曲目介紹

    近几十年来，各国作曲家们都在为其传统乐器创作当代音乐的曲目，我也常告诉我的作曲学生及音乐史的学生们，现今这个时代最重要的音乐进展之一，没有什么比中华文化遗产来得更加显著了。
    作为一个根植于完全不同传统的作曲家，学习国乐器并尝试以符合传统却又崭新的方式让乐器发出属于我的声响，这是件让我着迷且享受的事。过去十年间我曾经为传统国乐器创作过七首作品，其中两首乐曲是由台湾的台北柳琴室内乐团首演。很荣幸今晚能与台湾新的合作伙伴一同为听众带来我的新创作，深深感谢陈志升先生和小巨人丝竹乐团给予了本次的机会。
    近年来，我对音乐的三维空间技法越来越感兴趣，声响的配置是其中很重要的一部分，听众在乐曲最开始时能够很明显的感受到本曲的乐器配置效果。也请特别留意我将打击乐、笛、笙如同镜射般安排于左、右舞台的对称位置。
    在我近期的许多作品中，我运用了一种仪式感来展现我对这种营造音乐场域的喜爱。虽然我并没有要明确指涉任一宗教信仰，但我希望作品以此种仪式般的呈现方式能够表达一种心灵层次上的深刻感受，我在本次演出的乐曲名《Ceremony of Yearning》明确表达出仪式的意念，以及作品中那强烈感情的本质。

    In recent decades, composers from many countries have been creating a repertoire of contemporary music for traditional instruments of their societies. I tell my composition and music-history students that this is one of the most important musical developments of our time, and that nowhere is this more apparent than in societies of Chinese heritage.

    As a composer rooted in completely different traditions, it has been fascinating and enjoyable for me to learn about Chinese instruments and to find ways of making them sing in what I hope are new but still respectful ways. Over the past decade I’ve written seven pieces for traditional Chinese instruments, two of which have been premiered by the Taipei Liuqin Ensemble. It is an honor to continue my musical partnership with Taiwan by sharing a new composition with you today. I am deeply grateful to Chen Chih-Sheng and the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra for this opportunity.

    In recent years I have become more and more interested in a three-dimensional approach to music, in which the spatial placement of sounds is important. This will be apparent at the very beginning of Ceremony of Yearning. Please also notice how the percussion, dizi and sheng players are split into mirror-image groups on opposite sides of the stage.

    Hand in hand with my love of musical space is a sense of ritual in many of my recent compositions. Although not explicitly connected to any religion, such pieces nevertheless have what I hope is a sense of spiritual profundity. The title Ceremony of Yearning acknowledges this ritualistic sense, as well as the nature of this composition’s intense emotions.