A Stroll in the Lion City

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Singapore's multi-racial culture left a deep impression on the composer. Born in the southern part of Fujian province but brought up in the Shanghai metropolis, the composer was strongly attracted and took a special liking to Singapore's rich flavour of a modern metropolis with an eastern China's cultural atmosphere. The composition emphasises the vibrant, elegant and bustling city life and describes the charms of Nanyang. It depicts scenes of its rich and diverse sentiments, integrated with aspects of traditional Chinese culture. The composer adopts an array of composition techniques with a combination of elements from various influences, including the southern Chinese, western modern, classical and romantic music to reflect the diversity and inner spirit of Singapore.

This piece won the First Prize at the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2011.

Admiral Of The Seven Seas – The Voyage

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This large-scaled symphonic epic incorporates many artistic forms, and was premiered in Singapore Arts Festival 2005, in conjunction with the 600th year anniversary celebrations of Zheng He’s expedition to the West. This piece is arranged from the third and sixth chapters of the original piece, and utilises only Chinese orchestral music in presenting the work.

1. The Voyage - The melody consists of five parts: Celebrations, Sailing, Sea Route, Thunderstorms and Anchoring. They illustrate the majestic scene whereby Zheng He leads a large troupe of ships in traveling down to the West seven times.
   
   
2. The Vow - The introduction played by the flute lightly portrays a picture of tropical scenes. It is followed by energetic and vigorous melody that recapitulates the festive scene at the wedding of the Sultan and the Princess from China. It illustrates the joyous dancing and celebratory moments, on top of portraying the moving love of this pair of lovers who come from extremely different and distant countries.

The composition won the Honorary Award at the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2006.

Arise, You Lion of Glory!

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The traditional Cantonese lion dance is well known for its sophisticated and technical demanding gestures. This composition draws inspiration from this gorgeous tradition, using musical materials to depict various elements in the lion dance. The melodic materials are derived from the Cantonese tune Singsi (literally “Awakening of the Lion/Lion Dance”). The original melody is segmented. Through the traditional Chinese composing technique “slowing down and adding flowers,” and “melodic decoration,” the new materials are constructed. This composition closely follows the structure of a traditional pipa piece.

Apart from having flavours from both wenqu and wuqu, the musical flow follows a “qi – cheng- zhuan – he” structure, hence stylistically and skilfully created an eclectic piece with various Chinese idioms. There are twelve poetically named sections that made references to the lion dance. This piece won the First Prize at the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2015.

Bale Bengong

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A Bale Bengong is a traditional pavilion found on the island of Bali in Indonesian. The name "Bale Bengong", translated literally, would mean "thinking house" or "daydream house". A Bale Bengong is a place to carry out contemplative thinking or slip into a daydream amidst the stillness of the surroundings while being sheltered from the harsh Southeast Asian sun. The layering of voices in a seemingly endless drone creates a meditative atmosphere. Furthermore, the dynamic changes allow the different sonorities and timbres to expose and sublimate subtly from the orchestral timbre. The piece develops resultant sonorities and textures by layering linear motivic ideas. The interlacing colotomic structures unveil new intricacies in every listen.

This piece won the Young Singaporean Composer Award at the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2015.

Buka Panggung

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Inspiration came from the preliminary ceremony of Malay Shadow Play (Wayang Kulit) – Buka Panggung (Opening of the Stage).

The buka panggung begins as a bit of cooked rice is smeared on each of the instruments and a small amount of water is placed inside each of the large, hanging gongs. In addition, incense is burned in a small receptacle and passed among all the musical instruments and puppets.

This ritual is carried out by dalang for the purpose of purifying the area where the shadow play will be performed.

The work was awarded the 3rd prize of Composition Award at the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2006.

Cycles of Destiny

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The composition depicts The Yuen Yuen Institute which is a place of learning Taoism and religious retreat. But it is distinguished by an integrative, all-embracing intellectualism, with its pantheistic approach to religion, including Confucianism. Its non-exclusive stance has become an inspiring perspective for me in composing this work. I felt I was uninhibited by subject matter, style and cultural background and was free to choose whatever I wanted in the treasury of music of East and West, to remix and juxtapose them for a collage that sublimates and develops into something new.

Name of the composition inspires from the middle section of the piece, three non-conducted "Circle Music" are comprised of wind instruments and are requested to provide a sense of endlessness through their progression. As a result, when these three circles are juxtaposed with the conducted music which is formed by bowed strings, a contrasting, crashing as well as chaotic sonic effect with huge tessitura is created. The music enters a climatic section, then ends in a quiet, contemplative manner.

The composition won the Nanyang Award at the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2011.

Dark Light

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Dark Light paints a musical soundscape of two musical bands crossing paths — a Wind Ensemble from Eastern- China and a Javanese Gamelan troop from Indonesia. As the two bands draw closer to each other, their opposing sonorities (smooth winds versus sharp, plucked or mallet attacks) create an uncomfortable tension. Furiously attempting to outplay each other with blaring and clashing pitches, interlocking rhythms and sheer volume of sounds, the conflict heightens and bursts with a passionate outcry from each band. A moment of intense stillness in the wake of the conflict rips through the heart of a hauntingly beautiful girl standing in the midst of the bands. She sings euphoniously beneath an unsettled silence…

The composition won the Singaporean Composer Award at the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2011.

Go Across the Rainforests

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Rainforests are a type of common forest ecosystem on our planet with broad coverage across Southeast Asia. Rainforests are places with hot, humid climates, abundant rainfall, and a diverse array of animal and plant species. Rainforests are also biologically complex places, existing in plains and canyons accompanied by streams and waterfalls, towering trees and lush vines.

Go Across the Rainforests includes two parts. The first part is Introduction and Andante, and the second part is Allegro. This composition uses the Pelog scale from Gamelan as music material. While much of the work is minimalistic in technique, it is juxtaposed with peculiar rhythms and tunes originating from Kroncong music which play in counterpoint to the former musical material.

The piece attempts to depict a map of Southeast Asia as a sort of scroll being unravelled to people, expressing the composer's deep concerns of our Earth's fragile rainforest ecosystems, as well as highlighting our ever-evolving relationship between human and nature.

This piece won the Third Prize at the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2015.

Izpirazione II

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This composition utilises three tropical fruits as the thematic material for its three movements, allowing the audience to experience the different characteristics ascribed to the different fruits by the composer.

First Movement – Durian
The short notes from the plucked instruments and the sounds from the bronze percussion instruments form a contrapuntal melody, which depicts the exterior of the fruit. The continuous tones and melody from the string and wind instruments depict the taste, where all of these elements are interpreted differently by different people depending on their unique experiences. The music integrates elements from Indian and Malay music, giving this movement a sense of expectation……

Second Movement - Rambutan
Red is the festive colour of the Chinese, and this movement opens up in a melody similar to that used in the Suzhou Pingtan, integrating elements of Nanyang styled music, depicting the harmonious nature and tolerance of the ethnic Chinese in Nanyang. The rhythm of this movement is in a 3-2-3 style, in accordance to the number of alphabets in RAM BU TAN.

Third Movement - Tarap
This composition is developed with the use of the unique rhythm and melody of the aborigines of Borneo. The conductor hails out loud in impromptu, coordinating with the rhythmic music, fully elaborating the extemporaneous of the aborigines. The ending notes of the movement uses five notes, Fa, La, Re, La and Si, which correspond to the alphabets and their pronunciations respectively in TARAP.

The work was awarded the 2nd prize Composition Award in International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2006.

Nine Actors

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Nine Actors (九角子) is based on a traditional Fujianese local drama called Gaojia Opera (高甲戏); its original title roughly translating to Nine Actors' Opera, in which said opera would feature nine actors (角). To imitate the nine actors in this piece, the composer has assigned nine traditional Teochew instruments (or instrument groups) to represent these actors. These include: the suona, “drum and gong” ensemble, flute and woodwinds, strings, instrumental solos and court
instrumental music, and more.

The piece is divided into seven continuous sections. The first four sections: beginning (起), undertaking (承), change (转), and togetherness (合) are written in a style of Fujianese folk tunes, while the remaining three sections: order (序), disorder (破) and hast (急), are written in Hakka style folk tunes.

Altogether, Nine Actors covers a wide range of varying tone colour, energetic rhythms and motions that reflect soundscapes that evoke traditional Teochew culture.

The composition won the 2nd Prize Composition Award at the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2011.

Tapestries – Time Dances

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The composer was intrigued and inspired by the examples of tapestries woven as historical documents, the stories told by the rich colours and inter-weaving threads and this piece attempts to weave the many strands of Nanyang history together with the glorious colours of tapestry.

Nanyang refers to Southeast Asia in the 19th and 20th century when migrants venturing from Southern China, India and other places, established a life for themselves, and both integrated with and influenced the local culture. In this work, the composer aims to re-tell their history, journey and life through the tapestry of his music. The structure of this piece of music is cyclical - pausing as it moves along; lingering over a stretch of melody or harmony but always with a central theme recurring. Its uniqueness also stems from the fact that it draws from diverse influences including Southeast Asian gamelan orchestra, Indian classical and Western orchestral music. The sub-theme “Time Dances” is derived from photographer-poet Carlos Reyes-Manzo’s poem from his collection of poetry Oranges in Times of Moon, a description his artistic experience.

Composed by Eric Watson who was previously SCO’s composer- in-residence, this work was awarded the First Prize at the inaugural Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition in 2006.

The Capriccio of the Mountain Folk Song

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The Capriccio of the Mountain Fork Song is a work for bamboo flute and Chinese orchestra, with a strong Nanyang music style. Taking the folk song Singing Folk Songs to Relieve Worries and Hardships from the Qingliu region of Fujian as the background of creation, it unfolds folk ballad impressions with different artistic conception and images through the development of various materials, orchestration techniques and speed changes.

The work consists of five parts:
Part 1: Andante. The music is introduced in the form of a flute solo, with the percussion rhythm framework as an important material for the whole work, interspersing in this part from time to time. The heavy and steady sound of percussion music echoes with the spacious sound of the flute, presenting a simple and pure tone.
Part 2: Allegretto. The granular plucked music tone and stress breaking rhythm make the music have a dance-like melody. The melody of the flute is filled with the sense of sunshine and vitality.
Part 3: Moderato. The harp uses the flowing rhythm as the background, playing along with the melodious flute melody, just like a landscape painting.
Part 4: Allegro. The music turns into tense emotions, with a compact rhythm of plucked and percussion music running through this part. The flute plays short and rapid notes, pushing forward the music to its climax with strong driving force, and completely presenting the melody of the folk song Singing Folk Songs to Relieve Worries and Hardships.
Part 5: Ending. It uses the material applied at the beginning of the song, which is also a symbolic representation.

With the help of different orchestration skills, different levels of timbre contrast, and changes in speed and strength of each part, the work achieves the overall effect of organization, structure, and expression of the music. Despite multiple changes in speed, a natural and smooth structural concept is still pursued in the work.

The composition won the Young Composer Award at the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2011.

The Silence of Borobudur

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The once mighty Mataram Kingdom of Java was declining by the start of the 10th century AD. As it declined, so did Borobudur; its importance to the people waned. In 1006 AD Mount Merapi erupted, burying the holy temple of monasticism and worship under a thick layer of volcanic ash for centuries to come, leaving the place to sit in perpetual silence.

The composition won the 3rd Prize Composition Award at the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2011.

The Sisters’ Islands

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The Sisters' Islands is a programmatic symphonic poem for Chinese orchestra inspired by the local legend of the Sisters' Islands located south of Singapore, featuring four sections:

I. Fishing Village: A gong strike opens the piece, introducing the peaceful tropical coast of Singapore. As the orchestra plays wave-like patterns in the pentatonic Pelog scale, evoking impressions of Indonesian gamelan, the broad "sea" theme is presented by the alto instruments, followed by the bowed strings. Next, the graceful “sisters” theme enters with the Chinese flute, portraying the beautiful young Malay sisters Minah and Linah in an Asli dance. The following lively Malay Zapin dance depicts festivities in the village.

II. Capture of the Bride: Suddenly, a throng of pirates raids the village, illustrated by the menacing "pirates" theme in hexatonic scale played by the Diyin-Suona. Their chief, awestruck by Linah's beauty, intends to abduct her as his bride. A weeping Zhonghu implores the release of Linah but to no avail as she is dragged away, and a Gaohu solo represents Minah stumbling into the sea to chase after the pirate ship.

III. Raging Waves: Bass instruments play a transformed "sea" theme, while octatonic scales and percussion effects depict the stormy sea. A struggling “sisters” theme emerges amidst the chaos as Minah swims after the pirates until she is overcome by exhaustion and disappears amidst the raging waves. Linah struggles fiercely to break free of her captors and jumps into the sea to join her sister, represented by a Liuqin solo fading into the depths. This tragedy incurs the wrath of the gods. Thunder and lightning strike, and a giant orchestral wave engulfs the pirate ship. After a long timpani roll, calmness is restored.

IV. Spirit of the Sea: In the morning, a conch (seashell) calls out for the sisters' spirits to rest in peace. The "sea" and "sisters" themes are recapitulated and finally played together in counterpoint, building up to a climactic ending as two islands emerge from the sea where the sisters drowned.

Composed by Wang Chenwei at age 17, The Sisters’ Islands won the Singapore Composer Award at the 2006 Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition. This piece has been widely performed and recorded in various arrangements, most notably at Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural National Day concert in 2018. It won the Top Local Classical Music Award 2023 presented by the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (COMPASS) and is now featured in Singapore’s primary school music textbooks.

Volcanicity

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"Activity increased at Indonesia's Mount Merapi, one of the world's most active volcanos, with repeated bursts of red-hot lava, hot gases and clouds of ash. The mountain is located near the area of Indonesia's Java island where a powerful earthquake struck one week ago, killing more than 6,500 people. The mountain's lava dome had grown by 17 meters in the past week to reach 100 meters. The government volcanology centre recommended that all activities be halted within seven kilometres of the summit. The 3,000-meter volcano is one of the world's most active volcanos. It last erupted in 1994, sending out a searing cloud of gas that burned 60 people to death. About 1,300 people were killed when it erupted in 1930." Source: Metro Broadcast Corp Ltd - Copyright 2006

Volcanicity refers to the action or activity of Indonesia's Mount Merapi. I imagine that it takes three times of restraints and restrictions before the lava becomes a powerful explosion.

A common gesture in this piece is the gradual building up like a crest. Often the music seems to be reaching a high point but is quickly pulled back. The desire to burst out is deliberately restrained.

The first part is the building up motion featuring the solo sheng and percussions. The sheng solo is mixing with the sound of the percussions whose vibration surrounds the sheng. It creates a massive tension, which is like the fermentation of lava under the volcano symbolizing anger before the explosion.

In the second restraint before the explosion, the volcano is led by the solo sheng igniting the fuse representing by the orchestra thus waiting for the explosion. The design of this second restrain is opposite to the first. The orchestra is irregular and fragmentized acting like the ornaments to decorate the sheng melody. The tension is built up with the gradually faster tempo and then linked directly to the final restraint. The last restraint is the focal point of the piece. It is the cadenza for sheng. This is the technical explosion of the soloist. I combine the several gestures from the beginning and base on the compressing tempo and gesture to create the explosion.

This work was awarded the Young Composer Award at the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2006.