Deep Red (2014)

For marimba* and chamber ensemble
(11 players:solo mba+1111/1000/pno/string quintet)


Listening the most recent performance by Pius Cheung
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bright Sheng

Program Note

Deep Red, co-commissioned by the Eastern Music Festival and Tanglewood Music Center, receives the world premiere performance on July 21st, 2014, in Greensboro, North Carolina, with Gerard Schwarz conducting and John Parks as the soloist.

The orchestration calls for the solo marimba with an ensemble of 11 players: flute (doubles piccolo), oboe (doubles English horn), clarinet in Bb, bassoon, French horn in F, piano, 2 violins, viola, violoncello and double bass.

One of the most challenging aspects in writing for the marimba is the instrument’s limited range of timbre. In this work, I attempted to remedy this by using different devices in orchestration, some subtle while others bold. What I hope to achieve is an assortment of tonal colors within the warm deep red marimba sound.

The basic thematic material of the work comes from the reconstruction of a love song I wrote during my teenage years living in Qinghai, a remote province on the Tibetan Plateau in northwestern China, where folk music was abundant.

—Bright Sheng

 

*The FIVE-OCTAVE Marimba needs to be amplified with a single speaker placed near the soloist. The house system should not be used.

《深紅色》是由美國東部音樂節及探戈森林音樂節聯合委約， 2014年7月21日在東部音樂節首演，由John Parks擔任獨奏，Gerard Schwarz 指揮。這首作品配器為獨奏馬林巴琴以及長笛（兼短笛）、雙簧管、Bb調單簧管、大管、法國號、兩把小提琴、中提琴、大提琴及倍司。

馬林巴琴的音色變化不大。面對這種限制，我在曲中試圖採用配器法裡的各種有細微也有大膽的技法， 希望能在馬林巴琴的音色裡找到濃淡變化的《深紅》色彩。

我十六、七歲時寫過一首情歌，我把它重組編成此曲的基本素材。那時我住在青海─中國西北部青藏高原處的一個偏遠省份─那裡有深厚的民間音樂傳統。

—盛宗亮