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Zen-On Releases Two New Publications by Kenji Sakai

Jan. 17, 2023

On January 15, Zen-On released two new publications by Kenji Sakai: Spiral in Blue for woodwind quintet, and Ritornello in Blue, for woodwind trio.

Spiral in Blue was commissioned by Tokyo's Bunkyo Civic Hall and premiered there on October 21, 2016 by Les Vents Français. The composer notes:

"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 Médici is situated on a small hill and, from my studio inside the building, offered a view that looked out over the whole of Rome, including the Vatican. The idea for this piece came from the flocks of birds that I could see prancing around in the clear blue sky.

Represented by each of the wind instruments, the birds soar through the sky, rotating repeatedly in a 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 the bells of Rome. Thus, the work depicts the view over Rome that opened up from my studio, beginning at dawn and ending at dusk.

Spiral in Blue is dedicated to Les Vents Français."

The Académie de musique française de Kyoto commissioned Sakai's Ritornello in Blue, which was premiered by Jean Ferrandis (flute), Erie Speller (oboe), and Florent Héau (clarinet) at ALTI in Kyoto. Kenji Sakai notes:

"Ritornello in Blue is the sister work to Spiral in Blue for wind quintet.... It also constitutes one of a series of works – the other two being Antiphona in Blue and En Bleu et Blanc – that I composed thereafter. Spiral in Blue was composed during my stay at the Villa Medici in Rome under the influence of the flocks of birds twirling in the sky that I could see from my window in the hilltop Villa Medici and inspired by my everyday life in Rome. My stay there had a major influence on my development as a composer, and it was several years later, under the leaden, cloudy skies of wintertime Paris, that I wrote Ritornello in Blue as I reminisced about my previous life in Rome.

Such being the background of this work, Ritornello in Blue incorporates several motifs that appear in the other works in this series. The loud tutti passage, with which the piece begins, evokes my startled impressions when I first arrived in Rome. The descending stepwise motif suggests the walk from the Villa Medici down to the Piazza di Spagna, while the chorale played in the low register alludes to the magnificent Roman dusk. These sections are interspersed with virtuosic passages allocated to each of the three instruments. ‘Ritornello’ in the title of the work refers on the one hand to the subtle interchange between solo and tutti passages and, on the other, it implies a nostalgic retrospection directed from Paris to Rome."

Also of note, the composer catalogues for Kenji Sakai and fellow Zen-On composers Shin-ichiro Ikebe, Tokuhide Niimi, and Akira Nishimura have recently been updated. Each catalogue contains all compositions written by the composers to date and includes the works' instrumentation, duration, world premiere dates, and more.

Click on the composers' names above to access these  documents and learn more about the composers and their works.

To learn more about Kenji Sakai, visit: zen-on.co.jp.

Kenji Sakai
Spiral in Blue (2016)
for woodwind quintet
11'
View sample pages

Ritornello in Blue (2018)
for woodwind trio
5'
View sample pages

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