Pushing away the pillow, I get up to dress,
Feet lazy, Lifeless I sit by the window.
Stars and Lady Chang'e of the moon, I ask you time and again the date of his return:
No reply; I sadly wave my sleeves in self-pity.
I blame him for wasting my youthful time,
I blame him for carelessly letting go of my youthful life.
In 2010, I had the good fortune of studying Nanguan, a traditional Taiwanese music, under the auspices of a Fulbright grant. A Plea to Lady Chang'e was the first piece I studied. Although it is only three minutes long, it took me more three months to learn.
After a year's study of Nanguan, I had two different extreme emotions: On one hand, I am eager to adapt what I learned in my composition. On the hand, however, there is a sense of fear that, with my only-scatch-the-surface knowledge, my composition could fail to express the essence of the elegant Nanguan music. It was this hesitation that lead me to delay, for two and half years, until this summer, my attempt at A Plea to Lady Chang'e. Because of the differences in notation systems and performing practices, the most challenge task for this piece is composing music which allows the two contrasting musical worlds to express themselves freely, intuitively, and collaboratively.
A Plea to Lady Chang’e ’s original version was for String Quartet and Nanguan Pipa, and was commissioned (Spring Autumn Music, Taiwan) and premiered by Shih, Yun-Xian and the Arts String Quartet on November 10th, 2013, the orchestra version was premiered by Wei, Mei-Hui and the chamber orchestra of the Taipei National University of the Arts on May 23rd, 2014.
