Selected Works by Zhuosheng Jin (in a Chronological Order)
*All scores are published by Babel Scores, Paris
Nomad Beyond 异乡人 (2024)
instrumentation: detuned yangqin solo, erhu, guqin, piano
duration: ca. 9'30"
Programme Notes: "Nomad Beyond" is dedicated to all those who, for various reasons, can no longer return to their homeland. In this piece, a detuned melody alternates with the detuned yangqin solo, continuing until it finally shatters in the distance.
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Recording info: Ruyuan Feng (yangqin solo), AIR Contemporary Collective
Lady Lin 林小姐 (2023-24)
Instrumentation: flute solo, clarinet B flat, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello
Duration: ca. 14'
Programme Notes: "Lady Lin" is written for flautist Xiaoyu Lin. In the piece, the continuously flowing zigzag textures symbolise a very precious facet of Ms. Lin's personality.
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Recording info: Xiaoyu Lin (flute solo), Vasko Dukovski (clarinet), Chao Zhang (percussion), Siyuan Li (piano), Mengchan Zhao (violin), Ao Peng (viola), Chenyan Peng (cello) under the baton of Zhuorui Deng
Typhoon 鼎 (2024)
Instrumentation: saxophone solo (soprano, alto), flute, clarinet B flat, trombone, percussion, cello
Duration: ca. 8'
"Typhoon" was composed for saxophonist Zhang Ding. One evening, after a few drinks, he asked me for a “cool piece” that would showcase his virtuosity. A few months later, I finished writing it, and he gave its premiere performance.
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Recording info: Ding Zhang (saxophone solo), Tacet(i) Ensemble under the baton of Boon Hua Lien
November Story 十一月 (2021/24)
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet B flat, percussion, piano, violin, cello.
Duration: ca. 14'
Programme Notes: In 1523, two Japanese trade fleets, respectively led by Kendō Sōsetsu (謙道宗設) and Rankō Zuisa (鸞岡端佐), had a conflict in Ningbo (寧波), China, known as the Ningbo Tribute Conflict. The incident caused the Ming Dynasty to officially launch an isolationist policy called Haijin (海禁), or Sea Ban, which heavily affected both the fishermen in the coastal areas in east China and the regular maritime trade between Japan and China. Striving to survive, some Chinese fishermen joined the Japanese pirates, looting along China's east coast. A long warfare between the Ming dynasty and the Japanese pirates began.
Among history's vicissitudes, Qi Jiguang (戚繼光) was considered one of the most famous Ming generals during these battles. At the time, the Weiyuan Fortress (威遠城) he built in 1560 was an insurmountable barrier for the pirates. For a long time, I have been thinking of composing a music work about this part of history, as Ningbo is my hometown, and the Weiyuan Fortress was a 15-minute walk from my childhood house. In 2021, I got the opportunity at a music festival in south China. The piece was based on a re-visit of Weiyuan Fortress in November 2020 during the COVID. In the music, I used different musical textures to paint the battles and the sea waves as seen from the fortress. However, shortly after I started to write the work, I was told that the premiere would be cancelled due to the pandemic.
I had another opportunity to submit this work to the "Contemporary Chamber Music from China Tour" at CUHK Shenzhen in 2024. Eventually, the piece was premiered in Shenzhen and Vienna under the title "Into the Depth of East China Sea." After the premiere, I published the score and changed it to its original title, "November Story".
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Recording info: Faculty Members of Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen under the baton of Yongyan Hu
Playground 乐园 (2024)
Instrumentation: soprano saxophone, viola, piano
Duration: ca. 9'30''
Programme Notes: The inspiration for "Playground" comes from an experience of survival senses in an alienated space. Imagine walking into an amusement park where all the rides are present but distorted in shape and altered in operation: the bouncy castles are as hard as granite, the roller coasters are suspended above the tracks, and the pirate ships hang upside down in mid-air... If we are told or forced by some external power to complete these amusement activities, knowing their abnormal state yet compelling ourselves to treat them as usual and immerse ourselves in them, we will undergo tremendous alienation of body and mind; this alienation would leave a person's body and mind scarred. When such alienation is finally accepted, and at that moment, we look at the prominent characters of "Playground" on the amusement park gate and smile, how should this "smile" be interpreted and defined? What is the meaning of its existence?
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Recording info: Ding Zhang (saxophone), Ao Peng (viola), and Siyuan Li (piano)
Tons of Gins Waiting for You on K-PAX K球多金 (2023)
Instrumentation: piano trio
Duration: ca. 11'30''
Programme Notes: The "K-PAX" in the title refers to a highly civilized planet in a film, while "Gin" is pronounced the same as the composer's surname (Jin). This piece can be understood as the composer making fun of himself or as the composer, from his perspective, mocking the world. Various musical elements appear in the piece; some were emphasised as necessary to learn during the composer's studies in multiple classes when he was still a student, while others are related to the composer's compositional approaches developed over years of creation. These elements are intertwined in a twisted and humorous manner in this piece.
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Recording info: BenMo Trio
La mer dans ses yeux 她眼中海的模样 (2023)
Instrumentation: two sasophonists (1 for soprano and tenor, and 2 for alto and bariton)
Duration: ca. 9'30''
Programme notes: This piece originates from an image in my mind: a girl standing in front of the sea. She has travelled from the depths of the continent to the seaside, a sight she has longed for. The piece repeats a highly distorted melody over and over again, like a persistent and passionate murmur. As the melody repeats, the real-world sea and the sea in the girl's eyes intertwine, merging into an indescribable but tenderly shimmering mist.
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Recording info: Marie-Bernadette Charrier and Ding Zhang
Five Songs to Ni 给周旎的五首歌 (2023)
Instrumentation: soprano, piano
Duration: ca. 9'
Programme notes: Five Songs to Ni is a collection of five short pieces dedicated to soprano Ni Zhou. The composer himself wrote the lyrics.
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Recording info: Ni Zhou (soprano) and Zhuosheng Jin (piano)
Pale Flower VIII 苍白之花八 (2023)
Instrumentation: acoustic guitar solo
Duration: ca. 10'
Programme notes: The "Pale Flower" series pays tribute to Luciano Berio's "Sequenza", with each piece written for a specific solo instrument. The entire series carries a particular humanistic meaning: flowers are meant to be vibrant. "Pale" flowers are abnormal, representing those who cannot voice their suffering or are oppressed due to cultural or social reasons. "Pale Flower VIII" stems from the sensory confusion caused by constantly repeating the same motifs. In this confusion, the listener begins to ponder the meaning of repetition and their existence within this repetition. The alienation caused by repetition runs throughout the piece. This idea originated in 2018 when a friend told me that if I stared at a word and kept repeating it out loud, the word's sound and appearance would lose meaning in my mind, creating a strange discomfort. After several less successful attempts, I completed "Pale Flower VIII", which, to date, is the work that satisfies me the most regarding this idea.
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Recording info: Junhong Kuang
Looks Like Jackfruit 般若波罗蜜 (2022)
Intrumentation: daeguem, sheng, koto, gayeguem, percussions, violin, viola, cello, contrabass
Duration: ca. 14'
Programme notes: The piece's title is a linguistic corruption of the Diamond Sutra. This English title is literally translated from the Sutra’s Chinese name. However, the piece has no actual indication or relation to the Sutra. Traditional Chinese music formations influence the form of the piece.
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Recording info: AsianArt Ensemble under the baton of Il-Ryun Chung
Pale Flower VII 苍白之花七 (2022)
Instrumentation: cello solo
Duration: ca. 14'15''
Programme notes: The "Pale Flower" series pays tribute to Luciano Berio's "Sequenza", with each piece written for a specific solo instrument. The entire series carries a particular humanistic meaning: flowers are meant to be vibrant. "Pale" flowers are abnormal, representing those who cannot voice their suffering or are oppressed due to cultural or social reasons. "Pale Flower VII" is composed for prepared cello, with the fixed pitches of strings I and II eliminated. This piece is more like writing for an instrumental installation than a traditional instrument. Through this approach, I aim to create a unique, piercing sonic state. The work aligns with the humanistic connotations of the "Pale Flower" series regarding its physical and sonic aspects. Cellist Yiyang Zhao commissioned this work, and I am delighted to have received his assistance and support throughout the compositional process.
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Recording info: Yiyang Zhao
Empty Harbour, Reddish Sea 空港，赤海 (2021)
Instrumentation: two pianos
Duration: ca. 12'30''
Programme notes: This piece is directly inspired by the enormous cross and the reddish sea in "Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance." I was a fan of Evangelion for a period. In this composition, I attempt to depict a grand, fatalistic apocalyptic vision and connect it with potential rebirth and "love" (in its most intricate meanings). Is there an unconscious autobiographical element in this work? I cannot say for sure.
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Recording info: Nora Popescu and Otto Popescu
Pale Flower V 苍白之花五（2020）
Instrumentation: accordion solo
Duration: ca. 17'15''
Programme notes: The "Pale Flower" series pays tribute to Luciano Berio's "Sequenza", with each piece written for a specific solo instrument. The entire series carries a particular humanistic meaning: flowers are meant to be vibrant. "Pale" flowers are abnormal, representing those who cannot voice their suffering or are oppressed due to cultural or social reasons. "Pale Flower V" portrays a journey—a highly recognisable gesture reappears in various forms, evolving until it becomes a memory, fermenting and spreading within the flows of reality and history, gathering and dispersing. A long process of deconstruction and fading follows this. As the horizon lightens again, all has ended, yet nothing has ever finished.
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Recording info: Tianqi Wang
Pale Flower IV 苍白之花四 (2020)
Instrumentation: violin solo
Duration: ca. 9'30''
Programme notes: The "Pale Flower" series pays tribute to Luciano Berio's "Sequenza", with each piece written for a specific solo instrument. The entire series carries a particular humanistic meaning: flowers are meant to be vibrant. "Pale" flowers are abnormal, representing those who cannot voice their suffering or are oppressed due to cultural or social reasons. In "Pale Flower IV," I use clothespins and paperclips to distort the original sound of the violin. One of the piece's elements is sustained notes, often performed with slow glissandi, and the other is fast-running notes, which are, in fact, a fragmented form of the former. The composition attempts to create an oppressive atmosphere, culminating in the lowest register of the violin and then returning to the delicate, moaning sound state from the beginning. This piece has two versions: a solo for violin (IV) and a solo for viola (IVb).
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Recording info: Sophie Schafleitner
not here... not there... somewhere... II 花犯二 (2020)
Instrumentation: violin and viola
Duration: ca. 11'
Programme notes: This piece is a study of human relationships. Genders and types are irrelevant. In a relationship, each individual is both dependent and independent. The conflict and struggles between us bring us closer while generating confusion. Who am I, who are you, what am I to you and what are you to me? By trying to find the self compared to others, we are also losing the self to the others.
Parallel to the physical space, we also live in an immense psychological space inside of our minds. Since we often face difficulties locating ourselves in this invisible world, we feel uncomfortable. We don’t like to lose the control of our positions, so we try to offer, to lie, to love, to harm, to kiss, and to kill. What do we get in the end?
Maybe human beings are a kind of creature that can only be either absolutely lonely or extremely complicated.
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Recording info: Pablo Rubino (violin) and Diana Gasparini (viola)
dust not dust 尘非尘 (2020)
Instrumentation: oboe, horn, viola
Duration: ca. 8'15''
Programme notes: "dust not dust" is completed. It is the second piece I composed during the global outbreak of COVID-19. At the time that I drew the last note, there was no information about whether the piece will be premiered, or when it will be premiered.
Beings, like dust, but not dust. They have desires. They search inward to the depth of their hearts and outward to the end of universe. Do they find something? Are they satisfied?
He is tired, lying on his bed. In the dream, she comes with words soft.
His eyes open. He draws another little notehead.
His heart is a piece of dust. The end of universe is the other piece. In between, there are people moving, seasons changing, and time flying.
A vast ground is under the moonlight. Streets are empty, streetlights shimmering.
She knows. She doesn't say.
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Recording info: Philippe Grauvogel (oboe), Jean-Christophe Vervoitte (horn), and Benoît Morel (viola). You will be led to IRCAM's page.
Into the Fall (October Story) 纷纷 (2018/20)
Instrumentation: flute (C, bass), clarinet (B flat, bass), bassoon, piano, violin, cello
Programme notes: "Into the Fall" was written in Fall 2018. The piece is based on my own encounters during that period. In this not-too-long piece, there are small portraits, either complete or incomplete, of people I met, street views of places I visited, and reactions and reflections of my personal life. Being both a composer and a writer, I love music as a medium for its abstractness, much like mixing ingredients into a dish, where the resulting stir-fry, while still closely related to the author, is, on the other hand, also able to bring something more intimate to the audience themselves. A music piece, unlike a story where every scene is more or less clear, is made up of murmurs of life, reflecting the deepest parts of everyones hearts…
In the words of William Shakespeare: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players…"
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Recording info: Meitar Ensemble under the baton of Tom Karni
A Piece of Watermelon 艳阳天 (2018-19)
Instrumentation: flute (C, bass), clarinet (B flat, bass), percussion, piano, violin, cello, female voice
Duration: ca. 15'
Programme notes: “A Piece of Watermelon” (艳阳天) is derived from a homonymic short story I wrote several years ago. In that story, the protagonist, a pornographic filmmaker, is producing a new piece with an actress. Somehow, she reminds him of a girl he loved earlier in his life during a political incident. His mind starts uncontrollably tracing back to the past. Love and politics interweave, creating unstoppable tides inside of him. He releases the team, decides to face all the memories alone.
In this piece, the two themes, love and politics, are treated separately. I composed a poem derived from the love part of the original short story and set as the main lyrics. Words from the political part in the story are deliberately retaken and reordered in a wrong way. The phrases are grammatically erroneous and to be seemingly unreadable. In the piece, the love part is mostly for the singer and the political part is spoken and whispered by the other musicians. Everyone in this piece is making voice sound to be mixed with the instrumental sound.
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Recording info: Syntax Ensemble under the baton of Pasquale Corrado
not here... not there... somewhere... 花犯 (2019)
Instrumentation: flute (piccolo, C), clarinet (B flat, bass)
Duration: ca. 18'45''
Programme notes: This piece is a study of human relationships. Genders and types are irrelevant. In a relationship, each individual is both dependent and independent. The conflict and struggles between us bring us closer while generating confusion. Who am I, who are you, what am I to you and what are you to me? By trying to find the self compared to others, we are also losing the self to the others.
Parallel to the physical space, we also live in an immense psychological space inside of our minds. Since we often face difficulties locating ourselves in this invisible world, we feel uncomfortable. We don’t like to lose the control of our positions, so we try to offer, to lie, to love, to harm, to kiss, and to kill. What do we get in the end?
Maybe human beings are a kind of creature that can only be either absolutely lonely or extremely complicated.
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Recording info: Xiaoyu Lin (flute) and Vasko Dukovski (clarinet)
Pale Flower III 苍白之花三 (2019)
Instrumentation: flute solo
Duration: ca. 7'30''
Programme notes: The "Pale Flower" series pays tribute to Luciano Berio's "Sequenza", with each piece written for a specific solo instrument. The entire series carries a particular humanistic meaning: flowers are meant to be vibrant. "Pale" flowers are abnormal, representing those who cannot voice their suffering or are oppressed due to cultural or social reasons. "Pale Flower III" is inspired by scenes from democratic movements. The piece shapes different crowds and states via various dense textures. This composition is not merely a realistic depiction of a gathering. Still, it attempts to capture its sensory significance, aiming to remain in people's memories as a form of commemoration and inspiration.
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Recording Info: Neža Zupanc
Three Images Inspired From Shuntarō Tanikawa 谷川俊太郎诗三首 (2019)
Instrumentation: piano solo
Duration: ca. 7'30''
Programme notes: Three Images Inspired by Shuntarō Tanikawa is composed at the end of 2019. The piece derived from images in Monad, a book with Tanikawa’s poetry and GOMA’s painting. In this piece, the three sonic images do not directly relate to specific words or visual images in Monad but are more the composer’s sensual reflection towards the colours Tanikawa and GOMA made together. Shuntarō Tanikawa has been one of the composer’s favourite poets. The composer wants to dedicate this piece as a homage to the literature master.
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Recording info: Kimihiro Yasaka
June Story 六月 (2019)
Intrumentation: three male voices, harp, cello, contrabass with everyone also plays selected percussions and objects
Duration: ca. 6'30''
Programme notes: "June Story" refers to a poem I composed in June 2018 in Greece.
"June
You run
With your eyes
Shimmering
And with the seabirds
Flapping around
Becoming a part of your attire
Your moving shadow
Stretches into the streetlight
I think that
At one moment
Your hairs
Crash my face lightly"
At the time I started to compose this piece of music, I was in a very different mood than the time I wrote the poem. Instead of following the light, romantic atmosphere in the poem, I eventually decided to write a work destroying it. I wanted the music to be dramatic, impolite, and in a way violent. I indeed kept this idea while composing the piece.
It's funny that when I finally got to listen to the recording of the premiere, underneath the dramatic, impolite, violent surface, I could still find a strong sense of romance everywhere in the music…
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Recording info: members of Les Métaboles and Ensemble Multilatérale under the baton of Brian Liao
Pale Flower I 苍白之花一 (2019)
Instrumentation: mini stage for one performer
Duration: ca. 13'30''
Programme notes: The "Pale Flower" series pays tribute to Luciano Berio's "Sequenza", with each piece written for a specific solo instrument. The entire series carries a particular humanistic meaning: flowers are meant to be vibrant. "Pale" flowers are abnormal, representing those who cannot voice their suffering or are oppressed due to cultural or social reasons. "Pale Flower I" was commissioned by percussionist Angela Wai Nok Hui, who premiered it in Glaz at Impuls Festival 2019. During our conversations, she mentioned her desire for a piece that could reflect contemporary social realities. Consequently, we decided to create a mini stage work called "Pale Flower I." After completing this piece, I developed it into a series, as seen by now the "Pale Flower" series.
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Recording info: Phataporn Preechanon
a trivial elegy for an unnamed friend 声声慢 (2019)
Instrumentation: string trio
Duration: ca. 12'15''
Programme notes: The piece is a homage to a social protest and comprises 30 sonic phrases divided by silence.
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Recording info: members of Mivos Quartet
At the End of Snow Line 雪迹深处 (2017-18)
Instrumentation: orchestra
Duration: ca. 12'
Programme notes: I link "At The End Of Snow Line" to my own cultural traditions by starting from a unique point of departure: on the surface, none of the direct Chinese cultural elements seem to be used in the piece. The central material exhibits a four-note motivic gesture in an arpeggio shape. The idea arises from an important improvisational tradition in the performance practice of classic Chinese music, where attacks of a long focal tone are always surrounded by quick "ornamental" tones, but in my piece I do not employed it in such an obvious way. Through my composition, I create multiple musical lines based on this central gesture with different characters, lengths, pitch registers, etc. The piece ultimately grows from individual lines to a unified sonority. Once the overall sonority covers each of the monophonic lines, each of the lines becomes indistinguishable while the overall sonority becomes the sounding feature of this piece. By transforming the shapes of elements from my own culture, this composition eventually creates its own composite identity.
At the time when I started to compose this piece, I was moving from Boston, Massachusetts to Montreal, Quebec. Very soon, I settled down. During the winter season, whenever I walked on the snowy street, I always thought of my hometown. My hometown was a southern city in China that rarely snows. I spent my first 12 years in there before moving to Beijing, and then to US. To this day, I can still remember that during the winter, when I walked to the street in my hometown, my shadow projected on the clear road and that image was simply hard to be wiped from my mind.
Since then, many things have been changed in that lovely little land. Changes become more conspicuous when I look at them from distance. This piece, on an emotional level, shows my confusions and consistent love towards my land, and projects also my internal struggles with identity.
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Recording Info: Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Kanako Abe
Immobilised Motions 似动 (2017-2018)
Instrumentation: string quartet
Duration: ca. 10'
Programme notes: I wrote the majority of Immobilised Motions when travelling in Peru in December 2017. The pitch material of this piece is related to an earlier string quartet I wrote in 2011. In this piece, I aim to create a paradox between mobility and immobility.
The form of the piece has been planned as a rigid ABCA’. By immobilising the structure in that way, the music, despite its relentless motions, becomes immobile and discrete from a perceptional view. The overall result maintains interest through the contrast between its vigorous surface and vapid essence and reminds me of a common social problem, mainly happening in human speech. I believe almost everyone would have this kind of experience, from politicians, business people, professors, artists, or any other person who is talking endlessly and using various ways to talk, and yet they are really saying nothing of substance. On one hand, this piece is a showcase of skilful writing and is sonically full of motions. On the other hand, it is also a showcase essentially to drive the listeners to nowhere and to stay immobilised.
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Recording info: Quatuor Béla
as in a m[e]rror 犹在镜中 (2017)
Instrumentation: electric guitar solo
Duration: ca. 15'15''
Programme notes: "as in a m[e]rror" attempts to capture a profound sense of melancholy through various musical ideas.
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Recording info: Giacomo Baldelli
...and I placed my arm around your shoulder 红帆船 (2016)
Instrumentation: string quartet
Duration: ca. 15'30''
Programme notes: The sonic structure of the piece is made through various and consistent types of alternation. For me, it acts as a kind of direction. By alternating different musical shapes, the music starts to drive itself. The term "direction" here doesn't mean an end, but acts as a Sisyphean metaphor that later shapes come from the formers and then become the formers, and so on…
The title of the piece derives from the last two lines of the poem "Red Sail" by Chinese poet Bei Dao (北岛). In the poem, the poet stands on the seaside. Wild water symbolises the unknown future of his country and his people, as he, among his contemporaries, belongs to the first generation of poets after the Cultural Revolution. He faces the sunset and watches the water. The sunshine warms his heart and reddens the sail. In the end, he starts off to the sea.
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Recording info: Mivos Quartet
April Story 四月 (2016)
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet A, percussion, violin, viola, cello
Duration: ca. 8'30''
Programme notes: The piece reflects a poem I composed in April, 2016:
"April shines,
Brighter than the sunlight on snow.
You run to me,
Once, and twice...
Cross the daytime traffic,
And cross the iron buildings.
Like the flower from gunpoint,
You pierce my chest."
During the piece, I alternate two kinds of musical gesture settings in contrast. One of them reaches a wider range and thus is seemingly more active, and the other is steadier in register. On the other hand, formally, the two gestures are both rendered either by long phrases or by fragments (or shorter/incomplete phrases). This kind of arrangement provides another contrast in which the fragments – or the shorter phrases - are always breaking the longer phrases either by replacing them or interweaving into them. These two kinds of contrast generate energy and then also drive the music towards the final spoken part in the coda section. In the poem, the character (i.e. the poet) sees and/or feels someone running to him, again and again, finally when she arrives, she "pierce his chest". The total structure of the music tries to catch the emotional process and then interpret it by sound. The piece – both the poem and the music versions – ends on the phrase "pierce my chest", as the final dramatic result of the "April Story".
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Recording info: Ensemble Mdi under the baton of Davide Ianni
(in)somnia （无）眠 (2015)
Instrumentation: cello solo
Duration: ca. 14'
Programme notes: I wrote this piece as a personal gift for a friend in Berlin. It was a period I got insomnia. I used most of the night times composing this piece. There are a lot of notes in the middle sections. To actually write so many notes on paper is a very time-consuming job. Finally, I found myself being able to sleep while drawing note-heads…
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Recording info: Yi Cheng
As in a Poem 诗 (2015)
Instrumentation: flute, piano, cello
Duration: ca. 12'30''
Programme notes: As in a poem for flute, cello, and piano is a personal dedication. The piece is based on notes B-flat, A-flat, E-flat, F-sharp, and C-natural, which can represent a friend's name when run through a musical cryptogram.
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Recording info: Xiaoyu Lin (flute), Xu Luo (piano), and Chenyan Peng (cello)
End by a Song 歌弑 (2010)
Instrumentation: female voice and orchestra
Duration: ca. 13'31''
Programme notes: In composing this piece, my interest fell on a special type of songs and dances of ancient China, of which the Feast at Swan Goose Gate is one of the most famous ones. In this story, Xiang Yu (項羽), Hegemon-King of the Chu kingdom, directed his cousin Xiang Zhuang (項莊) to perform a sword dance among the court songs at the feast as a ruse to try to use the weapon to kill Liu Bang (劉邦), Xiang Yu’s political rival. However, another member of the Xiang family, Xiang Bo (項伯), who was sympathetic to Liu Bang, noticed the ruse and began his own sword dance to surreptitiously ward off the assassination attempt, saving Liu. Liu Bang would eventually defeat Xiang Yu and establish the Han dynasty, overthrowing Xiang’s Chu kingdom, an event that never could have occurred if Xiang’s assassination had been successful.
The great significance of this story is that these performances at the Feast at Swan Goose Gate represent complete, genuine pieces of art, not just metaphorically or philosophically, but also through their intents in actuality. Xiang Yu, head of the Xiang family, wants to kill the head of the Liu family, Liu Bang. He conspires to do so via songs and dances, and failed in these songs and dances. The tragic essence of this incident, through the ages, resonates with its artistic bravery and fatal poetry. The ending note of the songs also ends the singer’s last hope for success, and the ending movement of the dances also gives the final judgement to the dancer’s fate, spelling doom for his kingdom and changing the fate of world history. What a drama: sing and dance, until the end of our world! That its overtones will never fade out through the waving vicissitude of generations.
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Recording info: Hongwei Wang (voice), Beijing Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Daye Lin
The Last Travel And Elegy For Children 最后的旅行与孩子们的挽歌 (2009)
Instrumentation: two violas
Duration: ca. 4'45''
Programme notes: This piece is divided into two parts. The first part, "The Last Travel," is characterised by relentless, dense, running textures. It transitions into the second part through a passage that moves from the high to the low register, eventually pausing on a sustained note. The second part, "Elegy for Children," features a sorrowful, song-like, warm melody.
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Recording info: Hungwei Huang and Tingru Lai
The Fairy of F. R. Town 米豆腐 (2009)
Instrumentation: flute solo
Duration: ca. 7'15''
Programme notes: This piece is inspired by director Xie Jin's film "Hibiscus Town." Initially, it was the composer's midterm assignment for a twelve-tone composition course during his undergraduate studies. When designing the 12-tone row, the composer concealed two Chinese pentatonic scales within it, allowing for the creation of pentatonic melodies in certain sections of the piece. This composition was created during the composer's first year after leaving China to study in the United States. The sonic state of the piece reflects an inevitable aesthetic and compositional turmoil that the composer experienced internally at that time.
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Recording info: Laura Cocks
nothing more than a piece of wind 樱花绽放的季节 (2007)
Instrumentation: piano solo
Duration: ca. 4'45''
Programme notes: This piece is inspired by a poem of the same name (in Chinese) written by the composer. It depicts the loss felt as a young girl flits through a grove of cherry blossoms, only to depart suddenly. The work is filled with the wistful melancholy of adolescence.
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Recording info: Zhuosheng Jin
Three Poems 诗三首 (2006)
Instrumentation: soprano, piano
Duration: ca. 7'15''
Programme notes: This lyrical suite is based on three modern Chinese poems: Bei Dao's "The Answer" (excerpt), Hai Zi's "Four-Line Poem," and Jin Cheng's (the composer's own) "Tranquility."
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Recording info: Ni Zhou (soprano) and Zhuosheng Jin (piano)
*All scores are published by Babel Scores, Paris
Nomad Beyond 异乡人 (2024)
instrumentation: detuned yangqin solo, erhu, guqin, piano
duration: ca. 9'30"
Programme Notes: "Nomad Beyond" is dedicated to all those who, for various reasons, can no longer return to their homeland. In this piece, a detuned melody alternates with the detuned yangqin solo, continuing until it finally shatters in the distance.
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Recording info: Ruyuan Feng (yangqin solo), AIR Contemporary Collective
Lady Lin 林小姐 (2023-24)
Instrumentation: flute solo, clarinet B flat, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello
Duration: ca. 14'
Programme Notes: "Lady Lin" is written for flautist Xiaoyu Lin. In the piece, the continuously flowing zigzag textures symbolise a very precious facet of Ms. Lin's personality.
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Recording info: Xiaoyu Lin (flute solo), Vasko Dukovski (clarinet), Chao Zhang (percussion), Siyuan Li (piano), Mengchan Zhao (violin), Ao Peng (viola), Chenyan Peng (cello) under the baton of Zhuorui Deng
Typhoon 鼎 (2024)
Instrumentation: saxophone solo (soprano, alto), flute, clarinet B flat, trombone, percussion, cello
Duration: ca. 8'
"Typhoon" was composed for saxophonist Zhang Ding. One evening, after a few drinks, he asked me for a “cool piece” that would showcase his virtuosity. A few months later, I finished writing it, and he gave its premiere performance.
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Recording info: Ding Zhang (saxophone solo), Tacet(i) Ensemble under the baton of Boon Hua Lien
November Story 十一月 (2021/24)
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet B flat, percussion, piano, violin, cello.
Duration: ca. 14'
Programme Notes: In 1523, two Japanese trade fleets, respectively led by Kendō Sōsetsu (謙道宗設) and Rankō Zuisa (鸞岡端佐), had a conflict in Ningbo (寧波), China, known as the Ningbo Tribute Conflict. The incident caused the Ming Dynasty to officially launch an isolationist policy called Haijin (海禁), or Sea Ban, which heavily affected both the fishermen in the coastal areas in east China and the regular maritime trade between Japan and China. Striving to survive, some Chinese fishermen joined the Japanese pirates, looting along China's east coast. A long warfare between the Ming dynasty and the Japanese pirates began.
Among history's vicissitudes, Qi Jiguang (戚繼光) was considered one of the most famous Ming generals during these battles. At the time, the Weiyuan Fortress (威遠城) he built in 1560 was an insurmountable barrier for the pirates. For a long time, I have been thinking of composing a music work about this part of history, as Ningbo is my hometown, and the Weiyuan Fortress was a 15-minute walk from my childhood house. In 2021, I got the opportunity at a music festival in south China. The piece was based on a re-visit of Weiyuan Fortress in November 2020 during the COVID. In the music, I used different musical textures to paint the battles and the sea waves as seen from the fortress. However, shortly after I started to write the work, I was told that the premiere would be cancelled due to the pandemic.
I had another opportunity to submit this work to the "Contemporary Chamber Music from China Tour" at CUHK Shenzhen in 2024. Eventually, the piece was premiered in Shenzhen and Vienna under the title "Into the Depth of East China Sea." After the premiere, I published the score and changed it to its original title, "November Story".
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Recording info: Faculty Members of Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen under the baton of Yongyan Hu
Playground 乐园 (2024)
Instrumentation: soprano saxophone, viola, piano
Duration: ca. 9'30''
Programme Notes: The inspiration for "Playground" comes from an experience of survival senses in an alienated space. Imagine walking into an amusement park where all the rides are present but distorted in shape and altered in operation: the bouncy castles are as hard as granite, the roller coasters are suspended above the tracks, and the pirate ships hang upside down in mid-air... If we are told or forced by some external power to complete these amusement activities, knowing their abnormal state yet compelling ourselves to treat them as usual and immerse ourselves in them, we will undergo tremendous alienation of body and mind; this alienation would leave a person's body and mind scarred. When such alienation is finally accepted, and at that moment, we look at the prominent characters of "Playground" on the amusement park gate and smile, how should this "smile" be interpreted and defined? What is the meaning of its existence?
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Recording info: Ding Zhang (saxophone), Ao Peng (viola), and Siyuan Li (piano)
Tons of Gins Waiting for You on K-PAX K球多金 (2023)
Instrumentation: piano trio
Duration: ca. 11'30''
Programme Notes: The "K-PAX" in the title refers to a highly civilized planet in a film, while "Gin" is pronounced the same as the composer's surname (Jin). This piece can be understood as the composer making fun of himself or as the composer, from his perspective, mocking the world. Various musical elements appear in the piece; some were emphasised as necessary to learn during the composer's studies in multiple classes when he was still a student, while others are related to the composer's compositional approaches developed over years of creation. These elements are intertwined in a twisted and humorous manner in this piece.
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Recording info: BenMo Trio
La mer dans ses yeux 她眼中海的模样 (2023)
Instrumentation: two sasophonists (1 for soprano and tenor, and 2 for alto and bariton)
Duration: ca. 9'30''
Programme notes: This piece originates from an image in my mind: a girl standing in front of the sea. She has travelled from the depths of the continent to the seaside, a sight she has longed for. The piece repeats a highly distorted melody over and over again, like a persistent and passionate murmur. As the melody repeats, the real-world sea and the sea in the girl's eyes intertwine, merging into an indescribable but tenderly shimmering mist.
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Recording info: Marie-Bernadette Charrier and Ding Zhang
Five Songs to Ni 给周旎的五首歌 (2023)
Instrumentation: soprano, piano
Duration: ca. 9'
Programme notes: Five Songs to Ni is a collection of five short pieces dedicated to soprano Ni Zhou. The composer himself wrote the lyrics.
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Recording info: Ni Zhou (soprano) and Zhuosheng Jin (piano)
Pale Flower VIII 苍白之花八 (2023)
Instrumentation: acoustic guitar solo
Duration: ca. 10'
Programme notes: The "Pale Flower" series pays tribute to Luciano Berio's "Sequenza", with each piece written for a specific solo instrument. The entire series carries a particular humanistic meaning: flowers are meant to be vibrant. "Pale" flowers are abnormal, representing those who cannot voice their suffering or are oppressed due to cultural or social reasons. "Pale Flower VIII" stems from the sensory confusion caused by constantly repeating the same motifs. In this confusion, the listener begins to ponder the meaning of repetition and their existence within this repetition. The alienation caused by repetition runs throughout the piece. This idea originated in 2018 when a friend told me that if I stared at a word and kept repeating it out loud, the word's sound and appearance would lose meaning in my mind, creating a strange discomfort. After several less successful attempts, I completed "Pale Flower VIII", which, to date, is the work that satisfies me the most regarding this idea.
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Recording info: Junhong Kuang
Looks Like Jackfruit 般若波罗蜜 (2022)
Intrumentation: daeguem, sheng, koto, gayeguem, percussions, violin, viola, cello, contrabass
Duration: ca. 14'
Programme notes: The piece's title is a linguistic corruption of the Diamond Sutra. This English title is literally translated from the Sutra’s Chinese name. However, the piece has no actual indication or relation to the Sutra. Traditional Chinese music formations influence the form of the piece.
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Recording info: AsianArt Ensemble under the baton of Il-Ryun Chung
Pale Flower VII 苍白之花七 (2022)
Instrumentation: cello solo
Duration: ca. 14'15''
Programme notes: The "Pale Flower" series pays tribute to Luciano Berio's "Sequenza", with each piece written for a specific solo instrument. The entire series carries a particular humanistic meaning: flowers are meant to be vibrant. "Pale" flowers are abnormal, representing those who cannot voice their suffering or are oppressed due to cultural or social reasons. "Pale Flower VII" is composed for prepared cello, with the fixed pitches of strings I and II eliminated. This piece is more like writing for an instrumental installation than a traditional instrument. Through this approach, I aim to create a unique, piercing sonic state. The work aligns with the humanistic connotations of the "Pale Flower" series regarding its physical and sonic aspects. Cellist Yiyang Zhao commissioned this work, and I am delighted to have received his assistance and support throughout the compositional process.
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Recording info: Yiyang Zhao
Empty Harbour, Reddish Sea 空港，赤海 (2021)
Instrumentation: two pianos
Duration: ca. 12'30''
Programme notes: This piece is directly inspired by the enormous cross and the reddish sea in "Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance." I was a fan of Evangelion for a period. In this composition, I attempt to depict a grand, fatalistic apocalyptic vision and connect it with potential rebirth and "love" (in its most intricate meanings). Is there an unconscious autobiographical element in this work? I cannot say for sure.
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Recording info: Nora Popescu and Otto Popescu
Pale Flower V 苍白之花五（2020）
Instrumentation: accordion solo
Duration: ca. 17'15''
Programme notes: The "Pale Flower" series pays tribute to Luciano Berio's "Sequenza", with each piece written for a specific solo instrument. The entire series carries a particular humanistic meaning: flowers are meant to be vibrant. "Pale" flowers are abnormal, representing those who cannot voice their suffering or are oppressed due to cultural or social reasons. "Pale Flower V" portrays a journey—a highly recognisable gesture reappears in various forms, evolving until it becomes a memory, fermenting and spreading within the flows of reality and history, gathering and dispersing. A long process of deconstruction and fading follows this. As the horizon lightens again, all has ended, yet nothing has ever finished.
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Recording info: Tianqi Wang
Pale Flower IV 苍白之花四 (2020)
Instrumentation: violin solo
Duration: ca. 9'30''
Programme notes: The "Pale Flower" series pays tribute to Luciano Berio's "Sequenza", with each piece written for a specific solo instrument. The entire series carries a particular humanistic meaning: flowers are meant to be vibrant. "Pale" flowers are abnormal, representing those who cannot voice their suffering or are oppressed due to cultural or social reasons. In "Pale Flower IV," I use clothespins and paperclips to distort the original sound of the violin. One of the piece's elements is sustained notes, often performed with slow glissandi, and the other is fast-running notes, which are, in fact, a fragmented form of the former. The composition attempts to create an oppressive atmosphere, culminating in the lowest register of the violin and then returning to the delicate, moaning sound state from the beginning. This piece has two versions: a solo for violin (IV) and a solo for viola (IVb).
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Recording info: Sophie Schafleitner
not here... not there... somewhere... II 花犯二 (2020)
Instrumentation: violin and viola
Duration: ca. 11'
Programme notes: This piece is a study of human relationships. Genders and types are irrelevant. In a relationship, each individual is both dependent and independent. The conflict and struggles between us bring us closer while generating confusion. Who am I, who are you, what am I to you and what are you to me? By trying to find the self compared to others, we are also losing the self to the others.
Parallel to the physical space, we also live in an immense psychological space inside of our minds. Since we often face difficulties locating ourselves in this invisible world, we feel uncomfortable. We don’t like to lose the control of our positions, so we try to offer, to lie, to love, to harm, to kiss, and to kill. What do we get in the end?
Maybe human beings are a kind of creature that can only be either absolutely lonely or extremely complicated.
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Recording info: Pablo Rubino (violin) and Diana Gasparini (viola)
dust not dust 尘非尘 (2020)
Instrumentation: oboe, horn, viola
Duration: ca. 8'15''
Programme notes: "dust not dust" is completed. It is the second piece I composed during the global outbreak of COVID-19. At the time that I drew the last note, there was no information about whether the piece will be premiered, or when it will be premiered.
Beings, like dust, but not dust. They have desires. They search inward to the depth of their hearts and outward to the end of universe. Do they find something? Are they satisfied?
He is tired, lying on his bed. In the dream, she comes with words soft.
His eyes open. He draws another little notehead.
His heart is a piece of dust. The end of universe is the other piece. In between, there are people moving, seasons changing, and time flying.
A vast ground is under the moonlight. Streets are empty, streetlights shimmering.
She knows. She doesn't say.
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Recording info: Philippe Grauvogel (oboe), Jean-Christophe Vervoitte (horn), and Benoît Morel (viola). You will be led to IRCAM's page.
Into the Fall (October Story) 纷纷 (2018/20)
Instrumentation: flute (C, bass), clarinet (B flat, bass), bassoon, piano, violin, cello
Programme notes: "Into the Fall" was written in Fall 2018. The piece is based on my own encounters during that period. In this not-too-long piece, there are small portraits, either complete or incomplete, of people I met, street views of places I visited, and reactions and reflections of my personal life. Being both a composer and a writer, I love music as a medium for its abstractness, much like mixing ingredients into a dish, where the resulting stir-fry, while still closely related to the author, is, on the other hand, also able to bring something more intimate to the audience themselves. A music piece, unlike a story where every scene is more or less clear, is made up of murmurs of life, reflecting the deepest parts of everyones hearts…
In the words of William Shakespeare: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players…"
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Recording info: Meitar Ensemble under the baton of Tom Karni
A Piece of Watermelon 艳阳天 (2018-19)
Instrumentation: flute (C, bass), clarinet (B flat, bass), percussion, piano, violin, cello, female voice
Duration: ca. 15'
Programme notes: “A Piece of Watermelon” (艳阳天) is derived from a homonymic short story I wrote several years ago. In that story, the protagonist, a pornographic filmmaker, is producing a new piece with an actress. Somehow, she reminds him of a girl he loved earlier in his life during a political incident. His mind starts uncontrollably tracing back to the past. Love and politics interweave, creating unstoppable tides inside of him. He releases the team, decides to face all the memories alone.
In this piece, the two themes, love and politics, are treated separately. I composed a poem derived from the love part of the original short story and set as the main lyrics. Words from the political part in the story are deliberately retaken and reordered in a wrong way. The phrases are grammatically erroneous and to be seemingly unreadable. In the piece, the love part is mostly for the singer and the political part is spoken and whispered by the other musicians. Everyone in this piece is making voice sound to be mixed with the instrumental sound.
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Recording info: Syntax Ensemble under the baton of Pasquale Corrado
not here... not there... somewhere... 花犯 (2019)
Instrumentation: flute (piccolo, C), clarinet (B flat, bass)
Duration: ca. 18'45''
Programme notes: This piece is a study of human relationships. Genders and types are irrelevant. In a relationship, each individual is both dependent and independent. The conflict and struggles between us bring us closer while generating confusion. Who am I, who are you, what am I to you and what are you to me? By trying to find the self compared to others, we are also losing the self to the others.
Parallel to the physical space, we also live in an immense psychological space inside of our minds. Since we often face difficulties locating ourselves in this invisible world, we feel uncomfortable. We don’t like to lose the control of our positions, so we try to offer, to lie, to love, to harm, to kiss, and to kill. What do we get in the end?
Maybe human beings are a kind of creature that can only be either absolutely lonely or extremely complicated.
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Recording info: Xiaoyu Lin (flute) and Vasko Dukovski (clarinet)
Pale Flower III 苍白之花三 (2019)
Instrumentation: flute solo
Duration: ca. 7'30''
Programme notes: The "Pale Flower" series pays tribute to Luciano Berio's "Sequenza", with each piece written for a specific solo instrument. The entire series carries a particular humanistic meaning: flowers are meant to be vibrant. "Pale" flowers are abnormal, representing those who cannot voice their suffering or are oppressed due to cultural or social reasons. "Pale Flower III" is inspired by scenes from democratic movements. The piece shapes different crowds and states via various dense textures. This composition is not merely a realistic depiction of a gathering. Still, it attempts to capture its sensory significance, aiming to remain in people's memories as a form of commemoration and inspiration.
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Recording Info: Neža Zupanc
Three Images Inspired From Shuntarō Tanikawa 谷川俊太郎诗三首 (2019)
Instrumentation: piano solo
Duration: ca. 7'30''
Programme notes: Three Images Inspired by Shuntarō Tanikawa is composed at the end of 2019. The piece derived from images in Monad, a book with Tanikawa’s poetry and GOMA’s painting. In this piece, the three sonic images do not directly relate to specific words or visual images in Monad but are more the composer’s sensual reflection towards the colours Tanikawa and GOMA made together. Shuntarō Tanikawa has been one of the composer’s favourite poets. The composer wants to dedicate this piece as a homage to the literature master.
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Recording info: Kimihiro Yasaka
June Story 六月 (2019)
Intrumentation: three male voices, harp, cello, contrabass with everyone also plays selected percussions and objects
Duration: ca. 6'30''
Programme notes: "June Story" refers to a poem I composed in June 2018 in Greece.
"June
You run
With your eyes
Shimmering
And with the seabirds
Flapping around
Becoming a part of your attire
Your moving shadow
Stretches into the streetlight
I think that
At one moment
Your hairs
Crash my face lightly"
At the time I started to compose this piece of music, I was in a very different mood than the time I wrote the poem. Instead of following the light, romantic atmosphere in the poem, I eventually decided to write a work destroying it. I wanted the music to be dramatic, impolite, and in a way violent. I indeed kept this idea while composing the piece.
It's funny that when I finally got to listen to the recording of the premiere, underneath the dramatic, impolite, violent surface, I could still find a strong sense of romance everywhere in the music…
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Recording info: members of Les Métaboles and Ensemble Multilatérale under the baton of Brian Liao
Pale Flower I 苍白之花一 (2019)
Instrumentation: mini stage for one performer
Duration: ca. 13'30''
Programme notes: The "Pale Flower" series pays tribute to Luciano Berio's "Sequenza", with each piece written for a specific solo instrument. The entire series carries a particular humanistic meaning: flowers are meant to be vibrant. "Pale" flowers are abnormal, representing those who cannot voice their suffering or are oppressed due to cultural or social reasons. "Pale Flower I" was commissioned by percussionist Angela Wai Nok Hui, who premiered it in Glaz at Impuls Festival 2019. During our conversations, she mentioned her desire for a piece that could reflect contemporary social realities. Consequently, we decided to create a mini stage work called "Pale Flower I." After completing this piece, I developed it into a series, as seen by now the "Pale Flower" series.
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Recording info: Phataporn Preechanon
a trivial elegy for an unnamed friend 声声慢 (2019)
Instrumentation: string trio
Duration: ca. 12'15''
Programme notes: The piece is a homage to a social protest and comprises 30 sonic phrases divided by silence.
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Recording info: members of Mivos Quartet
At the End of Snow Line 雪迹深处 (2017-18)
Instrumentation: orchestra
Duration: ca. 12'
Programme notes: I link "At The End Of Snow Line" to my own cultural traditions by starting from a unique point of departure: on the surface, none of the direct Chinese cultural elements seem to be used in the piece. The central material exhibits a four-note motivic gesture in an arpeggio shape. The idea arises from an important improvisational tradition in the performance practice of classic Chinese music, where attacks of a long focal tone are always surrounded by quick "ornamental" tones, but in my piece I do not employed it in such an obvious way. Through my composition, I create multiple musical lines based on this central gesture with different characters, lengths, pitch registers, etc. The piece ultimately grows from individual lines to a unified sonority. Once the overall sonority covers each of the monophonic lines, each of the lines becomes indistinguishable while the overall sonority becomes the sounding feature of this piece. By transforming the shapes of elements from my own culture, this composition eventually creates its own composite identity.
At the time when I started to compose this piece, I was moving from Boston, Massachusetts to Montreal, Quebec. Very soon, I settled down. During the winter season, whenever I walked on the snowy street, I always thought of my hometown. My hometown was a southern city in China that rarely snows. I spent my first 12 years in there before moving to Beijing, and then to US. To this day, I can still remember that during the winter, when I walked to the street in my hometown, my shadow projected on the clear road and that image was simply hard to be wiped from my mind.
Since then, many things have been changed in that lovely little land. Changes become more conspicuous when I look at them from distance. This piece, on an emotional level, shows my confusions and consistent love towards my land, and projects also my internal struggles with identity.
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Recording Info: Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Kanako Abe
Immobilised Motions 似动 (2017-2018)
Instrumentation: string quartet
Duration: ca. 10'
Programme notes: I wrote the majority of Immobilised Motions when travelling in Peru in December 2017. The pitch material of this piece is related to an earlier string quartet I wrote in 2011. In this piece, I aim to create a paradox between mobility and immobility.
The form of the piece has been planned as a rigid ABCA’. By immobilising the structure in that way, the music, despite its relentless motions, becomes immobile and discrete from a perceptional view. The overall result maintains interest through the contrast between its vigorous surface and vapid essence and reminds me of a common social problem, mainly happening in human speech. I believe almost everyone would have this kind of experience, from politicians, business people, professors, artists, or any other person who is talking endlessly and using various ways to talk, and yet they are really saying nothing of substance. On one hand, this piece is a showcase of skilful writing and is sonically full of motions. On the other hand, it is also a showcase essentially to drive the listeners to nowhere and to stay immobilised.
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Recording info: Quatuor Béla
as in a m[e]rror 犹在镜中 (2017)
Instrumentation: electric guitar solo
Duration: ca. 15'15''
Programme notes: "as in a m[e]rror" attempts to capture a profound sense of melancholy through various musical ideas.
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Recording info: Giacomo Baldelli
...and I placed my arm around your shoulder 红帆船 (2016)
Instrumentation: string quartet
Duration: ca. 15'30''
Programme notes: The sonic structure of the piece is made through various and consistent types of alternation. For me, it acts as a kind of direction. By alternating different musical shapes, the music starts to drive itself. The term "direction" here doesn't mean an end, but acts as a Sisyphean metaphor that later shapes come from the formers and then become the formers, and so on…
The title of the piece derives from the last two lines of the poem "Red Sail" by Chinese poet Bei Dao (北岛). In the poem, the poet stands on the seaside. Wild water symbolises the unknown future of his country and his people, as he, among his contemporaries, belongs to the first generation of poets after the Cultural Revolution. He faces the sunset and watches the water. The sunshine warms his heart and reddens the sail. In the end, he starts off to the sea.
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Recording info: Mivos Quartet
April Story 四月 (2016)
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet A, percussion, violin, viola, cello
Duration: ca. 8'30''
Programme notes: The piece reflects a poem I composed in April, 2016:
"April shines,
Brighter than the sunlight on snow.
You run to me,
Once, and twice...
Cross the daytime traffic,
And cross the iron buildings.
Like the flower from gunpoint,
You pierce my chest."
During the piece, I alternate two kinds of musical gesture settings in contrast. One of them reaches a wider range and thus is seemingly more active, and the other is steadier in register. On the other hand, formally, the two gestures are both rendered either by long phrases or by fragments (or shorter/incomplete phrases). This kind of arrangement provides another contrast in which the fragments – or the shorter phrases - are always breaking the longer phrases either by replacing them or interweaving into them. These two kinds of contrast generate energy and then also drive the music towards the final spoken part in the coda section. In the poem, the character (i.e. the poet) sees and/or feels someone running to him, again and again, finally when she arrives, she "pierce his chest". The total structure of the music tries to catch the emotional process and then interpret it by sound. The piece – both the poem and the music versions – ends on the phrase "pierce my chest", as the final dramatic result of the "April Story".
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Recording info: Ensemble Mdi under the baton of Davide Ianni
(in)somnia （无）眠 (2015)
Instrumentation: cello solo
Duration: ca. 14'
Programme notes: I wrote this piece as a personal gift for a friend in Berlin. It was a period I got insomnia. I used most of the night times composing this piece. There are a lot of notes in the middle sections. To actually write so many notes on paper is a very time-consuming job. Finally, I found myself being able to sleep while drawing note-heads…
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Recording info: Yi Cheng
As in a Poem 诗 (2015)
Instrumentation: flute, piano, cello
Duration: ca. 12'30''
Programme notes: As in a poem for flute, cello, and piano is a personal dedication. The piece is based on notes B-flat, A-flat, E-flat, F-sharp, and C-natural, which can represent a friend's name when run through a musical cryptogram.
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Recording info: Xiaoyu Lin (flute), Xu Luo (piano), and Chenyan Peng (cello)
End by a Song 歌弑 (2010)
Instrumentation: female voice and orchestra
Duration: ca. 13'31''
Programme notes: In composing this piece, my interest fell on a special type of songs and dances of ancient China, of which the Feast at Swan Goose Gate is one of the most famous ones. In this story, Xiang Yu (項羽), Hegemon-King of the Chu kingdom, directed his cousin Xiang Zhuang (項莊) to perform a sword dance among the court songs at the feast as a ruse to try to use the weapon to kill Liu Bang (劉邦), Xiang Yu’s political rival. However, another member of the Xiang family, Xiang Bo (項伯), who was sympathetic to Liu Bang, noticed the ruse and began his own sword dance to surreptitiously ward off the assassination attempt, saving Liu. Liu Bang would eventually defeat Xiang Yu and establish the Han dynasty, overthrowing Xiang’s Chu kingdom, an event that never could have occurred if Xiang’s assassination had been successful.
The great significance of this story is that these performances at the Feast at Swan Goose Gate represent complete, genuine pieces of art, not just metaphorically or philosophically, but also through their intents in actuality. Xiang Yu, head of the Xiang family, wants to kill the head of the Liu family, Liu Bang. He conspires to do so via songs and dances, and failed in these songs and dances. The tragic essence of this incident, through the ages, resonates with its artistic bravery and fatal poetry. The ending note of the songs also ends the singer’s last hope for success, and the ending movement of the dances also gives the final judgement to the dancer’s fate, spelling doom for his kingdom and changing the fate of world history. What a drama: sing and dance, until the end of our world! That its overtones will never fade out through the waving vicissitude of generations.
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Recording info: Hongwei Wang (voice), Beijing Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Daye Lin
The Last Travel And Elegy For Children 最后的旅行与孩子们的挽歌 (2009)
Instrumentation: two violas
Duration: ca. 4'45''
Programme notes: This piece is divided into two parts. The first part, "The Last Travel," is characterised by relentless, dense, running textures. It transitions into the second part through a passage that moves from the high to the low register, eventually pausing on a sustained note. The second part, "Elegy for Children," features a sorrowful, song-like, warm melody.
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Recording info: Hungwei Huang and Tingru Lai
The Fairy of F. R. Town 米豆腐 (2009)
Instrumentation: flute solo
Duration: ca. 7'15''
Programme notes: This piece is inspired by director Xie Jin's film "Hibiscus Town." Initially, it was the composer's midterm assignment for a twelve-tone composition course during his undergraduate studies. When designing the 12-tone row, the composer concealed two Chinese pentatonic scales within it, allowing for the creation of pentatonic melodies in certain sections of the piece. This composition was created during the composer's first year after leaving China to study in the United States. The sonic state of the piece reflects an inevitable aesthetic and compositional turmoil that the composer experienced internally at that time.
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Recording info: Laura Cocks
nothing more than a piece of wind 樱花绽放的季节 (2007)
Instrumentation: piano solo
Duration: ca. 4'45''
Programme notes: This piece is inspired by a poem of the same name (in Chinese) written by the composer. It depicts the loss felt as a young girl flits through a grove of cherry blossoms, only to depart suddenly. The work is filled with the wistful melancholy of adolescence.
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Recording info: Zhuosheng Jin
Three Poems 诗三首 (2006)
Instrumentation: soprano, piano
Duration: ca. 7'15''
Programme notes: This lyrical suite is based on three modern Chinese poems: Bei Dao's "The Answer" (excerpt), Hai Zi's "Four-Line Poem," and Jin Cheng's (the composer's own) "Tranquility."
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Recording info: Ni Zhou (soprano) and Zhuosheng Jin (piano)
© 2024 by Zhuosheng Jin.