Under the Azure Sky -The Ode to Tannan Egawa- (For SATB Chorus)

Composer: Ko Matsushita
Lyricist: Kaoru Furukawa

Words from composer:

I composed this song for the 24th National Cultural Festival Shizuoka 2009 Choral Festival. Since the choral festival was held in Izunokuni City, I was asked to compose a song about a great person associated with the city. The hero of the song, Tarozaemon Eiryu (Tannan) Egawa, played various roles as a deputy of Izu Nirayama at the end of the Edo era. His major activities were the construction of the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace, which was registered as a World Heritage Site in 2015, and the construction of Shinagawa Daiba (Odaiba in today) to defend Edo Bay. He was also known as “the founder of bread” as a shogunal retainer adopting bread as food for troops and stockpiling.

The late Kaoru Furukawa, the Naoki Prize writer, familiar with the history of the end of Edo era, did a splendid job of portraying the character of Tannan Egawa, the most cultured man and visionary of his days, born in Izu. His dramatic expression is superb. I used the poem as the text for a dramatic and entertaining piece of music.

It is a very easy to understand and entertaining piece that everyone can enjoy.