Echamber

Drumming 7 for 6 Percussionists	RealAudio demo
	World Premiere: April 27, 2003, Novel Hall, Taipei. Ju Percussion Ensemble
This is a 11-minute piece for 6 percussionists which was commissioned by the Ju Percussion Foundation in 2003. Employing my I-Ching Compositional System (ICCS) invented in 1995, I expressed the yang element (irregular note-group) and yin element (regular note-group ) at the outset of the piece. The whole piece consists of 64 sections illustrating the complete interaction stages of yin and yang elements as represented by the structures of the 64 hexagrams. Two new elements, the Ghana drumming rhythm in 7/8 5/8 as well as metal and wooden sound, as the by-products during the course of yin-yang interaction, are introduced in the middle part of the piece. The six players also represents the six hexagram lines; therefore, the changes of their rhythmic structures and instruments are governed by the changes of the hexagram structures during the yin-yang interaction. Most of the basic rhythmic ideas are taken from the Ghana and Nigeria drumming patterns.
Drumming 6 for 6 Percussionists	To play its RealAudio demo, click the right button
	World Premiere: October 12, 2002, Novel Hall, Taipei. Taipei Percussion Ensemble
This is a 13-minute piece for 6 percussionists which was commissioned by the Taipei Percussion Ensemble in 2002. Employing my I-Ching Compositional System (ICCS) invented in 1995, I expressed the yang element (irregular note-group) and yin element (regular note-group, shouting, and wooden sound ) at the outset of the piece. The whole piece consists of 64 sections illustrating the complete interaction stages of yin and yang elements as represented by the structures of the 64 hexagrams. Two new elements, the sound with definite pitch and Taiwan aboriginal singing voice , as the by-products during the course of yin-yang interaction, are introduced in the middle part of the piece. The six players also represents the six hexagram lines; therefore, the changes of their rhythmic structures and instruments are governed by the changes of the hexagram structures during the yin-yang interaction.
Three Movements for Two Marimbas	To play its RealAudio demo, click the right button (Midi Demo)
	World Premiere: December 1, 2002, National Concert Hall, Ju Percussion Ensemble
This piece was commissioned by the Ju Percussion Group Foundation and completed in February 2002. Written for the marimba duet formed by renowned marimbists Leigh Howard Stevens and Shi-I Wu, this piece lasts approximately 11minutes and consists of three movements. The 1^st movement Folksong is based upon fragments extracted from the folksong melody usually sung in the Water-splashing festival in China. The 2^nd movement Antiphony and Chorale is like a heart-to-heart love-song sung in a moonlit night under a very free tempo. The 3^rd movement Dance and Toccata is very energetic and exuberant ended in a heart-breaking climax built upon fast 16^th notes. This piece requires two 4.5-octave marimbas.
Lament for Ying for Solo Percussionist and String Quartet	To play its RealAudio demo, click the right button
	World Premiere: July 4, 2002. RTHK Radio 4 Concert, Hong Kong. New Art String Quartet with percussionist Wu Ping-ching
Commissioned and first performed by the New Art Quartet, Lament for Ying was completed in May 2002 in memory of famous Chinese poet Quyuan (343 - 278 B.C.). This 23-minute piece is in 2 movements, The first movement features only unconventional noise produced by string instruments as well as wooden and metal percussion instruments. The membrane percussion instruments and marimba play an important role in the energetic second movement in which the composer employs conventional strings sound.
Cantos II for Saxophone Quartet	To play its RealAudio demo, click the right button
	World Premiere: June 1, 2001. National Concert Hall. Diapason Saxophone Quartet
An arrangement of the Shanxi folksong LanHuaHua, Taiwan children song "Rain from the Northwest" and Qinghai folksong Song of Four Seasons . The Enrich CD entitled "Music for Friends" is now available. This recording is made by Quatour Emphasis from France.
Happy Hour for Two Saxophone Quartet	試聽檔
	World Premiere: August 4, 2000. Saxophone Summer Camp in Taiwan, Taipei Saxophone Ensemble.
Commissioned by the Diapason Saxophone Quartet, this piece is written in June 2002 in memory of Igor Stravinsky. The Enrich CD entitled "Music for Friends" is now available. This recording is made by Quatour Emphasis from France and Diapason Saxophone Quartet from Taiwan.
Upon the Surging Billows, Flakes of Snow for String Quartet	To play its RealAudio demo, click the right button
	World Premiere: June 15, 1997. National Theater, Recital Hall, Taipei.
Music, like the complex universe, is a well-coordinated whole. The beauty of myriad things lies in their movements of change caused by the systematic yin-yang interaction, not in things in their state of being. A masterpiece should be created in accordance with the law of nature and be able to reproduce the complex universe in miniature by reflecting the interacting flow of yin and yang through space or time. To further elaborate the concept of yin-yang interaction in musical terms, I invented the I-Ching Compositional System (ICCS), based in part upon Western set theory and prolongational theory. Expressed at the outset of this composition, two yang set-classes 3-3 (014) and 4-9 (0167)—and two yin set-classes 3-7 (027) and 4-23 (0257) serve as the yin-yang primordial musical cells. Their continuing interaction and development throughout the sixty-four stages in this piece are guided by my musical explanation of the orderly sequence of the sixty-four hexagrams in I-Ching. Based on my chamber ensemble piece of the same name finished in March 1997, Upon the Surging Billows, Flakes of Snow for String Quartet was completed two months later that same year. The title is taken from a line in the poem Meditation at Red Cliff by the famous Sung Dynasty poet Su Shih (1036-1101). Despite the programmatic title and the use of microtonal vibrato, glissando harmonics, and wavy motives, the music functions more as an expression of feeling than as a tone painting. The depth of this expression offers the link with Su Shih’s poem, highlighted by the last line: “Like a dream is life, to the river and the moon, I sprinkle this bottle of wine.”
Auroras for Solo Clarinet and Chamber Ensemble	To play its RealAudio demo, click the right button
	World Premiere: December 6, 1999. National Theater, Recital Hall, Taipei. Contemporary Chamber Orchestra of Taipei. Conductor: Chun-fung Lee
The work distinguishes itself by highly elegant melodies and richness of sonorities. Commissioned by the Contemporary Chamber Orchestra of Taipei and completed in November 1999, Auroras consists of one movement, freely treated in A-B-A three-part form, with the clarinet playing concertante. The first section shows an extraordinary variety of newly explored timbre obtained from the soloist and the ensemble. A drawn-out cadenza for the solo clarinet links the first to the second section, which is more animated and lively throughout. The use of repeated notes and insistent motor rhythms sustained by constant propelling energy are the prominent features in the middle section. The last section begins with a tense and mysterious dialogue between the soloist and the ensemble and fades away in an meditative atmosphere of uncertainty. This work is dedicated to the victims of the earthquake occurred in Taiwan on September 21, 1999.
What the Thunder Said for 6 Percussionists	To play its RealAudio demo, click the right button
	World Premiere: June 12, 1999, Novel Hall, Taipei. Percussion Ensemble Okada of Japan
The choice of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land as the basis of a percussion piece came about in early 1998. In March 1998, I first wrote a music theatre piece The Fire Sermon for 3 Percussionists based on the third section of The Waste Land, then in March 1999 a piece for solo marimba and 3 percussionists based on the fourth section "Death by Water." What the Thunder Said is the last section of the poem and serves as the final confirmation of T.S. Eliot's belief---the salvation of mankind through regaining spiritual vitality. Being reminiscent of the original poem, this piece is bipartite. Three themes---Christ's Crucifixion represented by membrane and friction sounds, The Chapel Perilous represented by metallic sound, and The Decay of Eastern Europe represented by wooden and rattle sounds, are employed and interacted in the first part. The second part is the admonitions of the Thunder represented only by the membrane sound.
Drumming 5 for 6 Percussionists	To play its RealAudio demo, click the right button
	World Premiere: January 20, 2000, Novel Hall, Taipei. Ju Percussion Ensemble (B Group)
This is a 15-minute piece for 6 percussionists which was commissioned by the Ju Percussion Foundation in 2000 to celebrate the Ju Percussion Group (B Group)'s 1st Anniversary. Employing my I-Ching Compositional System (ICCS) invented in 1995, I expressed the yang element (animal drum head sound and instruments with indefinite pitch) and yin element (plastic drum head sound and instruments with definite pitch ) at the outset of the piece. The whole piece consists of 64 sections illustrating the complete interaction stages of yin and yang elements as represented by the structures of the 64 hexagrams. Two new elements, the human voice and wooden sound, as the by-products during the course of yin-yang interaction, are introduced in the middle part of the piece. The six players also represents the six hexagram lines; therefore, the changes of their rhythmic structures and instruments are governed by the changes of the hexagram structures during the yin-yang interaction. Most of the basic rhythmic ideas are taken from the Ghana drumming and Chinese village festive drumming patterns.
Phelebas' Undersea Journey for Solo Marimba and 3 Percussionists	Demo sound file not available
	Not yet publicly performed
The choice of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land as the basis of a percussion piece came about in early 1998. In March 1998, I first wrote a music theatre piece for 3 percussionists based on the third section " The Fire Sermon" of The Waste Land, then in March 1999 Phlebas' Undersea Journey for Solo Marimba and 3 Percussionists based on the fourth section " Death by Water."
Chariots Ballad for Solo Marimba and 7 Percussionists	To play its RealAudio demo, click the right button
	World Premiere: June 26, 1987, City Hall Concert Hall, Hong Kong. Hong Kong Percussion Ensemble, marimba soloist: Yiu-kwong Chung; conductor: Wing-see Yip.
As one of the composer' s most well known early works, Chariots Ballad was written in 1986 and won the first prize in the 13th P.A.S. Percussion Composition Contest. Scored for solo marimbist and seven percussionists--each having a battery of diverse percussion instruments, Chariots Ballad is written in western concerto form, clear differentiation of the solo marimbist and the percussion ensemble is articulated in pitch organization, timbre, rhythm, intensity, and symbolization. Based on the poem of the same title by Chinese Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu (712-770 A.D.), this piece consists of three movements and each has its subtitle. In the first movement "The chariots rattle, the horses neigh," the solo marimba part reflects the poet's melancholy concerns of his war country while the ensemble, employing only the metal and wooden percussion instruments, depicts the intense war atmosphere. The second movement "A flood of blood, flowing over the frontier " is a battle scene emitting pulsative energy engendered by drums and the solo marimba. The third movement "The ancient skulls are spread under the sky" is a requiem which takes the advantage of the available diversity of percussion timbre among the seven parts. This piece was world premiered by the Hong Kong Percussion Ensemble with the composer as the marimba soloist in Hong Kong , 1987 and was premiered in Europe during the Prague Spring Music Festival in 1991 by Amy Barber and the Prague Percussion Ensemble. Since then it has been widely performed all over the world.
Drumming No. 1 for 9 Percussionists	To play its RealAudio demo, click the right button
	World Premiere: June 26, 1987, City Hall Concert Hall, Hong Kong. Hong Kong Percussion Ensemble, marimba soloist: Yiu-kwong Chung; conductor: Wing-see Yip.
A 10-minute work written only for membrane percussion instruments.
Cantos I for 12 Cellists	RealAudio demo
	World Premiere: June 27 , 1998. Novel Hall, Taipei. The Berlin Philharmonic 12 Cellists.
An arrangement of the Qinghai folksong Song of Four Seasons for The Berlin Philharmonic 12 Cellists.
Festive Celebration for 9 Percussionists	RealAudio demo
	World Premiere: June 26, 1987, City Hall Concert Hall, Hong Kong. Hong Kong Percussion Ensemble, marimba soloist: Yiu-kwong Chung; conductor: Wing-see Yip.
Festive Celebration was written for 9 percussionists. The piece consists of four distinctive continuous sections. The first is a solemn introduction followed by a majestic fanfare. The second is a ritual canon with accumulation of layers and instruments; its tempo is slow and harmonic vocabulary is pentatonic. The third is a vigorous ceremonial dance and is followed by the fourth section, a cadenza for the Chinese percussion instruments based upon traditional Chinese drumming patterns. Festive Celebration is now published by the Musikverlag Johann Kliment KG in Vienna.