Decorated Zither

The poem ‘Decorated Zither’ by Li Shangyin (813-858) acts like a sort of Cantus Firmus in this piece. The poem itself is a, quite intriguing, love poem, clearly written in a mystical Taoism manner.

The male choir (or six male voices) is divided into 3 groups, surrounding the audience. Group III, standing in front of the audience sings the poem and its tone material is clearly linked to the text as spoken in Chinese. The Bass sings the Cantus Firmus as mentioned above while the Tenor is constantly ‘commenting’ with a expanding and contracting canon. The other 2 groups has 2 clear functions; one being the exploration and representation of the of language or a voyage of language as it were. The second being the gradual transformation from noise to sound in group I and the opposite in group II.

Formally the piece can be divided into 8 different sections; all with different lengths, rhythmic speeds and dynamic envelopes, and so on, but still interlinked and derived from the text trying to draw an organic form.

錦瑟無端五十弦， 一弦一柱思華年。 莊生皢夢迷蝴蝶， 望帝春心托杜鵑。 滄海月明珠有泪， 藍田日暖玉生烟。 此情可待成追憶， 只是當時已枉然。

English translation:

Decorated Zither LI SHANGYIN (813-858)

A decorated zither, for no reason, is made of fifty strings – one string, one peg, each reminiscent of the youthful years. . . Waking in the morning, Master Zhuang wonders whether he dreams of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreams of being Master Zhuang. Wangdi, an ancient emperor, poured out his grief into the cuckoo cries in the spring. A pearl holds its tears against the bright moon on the blue ocean; a jade-induced mist arises under the warm sun over Liantian field. . . Oh, this feeling, to be recollected later in memories, is already confused.

Translated by Qiu Xiaolong