Boundless Groove: A Sonic Journey in Nature
Jockey Club New Arts Power JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power, launched in 2017, is an annual Arts Festival presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council with the funding support from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. The Festival brings together established and emerging local artists to produce creative, approachable and engaging arts experiences for all.
In the past four editions, 43 arts groups have participated in the Festival. Together they produced 90 live performances and a remarkable number of major exhibitions. Uniting art groups and various organisations from the social welfare, academic and commercial sectors, the festival held over 550 community and school events, reaching some 460,000 participants. JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power 2021 / 2022 has been launched in September 2021, featuring a total of 6 selected programmes that include dance, theatre, music, as well as presenting more than 100 community and school activities.
Table of Content About Wuji Ensemble ........................................................................................................ 2 Boundless Groove: A Sonic Journey in Nature ................................................................. 4 “ALL EARS, NO BOUNDS” Improv Workshop & Concert .................................................. 5 Western Classical Music vs. Traditional Chinese Music ................................................... 8 On Improvisation .............................................................................................................. 10 Improvisation in Jazz, Improvisation of Wuji Ensemble ................................................. 12 Deriving Music from Lyrics .............................................................................................. 14 (Note: The English version is translated from the Chinese version. In case of discrepancies between the two versions, the Chinese version shall prevail.)
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About Wuji Ensemble “Innovation” and “a strong stylistic identity” are the credo of Wuji Ensemble. Since its establishment in 2003, the group has pursued its commitment to creating a performing platform for local musicians, cultivating cultural insights and artistic endeavours. It regularly commissions new works, as well as rearrangements of Chinese and Western classical music, putting together innovative, cross-disciplinary and multimedia theatrical productions. The Ensemble is now a fully-fledged professional group. It aims to continue paving new paths for creative expression using tradition as the axis and drawing inspiration from both East and West, with myriad possibilities for interpretation and technology. Wuji Ensemble has presented many large-scale multimedia performances and activities, with productions such as When Petals Fall in Serenity, Beyond the Senses, Sands and Beyond, Śūnyatā and Tranquil as a Chrysanthemum. It has released two CDs, The Impression of Wuji Ensemble and Ruan’s Touch of Fancy. In 2012, its “Images of Dunhuang” project presented themed concerts, lectures, cultural workshops, and masterclasses. The Ensemble has also established Taiwan, Beijing and Shanghai subgroups to further its musical exchanges and reach out to wider audience. In 2019, Wuji Ensemble presented Boundless Groove, its first foray into jazz, using a fusion of Chinese and Western instruments and styles. The production was staged again at the inaugural Freespace Jazz Fest in the same year. Its latest project, Boundless Groove—Recurrence was streamed online in January 2021.
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Law Wing-fai Artistic Director / Composer
A veteran composer in Hong Kong, Law Wing-fai is one of the few who engages himself in interdisciplinary fields. Previously the Composer-in-Residence at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Law is currently the Artistic Director of Wuji Ensemble. After graduating from the University of California and returning to Hong Kong, Law has been ceaselessly scoring for dance performances, theatre plays, advertisements, and more than 30 feature films. Law was the founding Head of Composition of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and has held the position for many years. In 1995, he was invited again as Visiting Scholar by Stanford University, where he gave lectures and composed music. On returning to Hong Kong, he released a number of pieces featuring a brand new fashion of Chinese-Western mixed instrumentation. In 2003, he founded the distinctively stylish Wuji Ensemble. Wong Chi-ching Music Director / Pipa
Wong Chi-ching joined the China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra and afterwards the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, serving as the head of plucked string section and lead pipa player. For years, she has collaborated, as a pipa soloist, with a variety of noted ensembles over the world for live gigs and personal music records. For instances, Wong conducted a monthly concert of soulful music series at the Companion Theatre in Beijing in a drive to launch Chinese music culture into the direction of atmospheric musical theatre. In Hong Kong, she has held a multitude of solo recitals. Working with various media for interdisciplinary productions, Wong managed to perform more than 10 pieces of modern pipa solo. In 2003, Wong established the Wuji Ensemble and currently serves as its Music Director.
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Boundless Groove: A Sonic Journey in Nature A combination of contemporary jazz and Chinese music in this innovative concert inspired by the majesty of nature.
The acclaimed Wuji Ensemble is once again inviting audiences to an innovative sonic odyssey, complete with set, lighting and video projection design. Combining Chinese and western instruments, the concert takes its inspiration from nature, creating an undulating soundscape that unscrolls like a Chinese landscape painting before one’s eyes. Just as steep mountains and rocky peaks are formidable in their own right and yet connected at their base, so too are the two genres of music as they contrast and complement each other throughout the performance. Setting the tone for the concert with a mesmerizing introduction, the concert eventually begins with a new piece by Lui Ngao-yuen, jazz musician, composer and band leader of this performance, followed by two commissioned pieces respectively by composer Cynthia Wong, renowned for her perfect fusion of western and eastern music, and Wuji artistic director Law Wing-fai, who pushes the performance to a thrilling climax, bringing the concert to a rhapsodic close.
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“ALL EARS, NO BOUNDS” Improv Workshop & Concert Wuji Ensemble cherishes the belief that music is an art form imbued with vitality. Music originates from “pouring from the heart and expressing naturally”. As the medium of communication, sheet music should be opened for modification. From time to time, improvisation cropping up during a performance are conducive to unexpected effects of music. Apart from live gigs, Wuji Ensemble proactively arranged school workshops. Instructed by Mavis Lam - leader of Wuji Ensemble - and jazz musician Lui Ngao-yuen, students could have a taste of improvisation techniques both in jazz and Chinese music. Eschewing the conventionally fastidious approach of reciting the score, students are allowed to enunciate their inner thoughts and feelings through their improvised notes that are free and volatile. Mavis Lam and Nui Ngao-yuen used to be secondary school schoolmates of the same grade. While one of them was a liberal arts student practising Chinese music, the other pursued science and jazz. Despite such sheer dissimilarities, the two managed to develop chemistry immediately upon conversing about the collective memory of their middle school life.
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Mavis Lam Pipa
Lui Ngao-yuen Double Bass
Joining and founding Wuji Ensemble in 2003, Lam currently takes the role of Music Manager. Graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Lam specialises in pipa and yuan. Collaborating with choreographers, theatre directors, and various art groups, Lam has performed in live shows and improvised at shows. Lam’s recent performances include Finland’s Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival 2016, Hong Kong Dance Company’s Reveries of The Red Chamber and Vipassana, Jiangsu Province Performing Arts Company Opera and Dance Theatre’s Xiangjun-Dream, Wuji Ensemble’s Boundless Groove, and the multi-media music theatre performance To Someone Alike. Apart from performing, Lam is a music educator as well as frequent pipa recording artist for TV. Recently, she is active in music meditation activities, hoping to use music from the heart to help audiences find their inner peace.
Lui studied Jazz Performance and Composition at the Leeds College of Music under the tutelage of Stuart Riley in double bass, Graham Hearn in composition, and Didrik Ingvaldsen in improvisation and composition. Apart from participating in multiple jazz festivals, Lui collaborated with motely musicians, artists, and art organizations including Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Bach Choirs, Chung Ying Theatre Company, Wuji Ensemble, Theatre Fanatico, and Bel Canto Singers. Lui was the producer of Music Fairground in 2013 and 2016 and curator of a throng of musical projects. In 2019, Lui established the Hong Kong Youth Jazz Collective, proactively promoting the education of jazz music. He produced and composed music for the multi-media theatre work To Someone Alike in 2020. He currently teaches in Hong Kong Design Institute as a part-time lecturer in popular and jazz music.
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Unique Trust and Chemistry
Lam’s and Lui’s involvement in the experimental theatre production - O You Heavenly Creatures! - paved the path for their reunion years later. Out of surprise, the two realised the uniqueness of their partnership in music. The 3-hour-long concert was played solely by the duo, who conducted not only every music piece but also the acting section. Without music intonation, they improvised everything: sound, interaction, and the means of performance. Chemistry has been cultivated between them since then. A Joy Shared is a Joy Doubled
Having a companion, performers could support and complement each other; they no longer walk in solitude. Through communicating, they create music with enriched layers. On the contrast between presenting a solo and a tutti, Lam and Lui compared it figuratively to a football game. “The difference is like training by yourself and playing with a team. With peers, you could remind each other and practise assorted formations. When we are improvising an ensemble piece, we bring up ideas, taking references, and imitating each other. Performing as a group also feels less anxious.”
“I treat the audience as my friends. To perform means to share with them my music and thoughts. That’s what genuine communication is about.” – Mavis Lam “Our collaboration does not involve any form of comparison. Instead, we allow disparate qualities of music to merge together.” – Lui Ngao-yuen
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Western Classical Music vs. Traditional Chinese Music Cultures and traditions from the East and the West in ancient and modern times have influenced how individual form of music is being interpreted. The logic behind rendering each music genre also demonstrates stark disparity.
Western Classical Music Traditional Chinese Music
A music performance is dominated by the conductor. The sheet music contains detailed instructions covering the skill, rhythm, and timbre of every instrument.
Instead of being led by the conductor, the ensemble is guided and harmonised by the main instrument. The musician takes the duo role of performer and composer, allowing vast space for Each instrument plays its own tune. In spontaneous music expression. the case of a symphony orchestra, the main melody can be executed by The same sheet music is shared among instruments of miscellaneous parts and players of different instruments. Recited categories, depending on the in a rather vague manner, it merely composition. There are diversified serves as a means of recording. formats and structures of ensemble that Musicians are not required to follow consists of other kinds of instruments. every single note meticulously. Beethoven Symphony No. 9 – “Atmospheric Music Theatre” by Law Movement 4 Wing-fai and Śūnyatā – Part 3 (Performed by Wuji Ensemble)
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On Chinese Music Si Zhu Music (Silk and Bamboo Music) Chinese music instruments can be broadly classified as two categories: Si (silk) and Zhu (bamboo). Si Zhu therefore serves as a generic term for Chinese music instruments. Si (silk): In ancient times, it referred to stringed instruments including qin and se. In modern days, it covers such stringed and plucked instruments as huqin, pipa and guzheng.
Zhu (bamboo): In those days, Zhu mainly referred to instruments made with bamboo: xiao, sheng and yu, etc. But it also includes the contemporary dizi.
Si Zhu Music: It roughly refers to an orchestra comprising stringed instruments - pipa, yangqin, guzheng and huqin, etc. - as well as woodwind ones such as dizi, xiao, and sheng. Si Zhu can be further divided into two major schools: Cantonese and Jiannan (South of Yangtze River). Cantonese Music: This is a style of instrumental music originates from Pearl River Delta of Guangdong Province. In 1920’s, prevalent instruments included erxian, tiqin, yueqin, sanxian, and hengzi (transverse flute). Such arrangement is commonly known as “the fiveinstrument ensemble.”
Jiangnan Si Zhu: Jiangnan Si Zhu prevailed among Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Zhejiang. Popular instruments include erhu, pipa, yangqin, sanxian, zhonghu, qinqin, xiao, dizi and sheng. Wooden clapper and small drum are also employed for percussions.
“In the orchestra that combines the five-instrument ensemble of Cantonese Music and Jiangnan Sizhu, each instrument alternates from the leading and supporting role from time to time, clapping the beat and enhancing the beauty for each other.”
Law Wing-fai
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hengdi
sanxian
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On Improvisation What is Improvisation?
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To vocalize one’s feelings at the moment without restrain. Without any prepared assumption, convey one’s deep-down feelings through instruments. Devoid of any fixed form of expression. The audience can feel the tension of live performance and the disposition of musicians. Every “improvisation” is unique. It inspires unexpected music elements and uncovers the inner potential of musicians.
The Spirit of “Improvisation”
The myth that improvisation can only be attained by elites is commonly held by learners of music instruments. However, such idea is opposed by Wuji Ensemble, who go further to encourage all players - experts and beginners of every single kind of instrument – to experience the spectacular glee of improvisation.
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Playing from their heart and having a blast, students managed to improve their techniques as well. However, if you pursue skills as the ultimate goal, your enthusiasm in music will easily halt. The primal point of music is to articulate the experience of present moment naturally. It is flexible and subject to change at any instant. Law Wing-fai Improvisation can help students nurture their trust towards their partners and instruments. Children show an intrinsic fondness and intuitive response towards rattling off the music. Such joy of jamming, however, is completely gone when an intervention or an order for norm is imposed by adults. Mavis Lam The majority of sheet music I’ve come across are packed with indications or marks written by teachers or conductors. But teachers rarely lay stress on what students think. They never ask them, “How should the piece be played in our opinion?” It is as though there was only one “correct” way. Improvisation, on the other hand, allows the pleasure of free and unfettered jamming. Lui Ngao-yuen
Exercise Introduction to Improvisation Improvisation brings forth an authentic connection between the instrument we are holding and us. Moreover, it lays bare diverse emotions and characters of our instruments. Now, pick up your instrument and try to manifest the following emotions with such performing elements as pitches, beats, and strengths.
1. Anger
2. Tiredness
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3. Excitement and elation
While you are enjoying your improvisation, remember to consolidate your fundamental techniques – the beat, intonation, skill of performing, music theory or whatsoever. Mastering them enrich the freedom and layer of your performances. Tips Notice the contrast regarding the volume and timbre. Afterwards, you may gradually explore the form of expression that suits you.
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Improvisation in Jazz, Improvisation of Wuji Ensemble Improvisation in Jazz
Improvisation in Jazz complies with the music principle and structure to a certain extent. The groove is initiated from the variation of three elements – rhythm, harmony, and form. Jazz improvisation also combines the theory of blues and its complicated harmony. Musicians are required to have a certain degree of knowledge and techniques including scales and chords as well as profound familiarity of music structures. Only with these resources can the musician bring in exclusive elements of his/her own from the existing ground. In most circumstances, a jazz improvisation commences from a particular main tune when the lead player begins improvising. For instances, during a Jazz Quartet, as the main melody comes out from the trumpet, other musicians will react instantaneously with imitation and variation. Improvisation of Wuji Ensemble
Sheet music never appears on the stage of Wuji Ensemble. Abandoning their routines, musicians reject the restriction and norm of intonation. They return to the primal point of music during live concerts. Playing from their heart and soul, they have their dexterity enhanced and their sense of hearing sharpened.
On Chinese Music Embellishment and Improvisation Ornament or embellishment is an emblematic element in Chinese music improvisation; musicians could deploy it whenever they feel inclined to. Rhythms in Chinese music are governed by fewer norms. Ordinarily, only beats – strong and weak ones – are being indicated. The musician can also determine the length of interval between each beat. Each musician utilises the embellishment in his or her own fashion. Consequently, an eclectic mix of these moves gives off an exclusive vibe when a single tune is being performed by a group of players. Cantonese Music: Butterflies among the Flowers Performing Unit: Yu Qiwei Cantonese Music Ensemble
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Exercise Let’s Begin from the Motif to Perceive Different Timbres
Selected from one of the works by Wuji Ensemble, the following line consists of four notes: A–E–A–G#. Listen to its presentation by various instruments with modified rhythms and tones. Try to distinguish each individual timbre produced by the variation of these four notes. Key: A minor
1. Play the above tune with multifarious instruments e.g. piano, clarinet, timpani, double bass, and trumpet. 2. The tune is originally written in minor. Try to rearrange it to D major or E minor. 3. The tune has a 4/4 beat. Try to rearrange it with other beat patterns.
Now pick up your own instrument. Follow your heart and extend the tune randomly. Create a variation of your very own. Examples of variation and tone sandhi
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Deriving Music from Lyrics “Deriving music from lyrics” is a way how musicians from Wuji Ensemble improvise on the artistic mood of poetry. Flowing Sleeves on the Painted Wall – an improvisation of pipa, guzheng, percussion, and dance – takes inspiration from the following lines: Sweeping the string The sound reverberates through the depth of sound and space All paints falling How many traces are left over the sky? Excerpts of Flowing Sleeves on the Painted Wall
Exercise Deriving Music from Lyrics The following is a short poem Law Wing-fai, artistic director of Wuji Ensemble, wrote for our exercise. With your imagination, transform the words to images and perceive their artistic mood. Afterwards, try to improvise with music instrument their feelings and thoughts. The sunlight laughs Wind enters the string The sound of Qin is permeating Spring subtly appears Snow falling on every corner of the garden Example of improvisation
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Participating Art Group: Wuji Ensemble Publisher: Hong Kong Arts Development Council Editor: Cultural Connections Design: PAPAPER Date: September, 2021
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