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- Tan Dun
On Taoism (1985)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
- 3(pic).111/2120/6perc/hp.pf/str(14.12.10.8.6)
- Voice, Bass Clarinet, Contrabassoon
- 15 min
Programme Note
Composer Note:
This piece was written on the death of my grandmother, after I went back to Hunan to take part in her funeral in the village where I grew up. This Taoist ritual brought back to me the sounds, the movement, the spiritual vibrations from my childhood, forgotten in the many years I was dedicated to learning Western music. I used both instruments and voice to break the artificial law that music must be made of tonal and atonal scales. I wanted to explore sound in many dimensions: microtonal, swimming among frequencies, and expanding timbres as the ink of calligraphy spreads in rice paper.
—Tan Dun
This piece was written on the death of my grandmother, after I went back to Hunan to take part in her funeral in the village where I grew up. This Taoist ritual brought back to me the sounds, the movement, the spiritual vibrations from my childhood, forgotten in the many years I was dedicated to learning Western music. I used both instruments and voice to break the artificial law that music must be made of tonal and atonal scales. I wanted to explore sound in many dimensions: microtonal, swimming among frequencies, and expanding timbres as the ink of calligraphy spreads in rice paper.
—Tan Dun
