Music Unlimited III: “Islet in the River of Stars” (星河坻)

Included in “Chinese Choral Music Anthology: Music Unlimited III.”

About the Work

Chi (坻): a small patch of high ground in the water. A small islet is called zhu (渚), a small zhu is called zhi (沚), and a small zhi is called chi (坻). (Erya, “Explaining Water”)

Commissioned by the Taipei Chamber Singers and completed in spring 2013, this work sets texts that were all chosen and written by the composer. It is a song of longing, addressed to a distant place beyond reach.

The choir is divided into two groups that answer and interweave with each other, together building the intricately layered vocal texture of the piece. The text includes both Chinese and sounds notated in the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), to highlight the many possibilities of Chinese phonology and timbre: for example, initials and finals used on their own, and words that are stretched out or sung in reverse. When writing words that carry meaning, I deliberately chose words with similar sounds that lend themselves to repetition, such as “ㄕ,” “ㄙ,” “ㄧ,” “ㄩ,” “ㄢ,” “ㄥ” and “ㄤ,” seeking naturalness and unity in the music as well as the musicality inherent in the words themselves.

Apart from “Namo Ami-” (南無阿彌) at the opening, all text fragments in the music are taken from the poem of the same title. The full text of the poem “Islet in the River of Stars” follows.

A sandbar where moonlight has run aground
My journey follows the footsteps of dreams
Seeking what has been lost in time…
Perhaps on the boundless far shore
Perhaps nowhere at all

It was, as I recall, the season of silver grass
You said, “Next year, we’ll go up the mountain again.”
I once hurried a long way across the earth and the sky
To offer you a whole sea of longing
Now the mountain, hollowed out by mist, still bears
the traces of rain

The bells of memory resound into a river of stars
I pray to time: carry me across
Carry me to the edge of dreams
To the far place where you are