"Movements -- homage to Joseph Haydn" is commissioned by Dr. Helmut Sohmen, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn. It is premiered by the Anton von Webern Orchestra of the Universitat fur Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien in Vienna on 28 November 2009. The Asian premiere is performed on I February 2010, by the orchestra of the Academy of Performance Arts of Hong Kong. / During the past two centuries, music has developed from classical to romantic, and to contemporary; orchestra size from thirty musicians to a double or even a triple; from simple harmonic structures to complicated; from tonal to atonal; from sound to silence; from resonance to dissonance and noise (or some people say it in the other way round); and lastly, from Haydn to contemporary composers (including Tang!!). In "Movements -- homage to Joseph Haydn", inspired by Haydn's simplicity, several excerpts are taken from Haydn's works, small as just a tiny fragment or large as an original quotation. It aims to strive for a balance between the shifting of Haydn's style and Tang's, giving a mix of classical and modern flavor. It shows changes from the modern to the classical Haydn, then back to the modern, like a scene of time line. Movements is presented in one continuous movement, with four distinct sections: I. Before "Sunrise"; II. Franz Joseph Haydn; III. After "The Lark"; and IV. Adagio e cantabile. / I. Before "Sunrise" begins in a rather slow but ongoing tempo, creating a blurred atmosphere; not really a descriptive scene before a real sunrise. It aims for a feeling of leading-to, moving towards the string quartet "Sunrise" by Haydn. Although nothing from Sunrise has been used, the musical ideas are taken from the works before it. The piccolo leads the start with a series of acute repeated notes, which create the vague sounds of the minor 7th and the major 9th intervals with the repeated pattern in the trumpets and the piano. The figures are then followed by the other main element: the long sustained chords, which are recurred frequently throughout the whole section. The long chords echo in the orchestra, and sustain with inner-movement shifting among different groups of instruments, in varying registers. When the repetitions and the long sustained chords get merging together, the repeated figures gradually become transparent, and transform into a dominant one. Without any pauses, the repetitions naturally turn into the second section and fill into its harmony. / II. Franz Joseph Haydn has a quoted passage from Haydn's String Quartet No. 61 "Fifth" in D minor op. 76 no.2, also presented in the solo strings, with accompaniment of the tutti strings and harmonic support from the winds. The second section differs from the misty first; the quotation itself is clear and with varying developments afterwards. / III. After "The Lark", a fast section, has a quoted passage from the last movement of Haydn's String Quartet No. 53 in D major "The Lark" op.64 no.5. Short scale figures are used in a simple phrase structure. The changing texture is important so as to maintain the direction and progression of the section. Starting in the woodwind section, each phrase is designed to keep a common factor of spinning up and down, and spiraling among the entire ensemble. Layers with different fragmented materials are added onto the top like a multilayer cake. Together with numerous contrapuntal shifting, where two or three different textural ideas move at the same time, new but related ideas (scale figures) are kept being created. It is like putting hundreds of images of one single object together onto one single screen, with images taken in different angles, different time and different perspectives. Within the screen, uncountable colorful details are kept, with chemical effects. / The first theme of the second movement of Haydn's Piano Sonata no.59 in E flat major is collaged with the last section, IV. Adagio e cantabile. Sustained chords are built to proceed alongside the theme, in a way of fading in and out alternatively. The finale aims for a conclusion of the whole piece, bringing Haydn to modernity. Both subjects are like representing two different times from two different spaces, recurring in the same moment and on the same platform. / The instrumentation of Movements consists of pair winds (with the exception of an extra bass clarinet and four horns), percussions, piano and strings. In order to pay tribute to Haydn's string quartets, the first and third sections are entitled after two famous quartets: String Quartet No. 63 "Sunrise" in Bb major op.76 no.4 and String Quartet No. 53 in D major "The Lark" op.64 no.5. The strings are sometimes divided into a solo group of quartet versus the tutti strings, implying a string quartet solo with orchestra accompaniment. Adagio e cantabile, the title of the last section, is a tempo marking taken from a slow movement of a Haydn's Piano Sonata no.59 Hob. XVI: 49 in Eb major, where the sonata was also partially used in a 1994 movie "Interview of the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles" . In general, the tempo structure is simply set in a form of slow-fast-slow, as III. After "The Lark" is a comparatively faster section than the other three. Gestures from Haydn's string quartets are used as reference. For example, simply chords, scale pattern, repeated notes and simple phrase structure, are constructed as the foundation of Movements . These gestures are designed to be presented in varying ways such as variations, augmentation, amplification, and compression. / 1. Movements: homage to Joseph Haydn, for orchestra -- 2. Falling up, for string quartet and suona -- 3. Distorted indulgence, for clarinet, electric-guitar, cello, contrabass, piano and percussion (all amplified) -- 4. It is what it is! for sheng and chamber orchestra (1 clarinet in Bb, 1 bass clarinet in Bb, 1 soprano saxophone in Bb, 1 alto saxophone in Eb, 1 horn in F, 1 tuba, 1 violin, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 piano, 1 percussion) -- 5. Chao, for suona and Chinese orchestra -- 6. Dragon-lantern, for 9 suonas and Chinese orchestra -- 7. Clarin and Tim, for Bb clarinet, tenor timpani and concert timpani. / Tang, Lok Yin. / "(December 2009)"--Abstract. / Adviser: Wai Kwong Victor Chan. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (D.Mus.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:cuhk.edu.hk/oai:cuhk-dr:cuhk_344914 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Contributors | Tang, Lok-yin., Chinese University of Hong Kong Graduate School. Division of Music. |
| Source Sets | The Chinese University of Hong Kong |
| Language | English, Chinese |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, theses |
| Format | electronic resource, microform, microfiche, 1 online resource (iv, 224 leaves : music.) |
| Rights | Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International” License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
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