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs in Japan. Kenji Sakai is a lecturer at the Kyoto City University of Fine Arts and Music.

To learn more about Kenji Sakai, visit: zen-on.co.jp.
Click here to view a brochure of Sakai's works.

SELECTED WORKS

• ORCHESTRAL WORKS

JUPITER HALLUCINATION (2020)
for orchestra
2(2.pic).2(2.eh).2(2.slide whistle).2(2.corrugated tube)-2.2.0.0-2perc-str(8-6-4-4-2)
15'
View score

I composed Jupiter Hallucination in the summer of 2021 in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic. The work directly reflects the mood of society at the time when the future seemed opaque and chaotic.

At the time I was working on the piece, I was also engaged in analyzing Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, ‘Jupiter’, and studying orchestration with the idea of incorporating the fruits of my study into it. The majestic theme of the first movement occasionally appears to doze off in the course of the work, and the so-called ‘Jupiter motif’ consisting of the notes C-D-F-E which has appeared in works by many earlier composers, is subjected to variation. The dramaturgy of the piece wavers like a daydream rather than moving towards a clear climax. Mozart’s symphony is ‘distanced’ in a modern manner accompanied by varied tone colors. 

The work ends on an unambiguous plagal cadence, intended to symbolize a prayer for peace in our time. We awaken from the dream with all that remains being a resonance in C major. I composed this piece while reflecting all the time on how Mozart might have reacted if he had been able to hear it. – Kenji Sakai

World Premiere: February 27, 2021; Ishikawa Ongakudo (Kanazawa), Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, conducted by Kentaro Kawase
Commisioned by the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa
Publication: Zen-On Music Co., Ltd. (Material on hire)

VISIONS - d’après Gabriele D’Annunzio (2019)
for countertenor and orchestra
3(2.pic, 2.afl).3(3.eh).3(3.Ecl).3(3.dbn)-4.3.3.1-timp-4perc-hp-cel-str(12-10-8-6-4), solo c-ten
16'
View score

A song with orchestra VISIONS- d’après Gabriele D’Annunzio consists of three movements. D’Annunzio is an Italian poet. His period of activity was in the same period of the flowering of Symbolism in France and he collaborated with contemporary composer, Claude Debussy for whom he dedicated a poem. D’Annunzio’s poetry composition is full of human strength of mind colored by a beautiful imagination. For this piece, I selected three poems whose descriptions of nature and mind are intimately intertwined with each other: "L’alba sepàra dalla luce l’ombra" for the first movement, "La pioggia nel pineto" for the second movement, and "Il vento scrive" for the third movement.

The text of the first movement is the same of Tosti’s song which all vocalists would certainly sing in their study process. Unlike the bright feeling of Tosti’s song, a motif that comes and goes between D and F played by the English horn at the beginning of the movement represents a boundary of light and dark, which is a metaphor of death and makes this song serious.

In the second movement, against a backdrop of continuous step-like passages which are reminiscent of soft rain, played by the wind instruments, the vocalist calmly sings visionary texts in a syllabic way. And in the middle part where the focus shifts to the human mind from beautiful depictions of nature, melodies gradually disappear and are transformed into a narrative.

In the third movement which has a relatively short text, melodies are sung in a melismatic way compared to the previous movement. A motif that symbolizes the wind is played by the flute at the beginning. The motifs of rain and a boundary between light and dark, which appeared in the previous two movements, are used again for the last strophe, and at the same time, end this work of song.

World Premiere: December 6-7, 2019; Aichi Prefectural Art Theater Concert Hall (Nagoya), Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sylvain Cambreling, Daichi Fujiki(c-ten)  
Commissioned by the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra
Published by Zen-On Music Co., Ltd. (Material on hire) [899805]

• CHAMBER & ENSEMBLE WORKS

MELODIA LABILE (2017/2018)
for soprano saxophone and piano
10'
View score

Among the works I have written hitherto, Melodia Labile is unusual for me in that it went through a particularly difficult gestation period. In the past, I might have been suspected of deliberately avoiding melody, but in this work for the first time I strove to foreground it in my compositional style. I found it particularly challenging to create melodies in a modern style that did not come across as feeble imitations of past masters such as Schubert and Wagner.

This piece features several main melodies and disruptive motifs that are used as material for development. As the work moves forward, the delicate, brittle motifs are gradually combined into a collage, hence the title, meaning ‘unstable melody’. – Kenji Sakai

World Premiere: August 6, 2018; Takarazuka Vega Hall (Hyogo), Tadayoshi Kusakabe (sax), Noritaka Ito (pno)
Commissioned by Tadayoshi Kusakabe and Noritaka Ito
Published by Zen-On Music Co., Ltd. 

SPIRAL IN BLUE (2015/2016)
for woodwind quintet
fl.ob.cl.bn.hn
11'
View score

I composed Spiral in Blue in 2016 while I was staying in Rome for a year in a historic villa that once belonged to the Medici family and is now home to the Académie de France in the Italian capital. The Villa Médicis is situated on a small hill and offered a view from my studio inside the building over the whole of Rome, including the Vatican. The idea for this piece came from the flocks of birds that I could see prancing in the clear blue sky.

Represented by each of the wind instruments, the birds soar through the sky, rotating repeatedly in large formation as they flutter their wings and peck. The individual virtuoso passages are conceived as imitations of birdsong, with each instrument being entrusted with a solo role at some stage in the work. The slow harmonic progressions inserted at various points are intended to evoke the clear, majestic scenery and bells of Rome. The work thus depicts the view over Rome that opened up from my studio, beginning at dawn and ending at dusk. – Kenji Sakai

Spiral in Blue is dedicated to Les Vents Français.

World Premiere: October 21, 2016; Bunkyo Civic Hall (Tokyo), Les Vents Fraçais
Commissioned by Bunkyo Civic Hall Tokyo
Published by Zen-On Music Co., Ltd.

CONCERTO D'AUTOMNE (2014)
for ensemble of six musicians
fl, cl, perc, pft, vln, vlc
10'
View score

With its unusually affective title for a work of contemporary music, Concerto d’Automne was first performed in Boston and New York in the autumn of 2014. It is based on the final section, Adieu (Farewell), of Rimbaud’s prose poem Une saison en enfer (A Season in Hell). The instruments of the ensemble play soloistic roles in each section of the piece in the form of ostinatos. The transition between each section is marked by a descending diatonic scale in a process that combines with specific images in the poem such as Notre barque élevée dans les brumes immobiles tourne vers le port de la misère (Our boat, risen out of a motionless fog, turns towards the port of destitution) and Et à l’aurore, armés d’une ardente patience, nous entrerons aux splendides villes (And at dawn, armed with fervent patience, we will enter the cities of splendour). The passage from autumn to winter combines with the eve of Rimbaud’s abandonment of poetry and the start of his wanderings around the world. 

World Premiere: October 20, 2014, Jordan Hall (Boston); Hai-Dao Ensemble
Commissioned by the Hai-Dao Ensemble
Published by Zen-On Music Co., Ltd. 

(Kenji Sakai/Photo by Maxime Lenik)