New commissions from contemporary composers

every performance is a world premiere

Yangqin

Recorded by Little Giant Chamber Orchestra.  Chih-Sheng Chen, conductor.  Rice Universtiy, March 15, 2015.

"a SEPTITUDE" for erhu, dizi, sheng, pipa, ruan, yangqin and zheng (by Michael Sidney Timpson)

Commissioned by the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, in celebration of their 60th anniversary

Yangqin Solo: Reylon Yount
Cellos: Audrey Chen, Sophie Applbaum, John Lee, Ryan Song, Brian Zhao

I. Prelude (0:00)
II. Aria (4:26)
III. Rondo (7:51)

The yangqin, or Chinese dulcimer, has a fascinating history. The Chinese name translates as "foreign instrument;" indeed the yangqin is traced back to Persia (modern day Iran), from where it spread both Westward, to Hungary, and Eastward, via the Indian Ocean and over the Silk Road, to China. The yangqin's rich past inspires me to explore the sights, sounds, and smells of travel, layered within the dulcimer's timbre. I am particularly interested in the confluence of pitch choice and tone color; different combinations of the former create substantially different sound worlds within the same instrument.

Intent on focusing on the yangqin, I support it with a cello ensemble, and then present the materials in a traditional three-movement concerto form. While a combination of Chinese and Western musical traditions inspire the musical raw material, the piece is less "about" either than a space where multitudes and contradictions can coexist.

Concerto (2016): for yangqin and cello ensemble

Reylon Yount - Yangqin
Shez Manzoor & Balazs Szabo - Producers

Photo credit: Claire Brear

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios in February 2018

A primary impetus behind this work was a consideration of the dislocation between cultural identity and heritage that may affect those born outside their place of origin. This can be thought of as a paradoxical sense of nostalgia – a longing for a past transcending a purely temporal notion and encompassing also a culture that simply did not exist for its subject. Of course, such an anxiety is arguably only perpetuated as long as one thinks about it, yet it may manifest itself as clearly as being unable to communicate with one’s grandparents due to a lack of a shared language.

'Rituals and Resonances' attempts to engage with this idea, and takes as its musical framework an exploration of the relationship between sound and its resonance. Just as one does not have (or need) control over their heritage and origins, a sound may include resonances far removed from its initial perception that although appear incongruous, are in fact quintessential to its being. Indeed, the yangqin itself is distinct to Western string instruments in its non-linear and inconsistent distribution of pitches, and so much of the writing of this piece is informed by the geographical layout of the instrument. The desire to compose idiomatically for an unfamiliar instrument was most challenging and to some extent undoubtedly futile, but equally it seems there is some value in acknowledging the challenge and contemplating its significance. In this way, nostalgia is similarly paradoxical, for in the words of Marta Caminero-Santangelo, “it is not lost at all, [but instead] the only culture shaping the person's perspective”.

The piece is dedicated to Reylon Yount and my grandparents.

Rituals and Resonances for Solo Yangqin (2018)

One Undivided was commissioned for the LSO String Quartet and the Silk String Quartet by CAN (Chinese Arts Now) Festival 2019.

Premiered on 27 th January 2019 at LSO St. Luke’s London by the LSO String Quartet and the Silk String Quartet.

Conductor: Darren Bloom

We live in a world that is created by mind-made opposites. The world of words, language, thoughts and concepts, is a dualistic world of apparent opposites. Non-duality points to the essential wholeness of life. A wholeness which exists here and now, prior to any apparent separation. Despite the compelling appearance of separation and diversity, there is only one universal essence. Having been interested in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy for a few years, I recently started to recognise how non-duality embodies almost every matter of our living world. In our daily life, this wholeness includes both the non-dual aspect as well as duality. This profound philosophy inspired me to compose this piece for two String Quartets, one from the West and another from the East. Oneness is all there is – and we are all included and undivided. I hope to create a piece of music that tells something which words cannot describe. Everything is simply as it is.

One Undivided (excerpts) for erhu, pipa, yangqin, zheng and string quartet

Clarinet - Scott Lygate
Viola - Paul Silverthorne
Yangqin - Reylon Yount

Performance at LSO St. Luke's for the London Symphony Orchestra's Soundhub Showcase

Photo credit: Henry & Co.

Introductory notes:

I have often wondered what it would have been like if I had grown up 6,000 miles away in Hong Kong instead of London, which was a very real possibility. What would my musical tastes be? Would I be pursuing a different career path? Would my values be different? Who could I be? Who would I be? It can be quite a disorienting experience reflecting on this alternative reality, one that alludes to a notion of ‘distance’ that is at once geographical, temporal and cultural.

At a time when technology has undoubtedly better connected this world and Hong Kong is only a Google search and a scroll away, distances are arguably becoming increasingly obsolete. Suddenly the cultures, traditions and musics of Hong Kong are readily accessible and perhaps aren’t so far after all. Yet these technological offerings shed no light on answers to my questions, and only seem to accentuate the futility of looking for them. It is as if technology is a veil that once removed, reveals unbreakable and untraversable distances.

'Spiralling scrolls' looks to explore these ideas of distance and their implications on structural narratives and the development of relationships between instruments from distinct cultures. The piece looks to raise questions about the perception of identity and consequently how these identities can be recontextualised, reshaped and reimagined. Indeed, the hope is to reflect the complex and fluid nature of diasporic culture, for although there are questions that will never be answered, there are new possibilities and realities as a result.

Spiralling Scrolls for Clarinet, Viola and Yangqin (2019)

This piece was commissioned by TANGRAM and premiered by TANGRAM at RYE Festival 2019, Rye, UK.

2nd performance: by SILKROAD project at Boston Conservatory on Friday, 27 Sep. 

Erasure is a piece for flute, piano and yangqin, inspired by ‘Erased de Kooning’ by Robert Rauschenberg, a painting that seems to me reveals the relationship between art and spirituality. This piece plays with concepts of ‘creation’ and ‘deletion’, considered within the same process, as a way of reflecting the practice of meditation whereupon one gains thoughts as much as they learn to let them go. Erased de Kooning serves as a good example of how the removal of one subject can allow for the appearance of another ‘wonder’.

Read the blogpost here 
https://www.tangramsound.com/erasure---sun-keting.html?fbclid=IwAR1yo7ox4jpQOY_XXGHME9vbrlarguIkQNA6ZOHcT5m3-XwXUQrmgtGjVrs

Erasure for flute, yangqin and piano

Winner of the UK Critics' Circle Young Artist Award 2021 for his "compelling and individual" works, Alex Ho is a British-Chinese composer whose music and stage works have been described as “menacing and poetic" (The Guardian), "important and impressive" (Opera Today), and a "fresh, different idea that captured the imagination" (Scottish New Music Awards 2021). Alex is resident composer at Glyndebourne Opera (2023-26) and was formerly Artist-in-Residence at Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier (2021-24) and Associate Composer at Oxford International Song Festival (2022-23). His music theatre piece, Untold, premiered to critical acclaim at Concertgebouw Brugge and O. Festival Rotterdam in Spring 2023 and won the FEDORA Opera Prize 2023 for a "bold and moving creation".

 

Alex has had pieces performed/commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, BBC Radio 3, Royal Philharmonic Society, Royal Opera House, Het Concertgebouw, National Opera Studio, Music Theatre Wales, London Sinfonietta, Riot Ensemble, VOCES8, and National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. His works have featured in venues across the UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, USA and China, on platforms including SoundState Festival (Southbank Centre, London), Sound Unbound (Barbican Centre, London), Hearing China (Shanghai Symphony Hall, Shanghai), nonclassical (London), Cheltenham Music Festival, and BBC Late Junction. Alex is co-director of Tangram, a music collective currently Associate Artists at LSO St Luke's.​ Alex graduated from Oxford and Cambridge universities and completed a doctorate at the Royal College of Music with a full AHRC scholarship (LAHP studentship supported by the RCM).

Alex is represented by Intermusica: https://www.intermusica.co.uk/artist/Alex-Ho