LANTERN UNDER THE EAVES for Euphonium and Piano（2019）

When Ayaka Sato was on her way back home from a lesson she noticed a faint light beneath the eaves of a house，an image which seemed in her mind to evoke the sound of a euphonium being played. This was the image that served as the starting point for this piece.
The image conjured up in my own mind of this house with its lantern is that of an old but sturdy traditional Japanese house with a touch here and there of Western design features and inhabited by a family with a long history.
In my imagination the house and its grounds have been handed down from generation to generation，encountering natural disasters，strife and historical events. People from all walks of life will have passed in front of its imposing gate.
The lantern hanging in the gateway will have born witness over many years to the comings and goings and the conversations of the house’s residents and passers-by，as well as being an indirect spectator of the births and deaths of those in the house.
As I ruminated on this image，I began to feel that what I wanted to do in this piece was to depict not so much the faint，warm light emanating from the lamp as the mood of an age of disquiet and the anxiety and mystery felt by the lamp in the faint light of dusk. This led me to structure the piece in two movements，the first entitled Memories and the second Warmth，alluding to the leisure hours of the family living in the house where the lantern shines.
While making the most of the exceptional functional and expressive features of the euphonium，I hope that performers and listeners will use this music as a vehicle for creating their own stories based on the Lantern Under the Eaves.