Commissioned for the anual Festival of the Arts in Takasaki, Japan, this work originally was to have been a single movement in the form of a festive intrada, and as such was given its first performance in October, 1992 by the Karasugawa Wind Orchestra at the Festival that year. It was subsequently decided by the commissioning party that this single piece should be expanded to a multi-movement suite and so the second and third movement were added to what now became the first movement. The whole three-movement piece was first performed at the following year's festival, on November 3rd, 1993 by the same group, this time unter the composer's direction.
The first movement, "Intrada", is the original work first commissioned and is meant to be a musical impression of the opening of a great festival with fanfares, sweeping themes and dramatic highlights.
The second movement, "Aria", is a long, flowing melodic line with warm harmonies and instrumental colors,
while the third movement, "March", rounds off the entire work with a rousing, if slightly unconventional, treatment of this traditional form with unusual harmonies and instrumental colors.
Includes:
1. Intrada
2. Aria
3. March