Avant-pop Suite- Eason Chan Opus (2013)
for TTBB quartet
“Avant-pop Suite” is a set of three pieces that blend popular Canton music tunes with 20th century contemporary music composition techniques. This is an experiment to find out (if there is) the mid-point
between popular Canton music and contemporary avant-garde music.
A contemporary vocal ensemble will be a perfect instrumentation of this piece for two reasons: (1) voice is an instrument with the most flexibility and timbre, this will provide the most possibilities for the work; (2) voices blend flawlessly and effectively even with complicated harmonies.
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Inspirations .
Since 20th century, tonality has reached a crisis or break down point. As composers are looking for ultimate creativity in their works, 20th century avant-garde music are sometimes described as abstract, harsh, inaccessible, unfriendly, hard to follow, even boring. Due to this complexity of the highly organized system, modern music requires audience’s sensitivity to much smaller details and layout of the work. Modern music seems moving further and further away from its audience.
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I. In 700 years (七百年後) X Set Class Theory
II. Snow in June (å…月飛霜) X Minimalism
Performance history
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25 June and 27 July 2013
Yat Po Singers - A Cappella Composers’ Workshop 2013
performed by Yat Po Singers
University of Hong Kong (HK)
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(Choral edition of Snow in June)
19 March 2016
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Students' Union Choir 21st Annual Performance - Breakthrough
Tsuen Wan Town Hall (Hong Kong)