Saturday, July 10, 2004
--- I ---
Finally I'm done with "Hey, Hey, Hey, Yah!"
I can still remember when I received the job from Jue Ru: late April. And now it's early July. Nearly two and a half months
The instrumentation: yangqin, liuqin, keyboard (clavinova) and violin. I can add other instruments if I like. For the sake of contrast, I put in a violin and cello. For the percussion I settled on the xylophone. I thought of the Pai-Gu, which would have been an interesting contrast, but it would be too rough for the plucked instruments to compete with for attention. A triangle and tambourine or any of those un-pitched percussion instruments wouldn't help much in a chamber piece as there is a need for constant dialogue between instruments and I don't know what the fuck it would sound like if triplets are tossed from instrument to instrument (shit, I forgot the exact term for that method of writing) and suddenly, there is a jingle of bells (pun unintended) from the tambourine, for instance. Anyway such instruments will sound out of place in the work.
It's gone through a lot of conceptions. First work, episodes based on the theme which I composed: 12356 53216 56123 21651. I.e. a pentatonic theme. And as usual written in my own quirky style which is modern and shows no sign of Chinese music.
What the fuck, it doesn't work. Fine. I'll revive "Han Tian Lei"
Boringly stupid to write. Brain dead now. I'm constantly thinking about what to write whether at training or slacking at home during book-out.
Finally, while marching back from the cookhouse one fine day, we sing the song, "Saw her at the corner of the pool last night yah" where the chorus came: "Hey, hey, hey, yah! Hey, hey, hey, hey!" et cetera.
Bloody hell, nice tune. So enrapturing. So captivating. So fucking . . . this has to be it.
So after being asked to clean the toilet because I have nothing else better to do, I embark on the piece. It's erratic. Styles change so quickly, unexpectedly and abruptly that you suddenly feel lost. It seems like I've heck care everything in the world and just write whatever that comes to my mind - albeit based on the theme of the song. I don't know if it's the yearning for freedom when I have to undergo five and a half days of discipline and regimentation, that my work is a holler to be myself and retrieve my individuality.
But at least the score's finished - second draft, I mean, I forgot to add. The first was finished like two weekends ago, then emailed out for criticisms. I've emailed the score to Jue Ru. Hope they like it. Now I can start on other pieces.
--- II ---
Dinner for tonight at the Red Star Restaurant:
Longevity buns
Shark's Fin with Crab Meat
Steamed Sea Bass in Bean Sauce
Fried Lemon Duck
Roasted spring chicken
Baby Abalone with Broccoli
Crab Meat with Bean Curd
Longevity noodles
Fruit cocktail with almond bean curd
It’s grandma's (father's side) birthday, so we're out celebrating. That's our dinner menu. Salivate at it. I was doing that when I first got hold of the menu.
The Fried Lemon Duck is the most enigmatic dish of all. First I thought it was chicken - lemon chicken is so popular. Then again it doesn't taste like chicken. Furthermore a chicken dish arrives thereafter; how can we be eating two chicken dishes? The meat is too greyish to be pork.
Then one of the adults says that it is duck.
Hmmm; I didn't realise it. The physical texture of the meat bears no resemblance to the duck which is cooked in dark gravy or roasted.
Now, the shrimps taste weird. My cousin turns to me: "Do you find anything funny with the prawns?" "Well . . . they just taste crispy . . ."
Then my uncle asks the waitress casually: "How come the prawns are tasteless?" The waitress tells us that other customers have complained before, but the chef can do nothing because these prawns are already tasteless themselves. They're something called "Glass prawns". Anyway the Sze Chuan style cooking (with lots of dried red chilli) makes up for the taste.
The noodles look rather familiar. Perhaps I had them for breakfast just a few days ago, and the cookhouse made it terrifically spicy.
¶ 7/10/2004 01:42:00 am Finally I'm done with "Hey, Hey, Hey, Yah!"
I can still remember when I received the job from Jue Ru: late April. And now it's early July. Nearly two and a half months
The instrumentation: yangqin, liuqin, keyboard (clavinova) and violin. I can add other instruments if I like. For the sake of contrast, I put in a violin and cello. For the percussion I settled on the xylophone. I thought of the Pai-Gu, which would have been an interesting contrast, but it would be too rough for the plucked instruments to compete with for attention. A triangle and tambourine or any of those un-pitched percussion instruments wouldn't help much in a chamber piece as there is a need for constant dialogue between instruments and I don't know what the fuck it would sound like if triplets are tossed from instrument to instrument (shit, I forgot the exact term for that method of writing) and suddenly, there is a jingle of bells (pun unintended) from the tambourine, for instance. Anyway such instruments will sound out of place in the work.
It's gone through a lot of conceptions. First work, episodes based on the theme which I composed: 12356 53216 56123 21651. I.e. a pentatonic theme. And as usual written in my own quirky style which is modern and shows no sign of Chinese music.
What the fuck, it doesn't work. Fine. I'll revive "Han Tian Lei"
Boringly stupid to write. Brain dead now. I'm constantly thinking about what to write whether at training or slacking at home during book-out.
Finally, while marching back from the cookhouse one fine day, we sing the song, "Saw her at the corner of the pool last night yah" where the chorus came: "Hey, hey, hey, yah! Hey, hey, hey, hey!" et cetera.
Bloody hell, nice tune. So enrapturing. So captivating. So fucking . . . this has to be it.
So after being asked to clean the toilet because I have nothing else better to do, I embark on the piece. It's erratic. Styles change so quickly, unexpectedly and abruptly that you suddenly feel lost. It seems like I've heck care everything in the world and just write whatever that comes to my mind - albeit based on the theme of the song. I don't know if it's the yearning for freedom when I have to undergo five and a half days of discipline and regimentation, that my work is a holler to be myself and retrieve my individuality.
But at least the score's finished - second draft, I mean, I forgot to add. The first was finished like two weekends ago, then emailed out for criticisms. I've emailed the score to Jue Ru. Hope they like it. Now I can start on other pieces.
--- II ---
Dinner for tonight at the Red Star Restaurant:
Longevity buns
Shark's Fin with Crab Meat
Steamed Sea Bass in Bean Sauce
Fried Lemon Duck
Roasted spring chicken
Baby Abalone with Broccoli
Crab Meat with Bean Curd
Longevity noodles
Fruit cocktail with almond bean curd
It’s grandma's (father's side) birthday, so we're out celebrating. That's our dinner menu. Salivate at it. I was doing that when I first got hold of the menu.
The Fried Lemon Duck is the most enigmatic dish of all. First I thought it was chicken - lemon chicken is so popular. Then again it doesn't taste like chicken. Furthermore a chicken dish arrives thereafter; how can we be eating two chicken dishes? The meat is too greyish to be pork.
Then one of the adults says that it is duck.
Hmmm; I didn't realise it. The physical texture of the meat bears no resemblance to the duck which is cooked in dark gravy or roasted.
Now, the shrimps taste weird. My cousin turns to me: "Do you find anything funny with the prawns?" "Well . . . they just taste crispy . . ."
Then my uncle asks the waitress casually: "How come the prawns are tasteless?" The waitress tells us that other customers have complained before, but the chef can do nothing because these prawns are already tasteless themselves. They're something called "Glass prawns". Anyway the Sze Chuan style cooking (with lots of dried red chilli) makes up for the taste.
The noodles look rather familiar. Perhaps I had them for breakfast just a few days ago, and the cookhouse made it terrifically spicy.
