| In the wake of
recent tragic natural disasters, particularly that of the Sichuan
earthquake and the cyclone that hit Myanmar, it is perhaps fitting
to remember the victims of the misfortune in the way that composers
have done over the past generations.
While the currency of the recent events will take some time
to find its way into music, one of the works of Malaysia's young
composers has already embraced the tragedy in his work. 25-year
old Tan Zi Hua dedicates his piece Images of Wind II for flute
and piano, composed for the HSBC Young Composers Workshop 2008
in July 2008, "to the victims, as well as their family
and friends, of the catastrophes in Myanmar and China; may they
find peace."
Looking at recent South East Asian compositions, two recent
human tragedies stand out in the sound memorials of our composers.
The Boxing Day tsunami no doubt touched the hearts of the Thais
and Indonesians directly, while as a country indirectly implicated
in the aftermath the senseless 9-11 bombings surely have a special
resonance.
In commemoration to the many victims of Sichuan and Myanmar,
it is perhaps therefore fitting that we put together a musical
threnody from our region's best composers. You can listen to
the programme on Malaysian
Art Radio this month.
Narong Prangcharoen: Sattha for strings,
piano and percussion
Thai composer Prangcharoen will be releasing a CD of his music
very soon. In his cycle of orchestral works Sattha stands
out not only for its power and imagination, but also for it's
heartbreaking solos which draw closely from Thai traditional
elements. Prangcharoen writes in his score preface in 2005:
"Sattha was inspired by the tragic tsunami of December
2004 in South Asia, which killed some 200 000 people in thirteen
countries. I wrote this music to commemorate the first anniversary
of that event. This tsunami, generated by an undersea earthquake,
was one of the deadliest disasters of our time. Scientists reported
that the earthquake itself lasted nearly ten minutes, when before,
even the worst earthquakes had lasted no longer than a few seconds.
This event caused the entire planet to vibrate, triggering earthquakes
in Alaska and causing damage as far away as the east coast of
Africa. Between 170 000 to 250 000 people are thought to have
diead as a result of the tsunami, but the count is still not
complete.
Sattha - "fate" in Thai - is scored for strings,
piano and percussion, and ensemble that is intended to convey
the atmosphere of this event with a smaller number of instruments
than a full orchestra, while paying respect to such other musical
elegies as the Adagion for Strings by Barber and the Threnody
to the Victims of Hiroshima by Penderecki. The music imitates
the movement of the waves and the vibratins caused by the earthquake.
Each solo instrument represents both the peicentre, the point
on the earth's surface directly above the place where an earthquake
originates, and the hypocentre, the actual location of the energy
released inside the earth. The entire piece moves slowly and
creates an enormous wave of sond towards the end.
I hope this piece reminds people about what happened in the
tsunami disaster and encourages all the victims who are struggling
to recover."
Tony Prabowo: Psalms
 Indonesia
composer Tony Prabowo was in Indonesia working on his Trio
for Voice, Viola, and Piano when the tsunami struck. He
decided to dedicate a piece to the victims of the tragedy as
part of his promise to deliver a new work for the New Juilliard
Ensemble, the ensemble of the famous New York institution for
whom he had previously composed the orchestral piece Autumnal
Steps (1996) and his opera The King's Witch (2002).
Writes Joel Sachs, conductor of the New Juilliard Ensemble
in his article
in the Julliard's online journal, "Neither of us reckoned
with the disruption of the tsunami. I finally got a partial
score in late January, and learned that Tony (unknown to me)
had decided to make it a Piano Concerto. I had to locate a pianist
willing to learn an incomplete piece! Fortunately, three N.J.E.
pianists were excited by the idea. Tony then announced that
he would shortly send a complete score with Juilliard alumna
Stephanie Griffin, who was returning from performing in Jakarta.
When she arrived, she had the package—but had been given
the wrong one! After another week, the real score arrived. Lacking
time for the usual audition process, I selected Nicholas Ong
as soloist, because it will be his final year as a resident
student and his last chance to appear with the New Juilliard
Ensemble. (My apologies to the other two.) The piece, Psalms,
is dedicated to the victims of the Indonesian tragedy, and loos
well worth the tension of the cliffhanger."
Psalms received its world premiere in New York on 8
April 2005 at the Alice Tully Hall with Malaysian pianist Nicholas
Ong as the soloist.
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Jun 08
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