“There’s a sudden clap of thunder,
  followed on by another,
  Rudely awakening
  the nestling swallows 
  and the hibernating snakes.”

When I wrote this piece, I had in my mind these lines taken from a Chinese poem by Yuanchen 元稹 (ca. 779-831). The couplet provides a perfect description of what the Chinese see in the phenomenon of "chunlei" (spring thunder) which denotes the thundery weather (usually accompanied by lightning and heavy showers) in early March that heralds the end of the cold wintry days.

The music comprises three sections. The first section contains a collection of musical gestures, performed either on a solo instrument or on a group of instruments. Silence is a major structural component in this section. The frequent occurrences of silence are intended to create a mood of suspense and expectancy as the barren fields await patiently, or impatiently, the first flash of lightning. The unannounced arrival of the spring thunder comes as suddenly as the climax of the piece contained in the ensuing section, characterized by an extremely dense musical texture. The climactic passage is an outburst of musical energy unleashed by the full tutti. As the thunder continues to roll, living creatures of all kinds – those with wings and those that creep – are aroused from their dormancy into a commotion of activities. After that, the music gradually disintegrates into a quiet section, with the strings playing a soft drone which is intended to produce a kind of “heard silence”. In this audible silence, the audience will hear the rising sound of the wind imitated on the wind instruments as the fields, now drenched with rain from the spring showers, look forward to the sprouting of the first new shoots.


Performance: 
Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra
Ondrej Vrabec, conductor
August 28th, 2013
Ostrava Days
Philharmonic Hall, Ostrava, Czech Republic

Rude Awakening (2013) for orchestra

My first ever String Quartet is based on the notion that moments of silence can be very much an integral part of a musical composition.

The work comprises three movements, each displaying a distinctive musical character, with moments of silence being treated as a major musical component. Apart from fulfilling the conventional function of dividing/connecting the movements, pauses of varying lengths are placed in all of the three sections to punctuate, to arrange, and to explore the interplay between the occurrences of musical sound and their non-occurrences.

First Performance: 
Quartet Diotima
February 19, 2013
The University of York, York, UK

String Quartet (2012) I

String Quartet (2012) II

String Quartet (2012) III

獨坐幽篁裏，
彈琴復長嘯。
深林人不知， 
明月來相照。

I sat alone in the quietness of a bamboo grove,
Pluck-playing the qin whilst whistling into the wind;
The grove was deep inside the wood, unknown to the boisterous crowd;
Only the moon came to shine above me, bearing me company with its silvery glow. 

The title of this composition is taken from the first line of Wang Wei’s poem Zhu Li Guan (竹里館) which describes moments of solitude in the quietness of a bamboo grove. An intriguing feature of the poem is the poet’s use of the occurrence of sound/noise to emphasize the extreme quietness he feels.

The violin solo is a musical attempt to depict the notion of quietness embodied in this ancient Chinese poem by using a western stringed instrument in a contemporary context. Quietness is experienced not only as a sense of serenity in the environment which provides an opportunity for soul-searching but also as peace in the heart and a sense of coming to terms with oneself regardless of the environment.

As suggested by the title, the piece is generally quiet in mood. The opening section is characterized by a soft-drone, intended to elicit an image of stillness, creating a contemplative space for both the soloist and the audience. A sonic intrusion into the pervading quietness emerges in the form of a distorted tune, created by affixing a metal paperclip each to two of the strings. Such a sonic intrusion serves to make one more acutely aware of the enduring serenity around. Towards the end of the piece, there’s a blast of long, high notes which are finally immersed in and become part of the surrounding silence.

Performance: 
Fabio Sarlo
June 5th, 2014
The Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall
University of York, Heslington, York, UK

YouHuang (2014) for violin solo (excerpt)

This piece serves as homage to Béla Bartók. Although the instrumentation resembles that of "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta" by the Hungarian composer, it pays tribute to Bartók’s “night music” in a more general way. Tranquil piano gestures, eerie percussion sounds, and fleeting string sections are tiled together into a surrealistic collage, creating an atmospheric texture, reminiscent of the wonderful sound world around us on a starry night.

I’ve always been fascinated by the sounds of the night, even more so since I came to study in the UK. Many a night when I was sitting up late, I could hear music, from just outside the window, played by nature’s own ensemble. The chirping of birds, the humming of insects, the sighing of the wind joined to make an enchanting tune. The different sounds rose and subsided in a seemingly random way but the combined effect was mesmerizing.

To present such a combination of delicate sounds of nature in musical terms is no easy task. Consequent to my previous works "YOU WANG" ("In the Quietness of a Bamboo Grove") for prepared violin and "Nocturne" for prepared piano, I’ve become convinced that “open-form” is a possible option for serving this purpose. The music in this work is allowed to develop in a free manner within a predetermined framework. The score basically contains a collection of sporadic fragments which can be stringed together like beads into different possible forms. The performers are given the discretion to choose their own materials from the score. The music is, in a way, free to find its own course to its final destination.

For some time, my compositional interest has been focused on introducing a component of flexibility to the composed materials, allowing spontaneous decisions to be made in the performance. The final shape of this piece is dependent on the immediate and spontaneous responses of the performers in relation to the composed materials, the surrounding music as produced by other performers, and the unique circumstances of the specific performance. Each performance is therefore a collaborative musical adventure for the composer, the performers as well as the audience. 

Performance:
Violin: Finna Kurniawati, San Win Htike, Tim Chen, Patricia Erika Poblador
Viola: Karoline Vik Hegge, Victor Williams, Jared Yapp, Kieran Welch
Cello: Dylan Lee, Alfian Adytia
Percussion: Matthew Lau, Austin Lamarche
Piano: Thomas Rosenkranz
Conductor: Chris Kim
June 25th, 2015
Wet Link (The Modern Academy Concert Series)
Loke Yew Hall, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Music for a Starry Night - Hommage à Béla Bartók (2015) for strings, percussion and piano

This work was written in an exceptionally grim and gloomy winter in anticipation of the first signs of spring.

Contrary to what is usually expected of a concerto, “Efflorescence” features solely the orchestra which performs all the parts included in the score, with individual players taking up the soloist role. While playing on a few formal characteristics of the concerto, I’ve hastened to add the qualifier “quasi” to the title to avoid anticipation of a full range of features commonly associated with this musical form.

The tinkle of a set of antique cymbals introduces this orchestral work. The music then unfolds in a slow section. The strings provide a textural drone, above which solo parts performed by the principal players of woodwind and brass, freely hover.

As though injected with new boosts of energy, the music suddenly turns lively with a quickened pace. A seemingly familiar major triad appears increasingly as interjections until it reveals itself more openly in a solo part for the violin and the orchestral “dominant pedal” (as in a traditional concerto) comes into focus.

The subsequent “cadenza”, performed by the orchestral tutti, is a vibrant section brimmed with energy. The momentum of the accelerating rhythms drives the music into full swing as it celebrates the blissful blossoming of the first buds in spring.

Performance: 
Hong Kong Sinfonietta
Wing-sie Yip, conductor
April 9th, 2016
Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall, Hong Kong

Efflorescence - Quasi-Concerto for Orchestra (2016)

Each encounter with great music is an enthralling journey. My first encounter with Szymanowski’s two string quartets surprised me with joy. So I decided to write a piece about this extraordinary experience to mark the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Szymanowski String Quartet.

Obviously I had the Rondo Movement of Szymanowski’s String Quartet No. 2 in mind when I was writing this piece. The work incorporates materials drawn from different parts of the original Rondo, including the folkloric theme (quoted in a fragmented, disguised form). The audience would be taken on an “impressionistic” journey, sprinkled with moments of excitement here and there.

Apart from serving as a tribute to Szymanowski’s masterpiece, “Encounter” represents my own attempt to create a musical dialogue on strings (another form of encounter) with the ingenious Polish composer after whom the String Quartet was named.

Performance:
Szymanowski Quartet
April 23rd, 2016
Grand Hall, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Encounter (2016) for string quartet

The two words that make up the title YouHuang (which literally mean “quiet bamboo grove”) are taken from the first line of an ancient Chinese poem called Zhu Li Guan written by WANG Wei. The poem describes moments of solitude in an out-of-the-way bamboo grove. To give a feel of this four-line poem, a freely-translated English version is provided below: 
I sat alone in the quietness of a bamboo grove,
Pluck-playing the qin whilst whistling into the wind;
The grove was deep inside the wood,
unknown to the boisterous crowd;
Only the moon came to shine above me,
bearing me company with its silvery glow.

An interesting feature of this essentially quite poem is its use of intrusive sound (that of the qin, of whistling) to underscore the extreme quietness of the natural ambience. The notion of quietness embodied in this poem forms the basic musical idea of this work. This work is named YouHuang (II) as it is based on a violin solo I wrote in 2014.

The music opens with a highly virtuosic but essentially quiet violin “cadenza”. It leads gradually to a textural passage joined in by the ensemble. The dialogue between the violinist and the ensemble continues into the ensuing section where the music turns increasingly contrapuntal in character. A chorale-like passage, reminiscent of monastery chimes soaring in the evening air, is heard just before the entrance of the concluding section with an indeterminate component in the solo violin and the piano parts. The chimes could have come from a monastery hidden somewhere in the darkness. Or they could have existed only in the poet’s imagination, hushing the noise of wild thoughts in his own mind.

Performance:
Violin solo: Pauline Kim Harris
Flute: Malgorzata Hlawsa
Bass Clarinet: Carlos Cordeiro
Horn: Daniel Costello
Trumpet: János Elmauer
Percussion: Adam Máros
Piano: Alexandr Starý
Violin: Eszter Krulik
Viola: Nikolaus Schlierf
Cello: Andrej Gál
Double Bass: František Výrostko
Conductor: Owen Underhill
September 2nd, 2017
Ostrava Days
Triple Hall Karolina, Ostrava, Czech Republic

YouHuang II (2017) for violin solo and chamber orchestra (excerpt)

YouHuang II (2017) for violin solo and chamber orchestra

Libretto: Suyin Mak, based on a short story by Xi Xi

Conductor: Petr Kotík
Director, stage design: Miřenka Čechová, Petr Boháč
Video: Barbora Johansson Pivoňková
Assistant Director: Ran Jiao
Lighting Design: Karel Šimek
Video Production: Nina Bumbálková

Cast:
Kamala Sankaram, soprano (Woman)
Vojtěch Šembera, baritone (Man)
Eliška Zajícová, mezzosoprano (Aunt)
Ostravská banda

Performance:
June 27th, 2018
New Opera Days Ostrava
Hlubina Coal Mine, Ostrava, Czech Republic

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