聲影集 2016：香港景觀（作曲家分享）

1/ 蘇家威《時日如飛》

I. Q&A

1) 圖像/影像如何啟發你的創作靈感？

我代入了自己是拍攝者。拍攝的角度令我虛構了一位老人望著故居有感而發的情景。

2) 請形容一下你眼中的「香港」，在樂曲中如何呈現這感知/意像？

「香港」是一個多元社會，但找一種聲音可以表達出「香港」則甚艱難。我利用了中國的五聲音階和西方的動機寫作技巧「製造」這種感覺。

3) 是次的委約作品都是根據特定的圖像/影像而創作並於音樂會一併呈現，這創作過程和純綷的音樂創作有何不同？

圖片伸延了音樂的創意。透過圖片提供的元素，想像空間亦得以擴闊。這比抽象的思維更為實在。

II. 有關作曲家－蘇家威

創作習慣：我總會乖乖的先寫好草稿

喜歡的香港地方：澳牛 (Australia Diary Company)

喜歡的作曲家：陳其鋼、吉松隆、西松朗、Arvo Part

2/ 葉浩堃《縫》

I. Q&A

1) 樂曲如何與影像掛勾和配合？

就如錄像一樣，在開始的部份看見船慢慢的經過，然後一個身影隱約的在後方出現。在音樂方面，在緊密的和聲及織體設計下，將主旋律隱藏，然後又偶爾出現。

2) 請形容一下你眼中的「香港」，在樂曲中如何呈現這感知／意像？

香港是一個急速的城市，在過往的作品中，我經常把這緊張的元素加入。在是次首演的作品《縫》當中，我刻意把速度變慢，但卻在這個「慢」的氣氛中加入一些快速的節奏，猶如普遍的香港人般，雖然身體想放鬆，但腦袋仍然不斷在工作。

3) 在這首作品中聽眾可特別留意之處？

聽眾可以留意和聲的轉變，及弦樂四重奏內四聲部的交錯與交流。

II. 有關作曲家 - 葉浩堃

創作習慣：晚上，很晚的晚上

喜歡的香港地方：我家

喜歡的作曲家：Lutoslawski

3/ Kwok Tsun-huen’s The Barber

I. Q&A

1) Briefly introduce your commissioned work.
It's a viennese waltz. The music divided into two part, Slow and fast.

2) How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?
The Photograph is about a Barber shaving customer's hair when H5N1 was spreading.
I tried to have a piece of music that prove a feeling as if they are having a little shelter from the storm there.

3) How does your commissioned work correlate with the visual image/video?
The image gives me a feeling that the two people were having their own shelter when serious disease was spreading. They trusted and didn't mind if each other got the disease and might infect their own. This gives me a very cozy feeling and write the music.

II. About the Composer – Kwok Tsun-huen

Favorite composers: Stockhausen, Joseph Schwantner, Beethoven, the Beatles
Favorite visual artists: Leonardo de Vinci, Pablo Picasso
Favorite movies: 2001: Space Odessy, Watchmen

4/ Boo Chun-kit’s Looking from the Below

I. Q&A

1. How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?

The duality of this image provides me an inspiration of the number of two.

2. Please share your perception of “Hong Kong”. How did you convey this perception in your work?

I think there is full of juxtaposition in Hong Kong, especially for the cultural aspect. In my work, I decide to use two contrasting melodic motives; sometimes I make the two motives appear at the same time.

3. All visual elements of this concert, which served as the initial inspiration for the composers, will be projected on screen during the performance. What is the difference between composing with and without a specified visual image?

To compose with a specific visual image, I think composers should aware of the extra-musical elements that may be induced from the image, for example memories, emotion. This can affect how the audiences perceive your music.

II. About the Composer - Boo Chun-kit

Hobbies: Reading books, watching movies

Composing habit: Improvise at first, then find some crucial relations between the musical elements, and recompose

Favorite composer: Brahms

5/ Chan Chin-ting’s Reaching Up, Touching Down

I. Q&A

1. Briefly introduce your commissioned work.

This piece explores different perspectives of Hong Kong’s cityscape, particularly of the perspective looking from below. It is inspired by an image that portrays a person lying on a rooftop amid city noise, facing up against the sunshine but with the face covered.

2. How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?

The music takes inspiration from the image, re-imagines and vitalizes the sound world surrounding the subject, as though the collage of city noise uncovers his/her face, rising up to above and beyond the infinite layers of Hong Kong’s modern cityscape.

3.) Briefly share with us the composing techniques or styles you used in the piece.

The composition uses Serial techniques as a foundation for the harmonic contents. The use of certain pitch sets is associated with my impressions of the photograph.

II. About the Composer - Chan Chin-ting

Hobbies: photography, writing computer programs

Composing habit: can compose anywhere with a pencil, eraser and staff paper

Favorite sound: sound in nature

6/ Chan Ho-yi’s The Lost Days

I. Q&A

1. How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?

The photo makes me to meditate and reminisce my old young days in Hong Kong. And they are only left for me to cherish so I write a sentimental piece.

2. How does your commissioned work correlate with the visual image/video?

The music correlates the visual image by its harmonic design. The linear writing in strings also depicts the ladder in the playground.

With a specified visual image, the purpose of music is to serve the message hidden beneath. Music without visual is purely the establishment of relationship through sound.

II. About the Composer - Chan Ho-yi

Hobbies: Cooking, Eating

Favorite scene: The elegance and peacefulness of the medieval town in United Kingdom

Favorite music: Chinese choral music

7/ Chan Kai-young’s Variations on Light and Space

I. Q&A

1. How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?

I was inspired by the contrasting elements abound in the image: the moving and the still, the living and the lifeless, space and obstruction, natural and artificial entities, to name just a few.

2. How does your commissioned work correlate with the visual image/video?

The timeline of piece follows the trajectory of natural light from left to right, following the direction of the protagonist. Incomplete statements of thematic fragments correspond to the hidden subject, and the sudden change of register and texture mirrors the change of spaciousness across the image.

The image is fundamental to guiding the imagination of the audience and offering an extra dimension of meaning in the music.

II. About the Composer - Chan Kai-young

Hobbies: Travel and Photography

Favorite sound: All forms of water

Favorite film director: Hayao Miyazaki

8/ Chris Hung’s Leaving

I. Q&A

1) How does your commissioned work correlate with the visual image/video?

Image serves as the catalyst of the music, being treated as the guiding direction for the idea of the composition.

I would reserve my thought here in order to give you some space of free imagination. However, a trace of hint is shown in my program notes:

"In the midst of climbing my mountain,

On the verge of leaving my dream…

Are you just an illusion?"

2) Briefly share with us the composing techniques or styles you used in the piece.

Non-exact Imitative texture between different parts. Gradation of tension towards a climatic point.

3) Please introduce the special features or fragments of your work.

In general, the melodic contour of the music is ascending with the metaphor of the first impression of the visual stimulus and physical presence of the photo. Very few extended techniques are employed in this work, probably one of the easiest piece I've composed...

II. About the Composer – Chris Hung

Composing habit: Gestural, fragmental, textural aspects first

Favorite place in Hong Kong: Stanley

Favorite composer(s): Karl Amadeus Hartmann / György Kurtág / Salvatore Sciarrino / 細川俊夫

9/ Lam Lai’s Twinkle Twinkle Little Tango

I. Q&A

1) How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?

When I first viewed the photo, I immediately thought about street dancing. Since Milonga is one of my favourite dance, I was thinking to use an interesting tune that everyone is familiar with. I also think Mozart's Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" may be an interesting match with tango.

2) How does your commissioned work correlate with the visual image/video?

I remember I played this game on the street when I was small. There is an interesting rhythm in the foot steps, as most of the time you need to stop your posture and get the balance. I think this kind of irregular rhythm will also be interesting to hear in the piece.

3) Please share your perception of “Hong Kong”. How did you convey this perception in your work?

I like the fast pacing of daily life in Hong Kong. When you are walking on the street, there are lots of fast repetition around you. Therefore, I try to put the piece to be similar to this circumstance, which is fast and having lots of tiny repetition.

II. About the Composer – Lam Lai

Composing habit: Start with a cup of milk tea

Favorite place in Hong Kong: Central

Favorite sound: water sound

10/ Livia Lin’s the tree says…

I. Q&A

1) How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?

While many find Hong Kong to be a small vibrant city lacking recreational spaces, the image reminds me of pockets of nature and greenery in the city which we unconsciously not notice. The dense trees eclipsing the individual inspire me to put the trees on center stage in my composition.

2) All visual elements of this concert, which served as the initial inspiration for the composers, will be projected on screen during the performance. What is the difference between composing with and without a specified visual image?

Music is a temporal form of art while a still image offers information instantly. I think composing with specific image prompts me to take more time in expressing an idea because I believe the audience, too, would have the luxury of delving deeper into the artists’ messages through listening and looking simultaneously.

3) Please introduce the special features or fragments of your work.

This work anchors on two rhythmic elements – dotted rhythm and triplet. These rhythmic sways mimic the gentle flutter of the leaves throughout the composition. The audience will hopefully disengage from the steady pulse and assimilate with the ambience of the swaying leaves imperceptibly.

II. About the Composer – Livia Lin

Favorite place in Hong Kong: Lantau Island, Repulse Bay, Hong Kong International Airport

Favorite scene: the meeting of the sky and water, the people flow in a cafe

Favorite visual artist: Vasily Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock

11/ Lun Wai-kit’s Modernization

I. Q&A

1) Briefly introduce your commissioned work.

Migration of sound.

2) How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?

The first thing I have done was to find out the place/angle the photo was taken, then with the description of photo, I started to imagine what sound should be included in it.

3) All visual elements of this concert, which served as the initial inspiration for the composers, will be projected on screen during the performance. What is the difference between composing with and without a specified visual image?

I don't need to think too much when there is an image.

II. About the Composer – Lun Wai-kit

Hobbies: DIY

Composing habit: start actually composing at the last minute before deadline

Favorite sound: Raindrops

12/ Shao Litang’s Seeking

I. Q&A

1) How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?

The inspiration of the photo to me is that what we are really looking for in life. Life is full of experiences and anything can happen. Depending on what kind of person you are, you may be looking for different things.

Composers will think about the interaction carefully between the message from the image and music.

3) Briefly share with us the composing techniques or styles you used in the piece.

This piece starts with a vigorous six-note motive, followed by a peaceful harmonic section that gradually develops into a multi-layered chant-like theme. This theme becomes more energetic and rhythmic, moving towards a climax that resolves peacefully.

II. About the Composer – Shao Litang

Hobbies: Eating, Hiking

Favorite place in Hong Kong: Tapmun (Grass-Island)

Favorite scene: Maple leaves glowed red in the sunlight

13/ Shuen Lai-yin’s Street through a Glass Ball

I. Q&A

1) All visual elements of this concert, which served as the initial inspiration for the composers, will be projected on screen during the performance. What is the difference between composing with and without a specified visual image?

The visual image gave me loads of inspiration. It helps me to determine the structure, atmosphere and musical flow of the piece.

2) Briefly share with us the composing techniques or styles you used in the piece.

I have constructed a chord using diatonic scales, and the chord developed from a close position and expanded to open position, whereas music tension is created and resolved at the same time.

3) Please introduce the special features or fragments of your work.

It is a simple short piece. I tried to avoid special gestures in my work, as I would like to express the feeling of "Lost" in my music, which is motionless and solitude.

II. About the Composer – Shuen Lai-yin

Hobbies: Playing guitar, singing in a choir, riding bicycle.

Favorite scene: Sunset near seashore

Favorite composer/music: Toru Takemitsu

14/ So Ho-chi’s Confined Matters

I. Q&A

1) How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?

The dense composition of the image makes me think of how my life is in this dense city. Hong Kong always have many things happen in a small places. Sometime they are too many, but at least they are colourful and diverse.

2) Please share your perception of “Hong Kong”. How did you convey this perception in your work?

I think Hong Kong is a fast-pacing city that people receive many information and feel very differently. In my imagination, it is like montage or painting by Pablo Picasso. Inspired by this idea, I try to organise different blocks of materials in a musical way.

3) Briefly share with us the composing techniques or styles you used in the piece.

There are musical elements in the piece where distinguished gesture and texture existed. Some of them might have different pitch organisation system in order to create contrast between elements which is to create the idea of montage.

II. About the Composer – So Ho-chi

Hobbies: Hiking, wondering in Hong Kong, reading

Favorite place in Hong Kong: Tuen Mun

Favorite composer/music: Igor Stravinsky

15/ Tam Ka-shu’s Little Hidden Momentum

I. Q&A

1) Briefly introduce your commissioned work.

My work depicts the restless spirit of Hong Kong – there are motions even in a quiet situation. It is inspired by an image that centred a workman and a still curtain fills up the other space.

2) How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?

While the large curtain in the image seems to project a still atmosphere, the truck and the worker reveal a vivid motion. This contrast in activity immediately connects me to a night scene in Causeway Bay – streets are empty but still project a dynamic atmosphere.

Visual images set a fix parameter for composers. In order to bring out the theme of the images, composers have to fit their imagination within the set boundary. However, this does not mean to limit our creativity. Instead, we might see the parameters as guidelines for composing.

II. About the Composer - Tam Ka Shu

Favorite place in Hong Kong: Po Toi Island

Favorite composer: Gyorgy Ligeti and Alfred Schnittke

Favorite visual artist: Salvador Dali

16/ Wong Chun-wai’s Journey in the Dark

I. Q&A

1) How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?

Through the video we observe people traveling in a train underground: to an observer they are isolated individuals on an aimless journey, moving forward passively and restlessly. It seems to be asking the meaning of life, a journey that we must all go on.

2) How does your commissioned work correlate with the visual image/video?

The video is in black and white, and my music corresponds by carrying a dark tone, resulted from the use of non-functional harmonic progression, the domination of minor-sounding sonorities, and the prominent of the lower register of the instruments.

3) Briefly share with us the composing techniques or styles you used in the piece.

In the music the string quartet is divided into three groups of instruments – violin I, cello and the inner group of instruments – each playing with their own materials and styles, symbolizing the isolation of individuals. There are almost no dialogues among them but the wheel of destiny pushes them all.

II. About the Composers – Wong Chun-wai

Hobbies: Composing

Favorite composers: Joe Hisaishi/Gustav Mahler/Maurice Ravel/John Williams

Favorite movie: Spirited away

17/ Wyman Wat’s Space Tight

I. Q&A

1) Briefly introduce your commissioned work.

My work “Space Tight” is about the high-density living environment in Central, Hong Kong. Fast, busy, crowded are the best words to describe the condition nowadays.

2) How does your commissioned work correlate with the visual image/video?

According to the image, there are several high buildings surrounding a comparatively shorter yellow building in Central. We cannot find any space left in the picture. Thus, I composed my work with many compact rhythms to create this kind of tight feeling.

With the specified visual image, it is no doubt that the composer’s idea will be more directly projected to the audience, which in turn helps the audiences’ understandings to the new works. Moreover, I believe that the visual elements will further stimulate the audiences’ own imaginations.

II. About the Composers - Wyman Wat

Favorite scene: Trams on rails in rainy day

Favorite composer: Prokofiev

Favorite visual artist: Piet Mondrian

18/ Yau May-kay’s The Road before me

I. Q&A

1) Briefly introduce your commissioned work.

'The Road Before Me' was composed during busiest time of year 2015.

2) How did the image/video inspire you to write this piece?

The video exactly reflects my commuting in Hong Kong - its repetitiveness, its tediousness ...

3) Briefly share with us the composing techniques or styles you used in the piece.

Minimalism is used in this piece and I think it describes the video and my thoughts really well.

II. About the Composer - Yau May-kay

Favorite place in Hong Kong: I like hiking in Fanling, it overlooks the whole area of Fanling and the mainland which is breathtaking.

Favorite composer/music: J.S. Bach

Favorite director/movie: Abbas Kiarostami