Les orbites éternelles

2 Bangdi
2 Qudi
2 Xindi

3 Soprano Sheng
1 Tenor Sheng
1 Contrabass Sheng

2 Soprano Suona
2 Alto Suona
1 Bass Suona
1 Bass Guan

2 Yangqin
Xiaoruan
Pipa
Zhongruan
Daruan
Zheng

Timpani
4 Percussions

6 Gaohu
16 Erhu
6 Zhonghu

6 Gehu
4 Bass Gehu

I owe a large part of my music upbringing to Hong Kong Youth Chinese Orchestra and The Music Office. Taking this precious opportunity in being jointly commissioned by The Hong Kong Composers’ Guild and The Music Office, I wrote a piece sparkling with creativity and new sonorities to mark an end of my 12-year journey with the orchestra as a player, and to encourage younger members to continuously put in effort in music-making and self-reflecting to perpetually improve themselves. 

The inspiration of the work comes from the first part of a phrase from Yi Jing, “While the universe is ceaselessly in motion, the enlightened on Earth would make untiring endeavor for advancement”. The vastness of the constantly moving universe makes human being in comparison negligible. Yet we should all bear our own roles and contribute to a better whole by day-by-day advancing. Musically, apart from the vibrant faster passages, one can discover fragments of upward scales which symbolizes the power of advancement appearing throughout the piece. Also, there are quieter moments that link up the former. These rarely seen static chordal moments in Chinese orchestral context are sketches of the tranquil night sky, in which all the playing parts are equal, and no one should be the foreground. One can shut their eyes and try to imagine the gigantic, endless universe full of stars. 

Hope you will all enjoy this 9-minute journey and I dedicate all my blessings to Hong Kong Youth Chinese Orchestra, for her continuous prosperity and the rays she radiates onto later generations. 

香港青年中樂團和音樂事務處是孕育我音樂上成長的一個很重要的一部分。這次機會由音樂事務處和香港作曲家聯會共同委約創作此作品，想寫一首具創新性的作品，一為圓滿我在香港青年中樂團的匆匆12年時光，二為砥礪年輕的一代團員要恆常努力，檢視自我，每天都力圖更進一步。

此作品靈感源自《易經》中「天行健，君子以自強不息」的上半部。天上的星宿接近恆久不變，一直在轉動。相較於運行的星象，人類就顯得渺小。但我們都該各司其職，奮發向上。音樂上，除了如繁星閃爍的較為活潑的段落外，可以留意上升音階的動機常穿插於樂句之中，表達向上的力量。此外，也有夜晚觀察天上星象的靜謐時刻作為連接：塊狀的音響效果在中樂團的樂曲之中尤其少見。在這種聲響裡面，和聲場中沒有任何聲部尤其重要，而是每個聲部自己擔當好自己的崗位。可以嘗試閉上眼睛，想像看到夜空無數星辰的浩瀚無垠。

希望您會享受這個約九分鐘的跌宕旅途。亦希望香港青年中樂團永恆不變，繼續培養莘莘學子。