Program Notes

This piece was inspired by the traditional Chinese shadow puppet shows. The composer is particularly attracted by the colorful shadow puppets, with elegant lines and shapes enhanced by the illumination of light. The relationship between the puppets and their projections brings forth association and imagination. Under the aesthetic principle of the virtual and real worlds, the composer exploits layers of sounds, shadings of colors, clustering versus scattering, abruption versus continuation, and enrichment versus dissipation. A philosophical construct in music is thereby created with intertwining exchanges of presence and absence.

Instrumentation - violin 1; violin 2; guitar; double bass; Percussion: vibraphone, xylophone, bongo, triangle, bamboo wood chimes, tam-tam, tom tom, tibetan cymbals, cymbal, wind chime, Chinese tongu