Drum Ensemble One Hundred Years of Solitude Chau Chin-tung
This drum piece was written as a prelude to Zuni lcosahedron’s 2002 theatre production, One Hundred Years of Solitude 9.0. The creation of the song is a combination of traditional music form and modern rhythm, with a style of western and African percussion music. It is a brand new sensual experience and an exceptional percussion ensemble.
Snare Drum Solo SyNc Gene Koshinski
‘SyNc’ has a duel meaning - as in the synchronisation of multiple musical ideas (and multiple instruments/implements) and a play on the Spanish word ‘cinco’ meaning ‘five’. The significance of ‘five’ permeates the piece as nearly all of the musical ideas found in SyNc are rooted in this number. This piece syncs the wonderful timbral possibilities of the snare drum with sounds that come to life when interacting with it.
Yunluo and Daruan Tears of Time Arr. by JunYi Chow after his original composition (Arrangement commissioned by the HKCO / Premiere)
In writing Tears of Time, I have borrowed and imitated Bach's composition style in his violin music of the Baroque period. Although this work takes the technical features of the pipa as base, I have steered closer to the harmonic language of Western music and the performance techniques of the guitar in a bid to explore the possibilities of performance with other instruments. The emotional ethos of the entire piece points to a wistful solitude, and a lonesome helplessness.
- JunYi Chow
* Originally a work for pipa solo, this arrangement for yunluo and ruan was commissioned by the HKCO.
Timpani and Daruan Unstoppable Waves Arr. by JunYi Chow after his original composition (Arrangement commissioned by the HKCO / Premiere)
The composer captures the powerful energy of crashing waves through the use of unique movements, rhythms, and interaction between the two instruments playing a duet.
Percussion Solo When The Four Forms Become One Luk Kin Bun
The Four Forms are all different, constantly changing, at times blending in harmony and at times not, yet all states of morphing would eventually come together as one.
Trio Drama – for 3 pairs of cymbals and players’ voices (Op. 23) Guo Wenjing
This work is written out of the fact that I am totally repulsed by the trend for ‘one performer to play N pieces of instruments’ prevalent in the 20th Century, and to counter that, I have created something in which ‘one instrument makes N kinds of sounds’. I call this kind of exercise, in which the creative possibilities of a sounding object are explored to the full, the ‘ultimate composition’.Thanks to this, an end was put to the Chinese cymbals’ thousands of years of existence as instrument which could be sounded in only two or three ways. Through this work, the cymbals have finally become an important and highly expressive instrument.The title Drama carries two meanings in Chinese: ‘theatrical/operatic’ and ‘game/play’. Further, in traditional Chinese folk percussion music, it is customary to include a lot of physical movements to highlight bravura passages, and such emphasis has been preserved in the present work. It is therefore important that the performers should incorporate physical movements in their performance of this piece, as these have been included in the compositional design. Structurally, the music is in six movements, organised according to the different modes of performance of the cymbals.
- Guo Wenjing
* Only the sixth movement is performed in this concert.
Percussion Quintet Shan Hai Jing Guo Wenjing
The music is in three movements – ‘Pangu’, ‘Nuwa’ and ‘Chasing the Sun’. These three well-known myths in China will be retold in an intentionally plain and straightforward musical language.
Primordial chaos in the first movement is represented by the deep drones of drums and gongs, the separation between Heaven and Earth by the stunning, metallic clash of cymbals and other percussion instruments made of metal, and the harmonious quiet of the universe, by the ethereal clink and chime of the glockenspiel.
The singing saw in the second movement, with its curvaceous melodic paths, suggests the feminine shape of Nuwa.
Then as the glockenspiel fades away to suggest the setting of the sun in the third movement, the hurried bangzi clapper, large cymbals and various drums mimic the running of Kuafu as he chases the sun. His anxiety, thumping heart, and the many trips and falls along the way are captured in the music. He struggles on until he falls down, exhausted.
Wind and Percussion Harvesting in Autumn Arr. by Liu Hanlin and Su Anguo
The music is a short, energetic piece, filled with delightful, fast-paced rhythm and driving passion. The wind and percussion conjure up the zeal and spirit of an uprising, when a group of like-minded people are determined to change the world with a forward-looking vigour.
