Shattered Wind for solo cello (2013)

The wind has been a favorite subject in many Chinese poems and literature for centuries. Ancient poets and writers like to describe such phenomenon metaphorically as a power that brings and takes away things, or as decoration and accompaniment to the human emotion. In fact, the wind is mere physical movement of air particles, just like sound, except that sound is more subtle, and when there is a pattern, it creates pitches and excites a different part of our body, namely our ear. In this piece, I attempt to take on the role of the wind and describe such phenomenon in the spirits of the ancient Chinese poets and writers, with music.

Shattered Wind is written for and commissioned by cellist Alvin Wong. The core pitch materials in this piece are sets of pentatonic scales. These pentatonic pitch collections are either used simultaneously or in rapid succession. The melody is often presented in fragments and is disguised by such collages and sequences of pitch collections.

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