Fantome de l'amour from Symphonie No.1 "Gral"

This work is second piece in the "Love" series, the lifelong theme of Seiji Sagawa, a conductor and clarinetist who is also a distinguished senior figure from Akita, Japan. As is always the case, Sagawa's concept of "love" takes many forms, but this time there is no concrete narrative or storyline. Instead, "love" is expressed through a purely absolute-music approach. That is why the title is Phantasm.

The piece is written in sonata form with a relatively long introduction, within which motifs of the principal theme subtly appear and disappear. In the latter half of the recapitulation, the motif of the coda reappears before the second theme-an intentional "breaking of the rules." However, this is by no means meant to depict a rule-breaking or forbidden kind of love.

In recent wind band repertoire, there seems to be an increasing number of programmatic and descriptive works. This in itself is certainly not a bad thing, but I sometimes feel that more and more young musicians believe they cannot express music unless it is depicting something specific. I occasionally receive questions from band directors such as, "What is this section depicting?" Yet not all music is meant to portray something concrete. Even absolute music without a specific program can deliver a profound emotional impact.

One of music's great strengths lies in the way the pure connection between sounds can break through the listener's surface awareness and emotional consciousness to resonate with the "core" within. When it reaches that core, Sagawa's eternal theme is truly fulfilled.

When this work was first written, it bore the title Sonata. However, the members of the Gral Wind Orchestra, who gave the premiere performance, bestowed upon it the title Phantasm, a name that perfectly captures the essence of the piece.

(Masamicz Amano)