Contemporary string quartets

Performed by Asian Pacific Youth Choir, conducted by Vivian Ip

Written for the Hong Kong Choral Conducting Competition and Choral Summit 2019, “Black” is an SATB choral work with Cantonese lyrics that addresses environmental issues. The song describes how the colourful world changes into a monochrome palette, where fishes and birds no longer exist. The last verse expresses the composer’s hope to revive our heavenly earth. “Black” is commissioned by Hong Kong Children’s Choir in 2019, it was the set piece for the final of Hong Kong Choral Conducting Competition.

為「香港合唱指揮比賽總決賽」及「2019亞太合唱高峰會」而寫，廣東話四部和聲作品《黑》探討環保的重要性。歌曲裡頭的世界只有「黑黑灰黑黑」，連魚跟飛鳥都不存在，跟書畫中所描繪的繽紛世界完全不同。作者反問，到底是甚麼原因讓環境變得如此黑暗。在最後的段落，作者期盼世界有天終會重拾色彩。《黑》由香港兒童合唱團於2019年委約，為香港指揮合唱比賽決賽指定曲目。

Black 黑 (2019) - Austin Yip

World premiere played by the Signum Quartet, CBSO Centre, Birmingham

Volans String Quartet No. 12 played by the Signum Quartet

Recorded by Lydian Quartet

I – NODE: Tuning Knot  00:00-03:22
II – Recently Found Fragments: Chant Loop  03:28-11:38
III – Striding Rituals: Nocturnal Gatherings for Mass Wooing  11:44-17:30
III.5 or 5.IV – Optional habits  17:43-18:40
IV – CODEX: I know I know this (…almost remembering…)  18:44-25:04
V – Turn the Corner: Post-Rapture Celebration  25:08-28:04
VI - NODE: Ex nihilo…In nihil [-for Mary Ruth-]  28:05-35:30

Treatises for an Unrecovered Past is dedicated to the Lydian String Quartet and was composed as part of their Composition Commission Award, which was made possible by the generosity and vision of Marjorie B. and Martin Cohn. It was composed in San Francisco and Cambridge and is 35 minutes long.

Treatises for an Unrecovered Past (2013-14/rev. 2017) for string quartet

for string quartet

Premiered by faculty members of National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan in Kaohsiung City Music Hall on 7 May, 2015

Performances:
- Lee Shi Mei, Siew Yi Li, Jonathan Lee and Dylan Lee in Recital Theatre, The Esplanade on  8 December, 2015 during 1st Singapore Asian Composers Festival
- Vietnam National Academy of Music, Vietnam on 15 November, 2016 during ACL Conference & Festival/ 2nd “Asia-Europe” New Music Festival 2016.

String Quartet No.1: BE (2015)

V1 06 String Quartet No. 3  Tapas - VI. Six

Recorded by Momenta Quartet

Apple wood is carried as a talisman to attract love and long life and apples are and important ingredient in spells of love, immortality, and healing.-from Jane Gifford’s “The Wisdom of Trees”

In the summer of 2014, the Momenta Quartet and I spent a week at Avaloch Farm Music Institute working on the beginning of a new String Quartet. Surrounded by apple orchards at this professional musician’s retreat, musicians rehearsed all day, took walks through the woods, and spent evenings listening to each other perform. There, time slowed and was reflected in the stillness of clouds hovering over a nearby lake.String Quartet: In Irish Mythology, Emhain Abhlach (pronounced similar to Avaloch) is an island paradise of everlasting beauty whose residents danced the days away. 

String Quartet: Avaloch is a single, fifteen-minute long movement. The work is dedicated to Alfred Tauber and Deborah Sherr, who had the combined vision to create an amazing place for performers and composers to unite in the creation of new and important musical works.

String Quartet: Avaloch

Curly Compositions from a German Composer.

String Quartet No.1: BE (2015)

Austin Yip

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