Third movement premiered by Alfred WONG (piano primo), LI Cheong (piano secondo)
Macau APA, May 2001
Whole suite premiered by CHU Hang Chun (piano primo) and LI Cheong (piano secundo)
on 18 Feb 2003
Lee Hysan Concert Hall, CUHK
Composition Concert 2003
[Program Notes by Alfred WONG]
Similar to Dennis Wu’s Bagatelles, the writing of this piano suite spanned through various stages of composer’s adolescence, yet the suite was in a coherent style. It also displays the composer’s creative mind of writing music.The first movement was written around secondary six and seven. The modal writing and the characterized augmented fourth oscillations suggest an image of music from Middle East. After the free elaboration of the theme in meno mosso, the music suddenly drives to an exciting ending.In the second movement, the music begins with a Gregorian-chant like melody followed by a long polyphonic section. It came in composer’s mind for long when he studied medieval music history in first year of music study, though it is not realized on paper until now. The theme is derived from the 3rd movement, which theme is also modal. There is no meter in general, and some dotted barlines are used to indicate entrance points. Later the music comes to a 6/8-time. Composer said that perhaps he wants to imitate the style of medieval music, both sacred and secular. The Gregorian chant reappears at the end and leads to the third movement.The final movement was written in year one around 1999 to 2000. It is highly rhythmic with frequent meter changes, perhaps influenced by Bela Bartok. It was premiered in School of Music, Macau Conservatory in summer of 2001 by Alfred Wong and Li Cheong at the piano. The middle section of this movement of the current version the has been revised.
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