Baritone

Piccolo/flute

Flute/alto flute

Clarinet

Bass clarinet

Cor anglais

Trumpet (off stage)

2 trombones (off stage)

Percussion (2 players)

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Pangu is the creator of all in Chinese mythology. It represents everything we have on the Earth. A man called Xu Zheng wrote the story during the Three Kingdoms period.

 

The piece is composed accordingly to my own understanding towards the story and interrupted it into music. Pangu is the greatest among all living being, certain numbers are historically associated with emperor and symbolizes harmony, such as 8. The piece requires off stage brass players and it is designed that the brass sound merges with the rest of the instruments and symbolize they are from the universe, not visually recognizable but they are everywhere around us. It is an idea of unity.

 

In this piece, I used only a partial of the story, the part mainly focus on the creating of the universe.

「天地混沌如雞子，盤古生其中。萬八千歲，天地開闢，陽清為天，陰濁為地。」

 

Translation:

Chinese legend says Pangu created the world by separating the heaven and the earth from chaos. In the beginning, the universe was like an egg and there was only chaos in the egg. Pangu had slept in the egg for over 18,000 years. Then one day, he woke up and cracked the egg into pieces. By separating the heavy and light parts of the egg, he created the heaven and the earth.