'Music About China': World composers meet Chinese culture

The annual “Music About China” concert by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra returns this month, featuring three works by Chinese and Western composers.

Founded in 1977, the HKCO explores new frontiers in music through commissioning over 2,400 original compositions. Since 2007, the leading ensemble has collaborated with the Hong Kong Arts Festival to premiere new pieces and promote Chinese culture at the “Music About China” concerts. Marcel Wengler, one of the composers for this year’s “Music About China,” presents his impressions of China with “Chinese Rhapsody,” due to be world-premiered on February 28.

“I will show how I see China today,” he said. “My music is a description of China.”

When the Luxembourg composer first visited China in 1982, he was struck by its city life. From Chinese opera performances by Beijing ensembles to morning martial arts in Shanghai parks, Wengler discovered a world of sounds and voices that he never encountered before.

Wengler’s travels to China inspired his compositions. He finds himself interpreting what he sees and hears in scores, blending music with experience. Meanwhile, “Chinese Rhapsody” showcases various Chinese instruments through his “European eyes,” as Wengler describes it.

The piece also includes a snippet of Shanghai culture. “I have one minute in the piece where I describe Tai Chi movements. The music is very slow,” he said. “This is one part of China.”

Out of the 25 cities he traveled to in China, one place left a lasting memory – Chengdu, Sichuan. Wengler recalls his debut performance in China with Luxembourg Sinofetta – which he founded in 1999 – at Chengdu. “I was very impressed by Chengdu,” he said. “There were so many young people listening to our music.”

Unlike his other symphonic orchestral pieces, “Chinese Rhapsody” stands out from his library of compositions. Wengler spent over five years composing the piece, incorporating only Chinese instruments into its melody – including the ancient sheng, the traditional suona, and the pipa. But there is one instrument that he wants to highlight in the upcoming performance – the erhu. “Plucked-string instruments are not in European symphonic orchestras,” he said, noting the erhu evokes a softer sound than the violin, making the composition style distinctively Chinese.

For Wengler, this piece is unlike those from past concerts for the Shanghai New Music Week and the Wuhan International Music Festival, as he was given a space to work with diverse Chinese instruments and share his original compositions.

Wengler acknowledges the friendship forged between China and Luxembourg through music. Chinese musicians understand classical music more than Europeans, he said. Yet there is much to appreciate in Chinese culture, adding “one should not deny one's own cultural background.”

Meanwhile, other “Music About China” titles include Chinese composer Li Bochan’s “Three Pieces of Kunqu Opera” and HKCO artistic director Yan Huichang’s “Rhapsody of String Puppets” inspired by the string puppet opera xianqiang of Heyang County.