Nuwa Dance Drama - It’s finished!
Well folks, barring any additional revisions to the story or choreography, my involvement with the Beijing Dance Drama and Opera’s production of Nuwa ought to be considered complete and over. Still no news on the premiere date, but it should be soon.
Some thoughts and notes on the new pieces I got to compose during the last round of story revisions:
The Gods Duel
I definitely had a blast working on this one, what with taiko-ing away to my heart’s satisfaction and writing some soloistic (and pretty difficult!) parts for the pipa and dizi. Whoever knew the pipa could be played so…violently. By virtue of essentially being a duet, I had an opportunity to play with how the dizi and pipa could interact melodically, using variations on Nuwa’s main theme.
Forbidden Love II
Other than the theme song, Knowing You, this piece contains the clearest presentation of Nuwa’s theme. It’s a duet between violin and cello on top of a minimal accompaniment (does a drone even count for accompaniment?), and as such, I had a challenging but worthwhile time working out interweaving lines that weren’t going to have the help of much harmonic support. Probably the most practical use of counterpoint I’ve yet had to deal with. If you make it to the end, you’ll be treated to a pretty neat statement of Fuxi’s theme.
Snowfall Tragedies
This big variation of Nuwa’s theme was, without a doubt, the most harmonically challenging of all the music I’ve written for the ballet. I got to write a very delicate and contemporary string accompaniment to the voice solo at the beginning - I’m so proud of the harmonies here, I definitely intend to expand on this type of sound in the future. In the second part of the piece, I tried to write a downward cascade of accompanying chords to represent the snowfall, and while I eventually got them to all work, it took a really long time. This is why I should have paid more attention in theory class.
Knock on Stone
New age ambient drones and nature-y sound effects aren’t really my style, but it was a very scene specific request. This piece also uses variations on Nuwa’s theme once the strings come in. I enjoyed playing with the rhythms in this piece and, again, exploring a more colorful harmonic palette - the piece almost sounds classical at points because of the more complex harmonies that have fallen out of favor in most film music today.
The Memorial
It’s a march, but instead of just snare drums, why not add a full army of taikos behind them? This march is a variation of Fuxi’s theme (Nuwa’s counterpart and lover) and a prime example of why french horns are so damn epic. An interesting note about the first statement of his theme: the first half of the full theme serves as the main melody, while the second half is performed simultaneously as the counter melody.
Crazy Woman Dance
I think the name says it all. It’s a short taiko heavy pipa-centric variation of Nuwa’s theme. A rather like the rhythms I wrote for the pipa in this one, and I think this piece also contains my best taiko writing and layering. Too bad it’s just one minute long.
Fuxi Main Theme
Another self-explanatory title. On the one hand, I feel like this is a pretty routine piece - I was burning out at the end of the month-long writing process and mustering everything I had to deliver this piece. On the other hand, listening back months later, I’m pretty impressed with some of the counterpoint I managed to fit in despite not feeling terribly inspired.
Phoenix Rising
It’s just a short transition piece, but I like the way the cellos are featured as well as the huge sound we got out of the orchestra.
Creation
I’m not sure why it came out sounding like an Irish jig, but it did. I’m pretty pleased with how the variation of Nuwa’s theme here turned out, and I wish the piece were longer, but alas, all the director needed was one minute.
