For Erhu, Xiaoyuan, Pipa and Yangqin Hangover Party Zheng Yui-ka
“...... Candles and lamps were lighted, and a plentiful repast was set before them. Guijie changed her clothes and came to sit beside them. The two sisters, their jade wrists keeping time together, Jlled the golden cups. They passed the wine and sang songs.” - Quoted from Jin Ping Mei (The Golden Lotus), chapter 11.
Jin Ping Mei by Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng is a famous Chinese novel. It has been described as “dirty book”; however, the author might educate the readers about the consequences of the obsessional behaviour. The symposium scenes are immersive that recall the composer the parties before Covid-19. The composer decided to compose a piece for imitating and recalling the social gathering.
For Chinese Chamber Ensemble
Set Sail Leung Yan-ting, Tiffany (World Premiere)
A ship,
full of infinite possibilities.
Facing unpredictable weather.
Sometimes you have to grasp the nettle.
Sometimes mooring at a port,
No matter what,
the day of starting over is awaited.
This ship could be your journey of life, it might symbolise the pandemic.
The composer also expresses her hope for the future in her music.
The Wayfarer of Mountain and City Li Alex Kelvin (World Premiere)
‘Mountain and City’ is a reference to the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s location nestled in the mountains near the sea; ‘the Wayfarer’ refers to the seven years that the composer spent there. The piece seems to take a leisurely stroll through the city paths that wind through the hills, recalling the layers of fog and clouds swirling over the mountain peaks and ocean, the buildings, the lights and shadows, and the people. The music also carries a somber tone that suggests bygone days through a montage of an unforgettable encounter. The composition consists of three parts:
Murmurs of the Sea: Recalling the soft sounds and glimmering surface of the sea.
Mountain and City: Bustling streets snake through the mountains.
Farewell: Counting the twinkling stars beyond the glowing street lamps.
The Ebullient Crowd Cheung Ho-ming (World Premiere)
Shijing (The Book of Songs) once mentioned that “A good year comes with a bumper harvest. And those crops of the year will be used to make wine, which will then be served to the God to show gratefulness”. A group of tribal members gathers for a gala every autumn. During the celebration, they dance, drink and perform this tune to the God as a prayer for good weather and good harvests.
The Time Tunnel Leung Hong-yu (World Premiere)
The momentum out of the blue! Let's step into this time tunnel and re-visit the places that once made us excited.
Lullaby II Wong Ching-yin (World Premiere)
A lullaby is meant to be a sweet and tranquil song, and is sung to infants to help them to sleep. This work Lullaby II is rather an antithesis of the imagined lullaby: fear, mess, trembling and tense quietness are the negative extremes that I explored in the composition. I employ a large sound palette and use sound as a tool to seek order in chaos and seek direction in perplexion, along the way leaving traces of melodious moments, which, though being fragmented, may be a truer depiction of what ‘lullaby’ means in this era of uncertainty.
Eternal Night Tam Yat-sing (World Premiere)
Eternal Night, or Polar Night, occurs at the Earth’s polar regions during winter as the sun dips below the horizon and becomes invisible for an extended period.
Inspired by this phenomenon, the first sections of this composition imagines people living in a dark, cold, and lonely place, and the negative emotional effects that could result. The final movement draws from the writings of Lu Xun: “give off warmth and light, like fireflies glowing in the darkness, without waiting for a torch to be passed”, perhaps hoping for a sliver of dawn to appear.
Fragmented Memories So Ho-chi (World Premiere)
Human dream when they sleep, but forget, or only some fragmented memory is remembered when they awake. People, who want to remember their dreams, would link those fragmented dreams or even create some new scenes in order to find some kind of narrativity in the dream. Fragmented Memories tries to demonstrate this phenomenon through developing fragmented musical sections and abrupt changes between distinctive musical materials as the music progress that I try to find a certain narrativity within.
