Lullaby II

1 Bangdi
1 Qudi
1 Xindi

1 Soprano Sheng
1 Tenor Sheng
1 Bass Sheng

1 Soprano Suona (doubling Traditional Guan)
1 Alto Suona
1 Alto Guan
1 Bass Guan (doubling Contrabass Guan)

Yangqin
Xiaoruan
Pipa
Zhongruan
Daruan
Zheng

Timpani
3 Percussions

3 Gaohu
6 Erhu
3 Zhonghu

3 Gehu
2 Bass Gehu

A lullaby is meant to be a sweet and tranquil song, and is sung to infants to help them to sleep. This work Lullaby II is rather an antithesis of the imagined lullaby: fear, mess, trembling and tense quietness are the negative extremes that I explored in the composition. I employ a large sound palette and use sound as a tool to seek order in chaos and seek direction in perplexion, along the way leaving traces of melodious moments, which, though being fragmented, may be a truer depiction of what “lullaby” means in this era of uncertainty.

This work is reworked and re-orchestrated from the chamber ensemble work Lullaby, premiered earlier on by Ensemble Signal in Buffalo, NY.

搖籃曲本應甜美安寧，哄嬰孩⼊睡。我這⾸作品《搖籃曲II》絲毫不能哄⼈⼊夢，卻是探索它的反⾯極端：驚恐、慌亂、寧靜但緊張的氣氛。我嘗試將中樂室內樂可以塑造的聲⾳版圖擴⼤，並以廣義的聲⾳為媒介，在亂中找秩序、在迷惘中覓⽅向。過程中那些殘留的動聽瞬間，縱使成為千萬碎⽚，可能是這個充滿未知的時代裡⾯，「搖籃曲」較為真實的寫照。

此作品為較早前作品《搖籃曲》的中樂改寫版。《搖籃曲》已於美國水牛城由 Ensemble Signal 首演。