TOWARD A PEACEFUL MORNING for Violin，Viola and Harp（2024）

Ginza Juji-ya is a shop that I frequently visited during my student days to buy music and scores. The year 2024 marks its 150th anniversary，although these days it serves principally as a salon with the emphasis on harp and flute performance. I have known the shop’s director，Chieko Nakamura，for a long time and have taken part in the planning of various musical events at this salon. A concert featuring violin，viola and harp was planned to celebrate this important anniversary，and I was asked to write a piece for this combination of instruments because of the dearth of pieces hitherto composed for it.
I worked on the piece during the spring in expectation of the new dawn of peacefulness that awaits on the far side of this 150th anniversary. The sound and the flow of the work are characterised throughout by a mood of tenderness and tranquillity. My idea was to revisit the scene depicted in my earlier work of 2005，A Wing of Quietness，for violin，viola and cello. The piece was premiered in a lavish concert by three illustrious musicians.