Past Beyond
for large ensemble
(2012)
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Instrumentation
scored for 28 musicians
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, harp, piano, 3 percussionists, 3 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, bass -
Commission
and Premiere Ensemble Intercontemporain, conducted by Susanna Mälkki. October 4, 2012, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Excerpt from the premiere
Program Notes
I had a small operation during the composition of this piece. While I convalesced in the hospital, a doctor recommended me to take walks in the hallway. As I wandered around slowly, I passed many rooms and saw other patients who were on a similarly arduous course of recovery, and I began to chat with them. They were peasants from villages, middle school kids, retired factory workers… Conversing and making friends with all these people from various walks of life whom I normally would not encounter all together, I found myself moved at the congeniality and compassion we shared with one another. In the face of illness, we are all more amiable, accepting, and generous.
From Tibetan and Thai rituals, I borrowed various incantations, sonorous brass sonorities, large cymbals... To me, these sounds have kindred therapeutic and spiritual properties. They calm many fears and free the mind. My piece also continues my interest in embracing linguistic influences, expanding speech-like properties of rhythm and contour into more heavily massed textures.
Past beyond is scored for 28 musicians, and was commissioned and premiered by the Ensemble Intercontemporain, conducted by Susanna Mälkki.
– Wang Lu
