ZHUOSHENG JIN 金卓晟
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    • Orchestra and Large Ensemble >
      • At the End of Snow Line (2017-18)
    • Chamber >
      • A Piece of Watermelon (2018-19)
      • ...and I placed my arm around your shoulder, string quartet no. 1 (2016-17)
      • Looks like Jackfruit (2022)
      • dust not dust (2020)
      • Immobilised Motions, string quartet no. 2 (2017-18)
      • Neon (2022)
      • June Story (2019)
      • a trivial elegy for an unnamed friend (2019)
      • Into the Fall (October Story) (2018)
      • April Story (2016)
      • Voyage (2019/20)
    • Solo >
      • Three Images Inspired from Shuntarō Tanikawa (2019-20)
      • (in)somnia (2015)
      • Pale Flower IV & VIb (2021)
      • Pale Flower III (2019)
      • as in a m[e]rror (2017)
    • Teenager Composition (2006-11)
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A Piece of Watermelon (2018-19)
Click to purchase the score.

Instrumentation -
flute (C, bass), clarinet (B flat, bass), percussion, piano, female voice, violin, cello

Duration - ca. 15'25''

Performance history - 
April 15, 2019, Milano, Italy, Syntax Ensemble with Pasquale Corrado (conductor)
June 7, 2020, Bufalo, US, Slee Ensemble with Matthew Chamberlain (conductor)  *concert cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic
September 26, 2020, Champaign, US, Illinois Modern Ensemble with Stephen Taylor (conductor)  *concert postponed due to the Pandemic

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.

Lyrics:

''A Piece of Watermelon''

1 (use in Movement 2)

A bathroom with an aeroplane model inside
A pair of wings with hairs
Murmuring


I like you when you talk
Your words become my pills.


You tell me that
There will be a man with a mask
Breaking the door
Making love with the airoplane model


That man, you say
Knows how to fly.


2 (use in Movement 3)

You will die
At one day, not too soon.
I know it
But I’m not going to tell you.


When I kiss you
Your face is as cold as a sunny dream.
I can feel my lips are
As warm as an abandoned church.


3 (use in Movement 4)

You plan to leave
To the world outland.


Your wings
Shimmering, like empty wine bottles.
A few feathers drop down
Becoming my clothes


4 (use in Movement 6)

Goodbye
I will never see your crow’s feet.
It once obsessed me
Between those narrow streets
And all the white houses.


Everything will remain the same.
Everything will stay unchanged.
The masked man is gone
And you are the most beautiful song upon all aged songs.


5 (use in Movement 7)

The beam pierces my curtain
Burns my flat
And sets me free.
The first beam of the last light
Reminds me you.


I turn off the lamps.
Thousands of lamps
Disintegrate, like our dusty history.


A knife
Breaks your beauty
I drink all the memories floating in time.


A nice gift for a sorrowful morning
A piece of watermelon.
​

Now I know how to fly.

Recording by Syntax Ensemble


​


© 2019 by Zhuosheng Jin.
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  • schedule 日程
  • bio 简历
  • music 音乐
    • Orchestra and Large Ensemble >
      • At the End of Snow Line (2017-18)
    • Chamber >
      • A Piece of Watermelon (2018-19)
      • ...and I placed my arm around your shoulder, string quartet no. 1 (2016-17)
      • Looks like Jackfruit (2022)
      • dust not dust (2020)
      • Immobilised Motions, string quartet no. 2 (2017-18)
      • Neon (2022)
      • June Story (2019)
      • a trivial elegy for an unnamed friend (2019)
      • Into the Fall (October Story) (2018)
      • April Story (2016)
      • Voyage (2019/20)
    • Solo >
      • Three Images Inspired from Shuntarō Tanikawa (2019-20)
      • (in)somnia (2015)
      • Pale Flower IV & VIb (2021)
      • Pale Flower III (2019)
      • as in a m[e]rror (2017)
    • Teenager Composition (2006-11)
  • words 文字
    • 散文和杂文 >
      • 五味集
      • 嘴炮和呻吟——文十九篇
      • 圣法米随笔集·利马集
      • 新宿集
      • 磐石集·集外集
      • 说梦集·慈云集
      • 二十二篇
      • 杂碎集
    • 诗作 >
      • 2020 - 22
      • 2017 - 19
      • 2014 - 16
      • 2013 and before
    • 小说和戏剧 >
      • 艳阳天·大鸦·离书
  • contact 联系