Mist

for guzheng and 3 percussionists
(2016)

A recording of "Mist", played by Jiuan-Reng Yeh (葉娟礽) and Succession Percussion, is on YouTube.

This piece was written for the Succession Percussion ensemble and guzheng soloist Jiuan-Reng Yeh. Before composing it, I wrote a simple poem to help me clarify the atmosphere, or mood I wanted to portray. It is a still and quiet place with the sort of heavy fog, or even clouds that one might experience while in a mountainside forest. In the music, marimbas play quiet, fast and blurry note patterns to evoke the image of fog, while crisp and short notes played by marimbas and vibraphone represent water drops falling from the air and dripping from tree leaves down to the ground. Guzheng melodies are then played in and around these textures and images as if they represent a person witnessing this precious natural space.

instrumentation:

guzheng (with special tuning)
vibraphone
marimba 1
marimba 2

(duration ca. 8 min.)