1. March Miniature (3:00 min)
2. Summer Stroll (4:40 min)
3. Halloween Hobgoblin (2:55 min)
4. Awa Odori (Japanese Dance) (3:10 min)
The "Sixth Suite For Band", written in 1997, was commissioned by, and is dedicated to the Otonowa Wind Symfonica of Tokyo, one of the outstanding community bands of Japan. It was first performed by this group under the direction of the composer, on May 3rd, 1998, as parts of its 10th anniversary celebration concert. The first performance in the United States took place on July 4th of the same year, at the concluding concert of the American Bands College's annual summer session, in Ashland, Oregon, with the Directors Band, again under the direction of the composer. And the first European performance, by the International Youth Wind Orchestra under the composer's direction, took place on July 18th, 1998, at the first Mid-Europe International Conference of Symphonic Wind Orchestras and Wind Ensembles, in Schladming, Austria.
The "Sixth Suite For Band" consists of four independent movements, with no interconnections between them, an no overall musical or programmatical theme common to any or all of them.
The first movement, "March Miniature", is a set of variations on a light-hearted march melody that calls for a slightly reduced instrumentation in the performing group so as to maintain its feeling of skipping merrily along without a care in the world.
The second movement, "Summer Stroll", is just that: a quiet stroll through the woods and meadows on a beautfiful summer day in serenity an peacefulness.
The third movement, "Halloween Hobgoblin", is a kind of spooky scherzo, wherein a Halloween ghost dances myteriously along its way...only this ghost is completely up-to-date, flitting along to a modern jazz rhythm and two constrasting melodies, that lead to a climax in which many other ghosts and spirits join it in a wild free-for-all, then suddenly disappear, to leave the ghost gently disappearing into the night by himself.
The final movement, "Awa Odori", is a frenzied dance originating in the Takushima district of Japan, in which a single-measure motive is repeated over and over while different melodic lines develop above, through and below it.