Recommended Music Watching｜Tai Kwun x HK Phil: "Social Distance"

Last month, I wrote an article published in the Insight Newspaper | An article inspired by an exhibition . If you are interested, you can click the link to read it. This time, it is also about social distancing, but it is the interpretation of music performance.

In response to the epidemic, many music and art performance-related programs during this period have been moved to online distribution. Earlier during the Lunar New Year holiday, I watched this short film at home. It was jointly produced by Tai Kwun and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. "Social Distancing".

In the past, I tried to watch videos of HK Phil performances on the Internet, but because I felt too static, most of them only watched for a few minutes, and soon I was impatient to continue watching.

This time, I was able to watch the whole film. It combines modern architecture, performance, social interaction and distance. It uses the interpretation of music to convey the message to us. I especially like the surging feeling when playing, using the distance of each musician. The sense of space presented by the spiral staircase can make everyone think about the changes in the social distance between people through sight, hearing, and repeatedly.

I am very impressed with this sentence:

Composer Ponce -

These days, people have paid a lot. The atmosphere of the music is desolate, reminiscent of loneliness. The solos are all lamentations—four different songs about loss, despair, excitement, dreams, great spiritual pain, and hope.

introduce:

Tacit understanding is an indispensable essence of music performances, but under the cover of the epidemic, musicians have been unable to rehearse and perform with their peers for many months. Spatial distance has been a source of inspiration for composers since the 16th century, and many works echo architectural structures. Combining the two, multimedia artist Cheng Bomin invited musicians from the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra to perform composer Pang Lesi's new work "Social Distance" in a unique space in Tai Kwun. After being separated for many months, Pang Lesi, who is also the chief timpani of the orchestra, and his colleagues reunited again to record this extraordinary time in Tai Kwun with music, video and architecture.

words of a composer

"Social distancing" was an empty concept to me, and it wasn't until people were actually forced to isolate and the orchestra couldn't play that I really understood it. I wrote this piece to get some members of my orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, to come back and play together. Organized in small ensembles, highly skilled musicians, each representing a different family of instruments: woodwind, brass, percussion, harp and strings, appear in video or live performances at a distance. With traditional performance venues closed, I came up with an out-of-the-ordinary setting and iconic building, which was designed by Herzog and De Meuron—the grand spiral staircase in the Great Hall.

The concept of the work is "sound sculpture", which can be presented in two ways: the musicians are all on the same floor, at least two meters apart; or there are musicians on each floor, like a three-dimensional chessboard. My original idea was to use the four soloists as four "characters" to recreate a very iconic image/moment during the pandemic - people pushing their windows open and singing outside while they were quarantined at home. I imagine the windows of the musicians on different floors. The windows surround the square in the middle, and the musicians "sing" simple and simple melody.

These days, people have paid a lot. The atmosphere of the music is desolate, reminiscent of loneliness. The solos are all lamentations—four different songs about loss, despair, excitement, dreams, great spiritual pain, and hope. Healthcare workers, grandparents who can’t hold their grandchildren, those who die without their loved ones, and millions more who are forced to accept time alone. At the end of the whole song, all the melodies sounded at the same time.

The mp3 in the background is composed of bass and metallic percussion, set off by the counter-instrument. The bass (D) runs through the whole song from beginning to end, continuing to the end, as if reflecting on the ubiquitous power of the new coronavirus. While we may occasionally forget about epidemics (like the effect of constant bass), epidemics still permeate everyday life. The whole piece consists of "Seven Windows": 1. Horn Solo; 2. Flute Solo; 3. Interlude; 4. Bass Clarinet Solo; 5. Trumpet Solo; 6. Interlude; 7. All Windows.

With the creative dramatic effect, the work presents my ideal appearance on the stairs of the Tai Kwun and was recorded as a video. The epidemic has completely wiped out the most primitive desire of musicians to perform intimately together on stage. Through this work, I hope to encourage my peers from all over the world to record at landmarks in their respective cities, to present the elite of the orchestra, and to wait for life to return to a new normal.

I also rewrote the version for 13 stringed instruments (Op. 23b), the structure of the two versions is the same as mp3.

Director: Sung Bo-min

Music Producer: Jiang Yuanlong

Composer and Principal Timpani: Ponce

First violin: Wang Liang

Second violin: Yu Sijie

Viola: Li Jiali

Cello: Fang Xiaomu

Flute: Sterling

Bass Clarinet: Elgo

Trumpet: Mo Sizhuo

Horn: Jiang Lin

Harp: Tan Huaili

prepared by

flute

clarinet

small

horn

first violin

second violin

viola

cello

harp

percussion

Source: Tai Kwun x HK Phil: Social Distancing

Instantly enjoy the show:

The above programs are for limited time viewing until 2021.2.28

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