For Olivia Chuang
Duration:
c. 6’30
Premiered:
—
Score available upon request; preview on issuu:
This piece is written for, and dedicated to my cellist friend Olivia Chuang. When Olivia approached me to write it, I was also in the midst of wrapping my mind around the fascinating history of Chinese opera music; a fair bit of that fascination has evidently rubbed off on this piece. In each movement, I take a popular Chinese Teo-chew opera (潮州戏曲) tune as source material for quotation, variation, and dramatic reinterpretation. The tunes and the operas to which they belong are as follows:
1. ‘Love Song’ (爱歌), from The story of Chunxiang【春香传】
2. ‘Till death do us part’ (誓同生死不分开), from Butterfly Lovers【梁祝】
3. ‘A gutful of ire’ (一腔怨气恨难平), from Zhao Shaoqing【赵少卿】
