| In the wake of
recent tragic natural disasters, particularly that of the Sichuan
earthquake and the cyclone that hit Myanmar, it is perhaps fitting
to remember the victims of the misfortune in the way that composers
have done over the past generations.
While the currency of the recent events will take some time to
find its way into music, one of the works of Malaysia's young
composers has already embraced the tragedy in his work. 25-year old
Tan Zi Hua dedicates his piece Images of Wind II for flute and
piano, composed for the HSBC Young Composers Workshop 2008 in July
2008, "to the victims, as well as their family and friends, of the
catastrophes in Myanmar and China; may they find peace."
Looking at recent South East Asian compositions, two recent human
tragedies stand out in the sound memorials of our composers. The
Boxing Day tsunami no doubt touched the hearts of the Thais and
Indonesians directly, while as a country indirectly implicated in
the aftermath the senseless 9-11 bombings surely have a special
resonance.
In commemoration to the many victims of Sichuan and Myanmar, it
is perhaps therefore fitting that we put together a musical threnody
from our region's best composers. You can listen to the programme on
Malaysian Art Radio this month.
Narong Prangcharoen: Sattha for strings,
piano and percussion
 Thai composer Prangcharoen will be releasing a
CD of his music very soon. In his cycle of orchestral works
Sattha stands out not only for its power and imagination, but
also for it's heartbreaking solos which draw closely from Thai
traditional elements. Prangcharoen writes in his score preface in
2005:
"Sattha was inspired by the tragic tsunami of December
2004 in South Asia, which killed some 200 000 people in thirteen
countries. I wrote this music to commemorate the first anniversary
of that event. This tsunami, generated by an undersea earthquake,
was one of the deadliest disasters of our time. Scientists reported
that the earthquake itself lasted nearly ten minutes, when before,
even the worst earthquakes had lasted no longer than a few seconds.
This event caused the entire planet to vibrate, triggering
earthquakes in Alaska and causing damage as far away as the east
coast of Africa. Between 170 000 to 250 000 people are thought to
have diead as a result of the tsunami, but the count is still not
complete.
Sattha - "fate" in Thai - is scored for strings, piano and
percussion, and ensemble that is intended to convey the atmosphere
of this event with a smaller number of instruments than a full
orchestra, while paying respect to such other musical elegies as the
Adagion for Strings by Barber and the Threnody to the Victims of
Hiroshima by Penderecki. The music imitates the movement of the
waves and the vibratins caused by the earthquake. Each solo
instrument represents both the peicentre, the point on the earth's
surface directly above the place where an earthquake originates, and
the hypocentre, the actual location of the energy released inside
the earth. The entire piece moves slowly and creates an enormous
wave of sond towards the end.
I hope this piece reminds people about what happened in the
tsunami disaster and encourages all the victims who are struggling
to recover."
Tony Prabowo: Psalms
 Indonesia composer Tony Prabowo was in Indonesia working on
his Trio for Voice, Viola, and Piano when the tsunami struck.
He decided to dedicate a piece to the victims of the tragedy as part
of his promise to deliver a new work for the New Juilliard Ensemble,
the ensemble of the famous New York institution for whom he had
previously composed the orchestral piece Autumnal Steps
(1996) and his opera The King's Witch (2002).
Writes Joel Sachs, conductor of the New Juilliard Ensemble in his
article in the Julliard's online journal, "Neither
of us reckoned with the disruption of the tsunami. I finally got a
partial score in late January, and learned that Tony (unknown to me)
had decided to make it a Piano Concerto. I had to locate a pianist
willing to learn an incomplete piece! Fortunately, three N.J.E.
pianists were excited by the idea. Tony then announced that he would
shortly send a complete score with Juilliard alumna Stephanie
Griffin, who was returning from performing in Jakarta. When she
arrived, she had the package—but had been given the wrong one! After
another week, the real score arrived. Lacking time for the usual
audition process, I selected Nicholas Ong as soloist, because it
will be his final year as a resident student and his last chance to
appear with the New Juilliard Ensemble. (My apologies to the other
two.) The piece, Psalms, is dedicated to the victims of the
Indonesian tragedy, and loos well worth the tension of the
cliffhanger."
Psalms received its world premiere in New York on 8 April
2005 at the Alice Tully Hall with Malaysian pianist Nicholas Ong as
the soloist.
Chong Kee Yong: The Lost Psalm of the
Abyss
As a tribute to the victims of the horrific 9-11 bombings Chong
composed a challenging piece for solo flute titled The Lost Psalm
of the Abyss. Dedicated to the remarkable Belgian flutist Toon
Fret, who is part of the group Het Collectief who has collaborated
with Chong on numerous occasions, the piece tests a flutist's
technical skills to the limit, while at the same time weaving the
composer's unique brand of poetry that he has fashioned for himself
by using the most contemporary extended techniques and an equally
personal approach to modern composition.
 Chong's tribute finally resounded in
the city of its dedication when the composer was invited by the
Asian Cultural Council for a six month artistic residency in New
York in 2006. In that year the city of New York heard his memorial
piece first at a concert celebrating Chinary Ung's 65th birthday
called "Four Generations Of Asian Composers", and again in an
adaptation for alto saxophone, at a concert "Musical Offering from
Southeast Asia" at an Argento New Music Ensemble concert.
For the latter performance, the New York Times reviewer wrote,
"Mr. Chong's "Lost Psalm of the Abyss," a Sept. 11 tribute that Mr.
Mannigan adapted for solo alto saxophone from the flute original,
featured soulful, jazzy riffs and incorporated breathy vocalizing
and whispered fragments from the 23rd Psalm."
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