Eduard de Boer: Elegy for Tohoku, version for symphony orchestra - with score скачать в хорошем качестве

Eduard de Boer: Elegy for Tohoku, version for symphony orchestra - with score

The catastrophe that came over Japan on March the 11th made an enormous impression on me and touched me deeply. One of the reasons for this was that I had just written a piece for the Philharmonic Winds Osakan and their conductor Yoshihiro Kimura when it happened. Another reason was the multitude of movies that were posted on Youtube: horrible scenes, unlike anything I have ever seen. Because of all this, it came so much closer than so many dramatic events from the past that I had heard about on the radio or read about in newspapers. And on top of it all there is the huge and unforeseeable long-term impact of radioactive radiation. I felt the urge to do something. But what can a composer in a faraway country like Holland do, other than compose a piece of music? So I decided to write an elegy, based on folk melodies from the most heavily affected areas. I wrote to my friend Koji Kakutani, who promptly sent me information about some traditional folk melodies from the prefectures Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, adding that Mr. Kimura would be willing to perform the future piece. I chose one melody from each of these prefectures and based the elegy on these three melodies. In order of appearance, they are: Aizu Bandai-san, a song about the volcano of mount Bandai in Fukushima Tairyou Utaikomi, a fishermen’s song from Miyagi Nanbu Usioi Uta, a cow herding song from Iwate Score and parts can be obtained for free, in the form of Sibelius or PDF data, by sending a request to [email protected]. I am very much aware of the fact that this modest composition cannot in any way relieve the burden of having lost relatives, friends and belongings of personal value, and the grief of injuries and illnesses. But I do hope that the music may give some comfort and that people may experience the ray of hope with which the piece ends. Eduard de Boer, May 2011 In December 2025, I revisited the score and transcribed it for symphony orchestra. Here is a rrecording of a performance of the original version for wind orchestra:    • Alexander Comitas: Elegy for Tohoku   Eduard de Boer, December 2025