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Making
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Detailed Track Information
12.
Monodrama (2004)
for oboe, ensemble and electronics
Chong Kee Yong
Het Spectra Ensemble (Belgium)
conducted by Filip Rathé
Piet Van Bockstael (oboe), Dirk Veulemans (electronics, recording
engineer)
World premiere performance and recording at "Transit"
New Music Festival 04, STUK concert hall, Leuven, Belgium on
23 October 2004
Monodrama is one of Chong's most dramatic chamber works to
date. Constructed around a virtuosic solo oboe part, almost
concertante, and an ensemble enriched by electronics, it draws
inspiration from Malaysian gamelan music, in particular the
sounds of the bowed rebab and the double-reed serunai.
It is a dramatic work that has echoes of Asian theatre, where
hints of Beijing Opera intertwine with his modernistic impressions
of the wayang kulit. The music traverses a number of moods,
from mysterious to ritualistic. It contains an extraordinary
rhythmic central section that is truly memorable, in a moment
that is rare in Chong's chamber music where nervous rhythms
propelled by the clatter of toms shudder as the oboe enters
into a sort of frenzied trance. This remarkable section ends
in a flourish that is unmistakeably theatrical, and its inspiration
is hinted at when a CD playback of actual wayang kulit music
is heard in the background.
The
Composer
Chong is a multi award-winning composer with a rare talent of
fashioning a truly individual sound from modern experimental techniques.
His style is highly experimental and innovative, yet deeply spiritual
and lyrical in its own way. He received his Master of Composition
with the Highest Honours from the Royal Flemish Conservatory and
has studied with numerous composers such as Brian Ferneyhough
and Salvatore Sciarrino.
Composer Peter Eötvös describes his
music as "imaginative and poetic." Chong won Malaysia's
first Forum For Malaysian Composers in Kuala Lumpur, 2004 and
the subsequent International Composers Forum in 2005 with his
orchestral tour de force, The Starry Night's Ripples.
Chong recently won the BMW Award at the inaugural Isang Yun
Festival in Seoul in 2007 with his Splattered Landscape III
for five instrumental groups, and 2nd Prize at the Berlin
Intersonanzen Brandenburgisches Fest der Neuen Musik 2008 for
his Metamorphosis VIII for Sheng, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet
and Double bass.
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Making
History: how the project began
About the pieces
About
the recordings
Press coverage
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