Theory Seminar feat. Li-Ying Wu
Li-Ying Wu is a trained classical musician and composer from Taiwan. After she discovered the music of e.g. Per Nørgård, Ib Nørholm and others, she chose to study further in Denmark. First classical composition at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, later electronic composition at RAMA.
At this open seminar, she will delve deeper into one of her works, which was commissioned and premiered by the DR Symphony Orchestra. The seminar takes place in English, and everyone is welcome!
About the seminar:
Li-Ying Wu tells:
For the seminar, I would like to delve deeper into one of my works, which was commissioned and premiered by the DR Symphony Orchestra. The seminar will be in English, and everybody is welcome.
“Flamboyer” is a double concerto that I have been working on for two years. The piece premiered in 2023 by the DR Symphony Orchestra and lasts for approximately half an hour. Externally, it follows the traditional form of a classical instrumental concerto with three movements – fast, slow, fast. However, it was performed without pauses and included a cadenza for the two soloists placed between the second and third movements.
In the music, I merge traditions from both Western and Asian music. The orchestra consists of a Western symphony orchestra, while the soloists exclusively play Chinese instruments: gongs, Chinese drums of various sizes and shapes, small cymbals, woodblocks, and Tibetan singing bowls. Each soloist has an identical set of Chinese table drums, traditionally used by the conductor in Chinese opera. This element appears partially in the work, where the soloists both improvise and perform choreographic movements as part of the overall performance.
Dynamically, the piece spans widely – from powerful outbursts to almost inaudible sounds when the soloists gently stroke the drum skins with their palms. The large cadenza is to be freely improvised by the two soloists alone. I have only indicated an approximate duration and expect the improvisation to be based on the melodic framework I established just before.
All of this unfolds under the title “Flamboyer,” the French word for “setting fire to.” The music moves through various stages of fire – from a quiet glow with flying sparks to roaring flames. This “fire” is created through a highly varied use of timbres, achieved through shifts between percussion instruments with different tonal registers. Additionally, the two percussion soloists are accompanied by the French electronic instrument ondes Martenot, invented in the 1920s. In this way, I connect my work with the French pieces also performed that evening.