Born in Tokyo, Takashi Yoshimatsu studied composition at Keio GijukuB Universicy (Department of Technology). As a musician he is largely self taught, although he did study briefly with Teizo Matsumura. He spent some time as a freelance musician, joining jazz and rock groups, as well as traditional Japanese music groups. In 1980 he won a prize in the Japan Philharmonic's composition competition with his work Dorian. Among his many published works are, Threnody of Toki, premiered in 1981 and the first of his works to receive public performance, two symphonies. No.1 Kamul-Chikap and No.2 At Terra, four concertos, Pegasus E ect for guitar, Unicorn Circuit for bassoon, Orion Machine for trombone and Cyber Bird for saxophone, and two orchestral works, Canticle of the Birds and Rainbow and The Age o Birds. Other works tf include a series of chamber works on the subject of birds, stage works and pieces for piano and traditional Japanese instruments. Many of his works have been recorded, including The Age of BirdJ which is available on CD (Camerata Tokyo). In addition to composing, he has written a substantial number of publications and music reviews; his book, Thesjs ofthe A(uJic of Pisces, is published by Ongaku-no-tomo.
The Age of Birds is the 31st work to have been commissioned by the Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra as part of the Japan Philharmonic Series, and was written between the summer of 1985 and spring of the following year. Premiered in Tokyo by the JPSO under Michiyoshi Inoue on 24 May 1986, it is an ode both to the creatures searching for new wings to lift them above the 'chaotic forest' ofcontemporary music and to the members of the orchestra - to whom the composer affecrionately refers as 'birds'.
Unusually for a work respresenting birds, we are not presented solely with the predictable bird sounds; the twittering, the song. There are other manifestations of birdlife - the spreading of wings, the softness of feathers, the movements ofperching on a branch or nesaling on rhe ground, a flock in flight - which Yoshimatsu sers out to capture through the shape and orchestration of his music. Scored for a large orchestra (including four percussionists and piano/celeste), The Age of Birds forms the conciuding part of the composer's Bird Trilogy - Threnody of Toki and Chikap complete the series - and is itself structured in three movements. (The 'toki' is a Japanese cresred ibis.)
The opening moderato, Sky ('what the sky gives the birds') is a paean to the sky, the clouds and che birds, whilst the following scherzo, TreeJ ('what the trees tell the birds'), conjures up the rhythms of migrating birds passing over Japan. The final movement, Sun ('what the sun offers the birds'), is marked a//egro and is a celebrarion of the birds' flight towards the sun.
