[#189] March 6, 2023
2003 | Wind Ensemble | Grade 6 | 10'-15' | Tone poem
Life Variations, Op. 50 by Japanese composer and conductor Eiji Suzuki is our Composition of the Week.
Life Variations was written in 2003, and first performed by the Hamamatsu Symphonic Winds during the same year.
The work is descriptive and has a large symphonic scope, with a marked taste for lyricism and dramatic sense.It is structured in three movements, Birth and Death, Poem of Ecstasy and Song of Love.
It has an overall duration of 13 minutes. It is scored for a standard symphonic band setting. Eiji Suzuki studied in the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music, completing graduate composition in 1991. Additional studies were with Michio Mamiya and Masao Endo.
Special recognition have included the Ataka Prize (1987) and the 2001 Nihon Wind Band Academy Award for composition. His musical style, highly reflective of contemporary needs and tastes, is well represented in the contest and concert repertoire of Japan, America, and Europe.
Other works for wind band by Suzuki include:
Three spectacles for Navy Blue (2003)
Chingis Khan -The land of the great promise (2007)
Prayer of a distant island (2011)Song and Legend (2014)