Page 13 - NWS January 2025 Digital Playbill

a symphonic

odyssey

In the first movement, one hears a modality and harmony that seems almost medieval in
style, its harmonies built on open fourths and fifths. The following Allegro is a “contest”
in which various small orchestral groups repeat a single folk melody. At the opening of
the third movement, two Romanian mountain horns call to each other from a distance.
Ligeti instructs the players to use natural tuning, which produces a slightly out-of-
tune quality to those used to equal temperament. This is the most Bartók-like of the
movements; the woodwind writing closely resembles that of the slow movement from
Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and may have been composed in homage to Bartók.
The final movement is a fiddling showcase à la Enesco. It concludes with a reprise of the
horn duet, plus a single violin at the almost-inaudible extreme top of its range.

RESONATING LANDS
Kui Dong (b. Beijing, 1966)
Composed: 2024
WORLD PREMIERE: January 2025, New West Symphony; Michael Christie,
conductor; Hong Wang, Liquan Qin
Instrumentation: piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, two clarinets, bassoon,
contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani,
percussion, harp, piano, and strings
Duration: Approximately 20 minutes
Resonating Lands is the first concerto for the newly developed instrument, Liquan
Qin (利泉琴) and orchestra. It is a reimagination of the traditional Chinese Erhu (a two-
string fiddle) for the modern stage.
The idea for this piece began with multi-instrumentalist Hong (Henry) Wang, a long-
time friend who proposed writing a piece for this instrument and orchestra. Henry
sent me several recordings of Inner Mongolian folk songs, performed on the Morin
Khuur (horsehead fiddle) and with voice. I was struck by the long-form lyricism of the
songs and earthy, raw quality of their folk singing—a sound that seems to rise directly
from the soil, reflecting the natural world they inhabit.
Resonating Lands is a tribute to those landscapes, as well as to the imaginative,
otherworldly landscapes in my mind. I wanted to evoke the connection between
music and the land, where sound resonates. Sometimes these sounds are brutal;
sometimes they are like echoes carried by the wind, shaped by mountains, valleys,
and sand dunes.
I wanted to take advantage of the incredible opportunity to explore the interplay
between the Erhu’s distinct timbre and the vast palette of the orchestra, which, in
some way, also serves as a subtle nod to the French composer Olivier Messiaen, and
as a tribute to composers such as György Ligeti (also featured on this program), while
standing as its own voice.
There isn’t a specific Chinese composition, folk song, or classical work I cite in this work,
but Henry, the soloist, shared that while practicing this piece, he felt a connection to

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