As Wonderful Things Drift By

Commissioned by my old friend and a gifted euphonium player Ryuji Ushigami, this work was composed in January 1990 and premiered in April of the same year. Two years later the internationally eminent euphonium player Toru Miura introduced this piece to the United States during his 1992 concert tour, at which time it was very well received.

The emotional aspect of this piece is based on a short poem of the Japanese poet Jukichi Yagi (1898-1927), who died at the yound age of 29 after a life of faithful Christian. Written in 1924, the short poem has no title:

Beautiful things, pleasant things. They cross my heart.

While I can do nothing and silent only keep.

I must only overlook them.

We may feel his pure admiration for the Creator and his lonliness in this poem.

The music is made up of two parts: (1) a slow section gradually unfolding (a-b-c), and (2) an allegro section with a bridge form (a-b-c-b-a). It may bring to mind an old munsical for known as fantasia and fugue often found in the Baroque music. A simple three-notes motive C E-flat G appears throughout this piece.

Jiro Censhu