Isaac Tang – Poet, Author, Composer

For more information and the inspiration behind this opus, check here

1. Nocturne in D-flat major “Moonlight”

‘Moonlight’ is a piece for solo piano that celebrates both the Mid-Autumn Festival and the calm, transcendent powers of the moon’s beauty. It is inspired by the famous Tang dynasty poem, ‘Gazing at the Moon, Longing from Afar’ composed by Zhang Jiuling, and fuses both Eastern and Western musical influences, in particular Chopin, Liszt and Debussy’s ‘Clair de Lune’.

Incorporating a Chinese children’s song <<月亮婆婆出来了>> (Grandmother Moon has Emerged) floating above a flowing bassline, the opening segment depicts a poet who, in a pavilion far from his home, gazes at the moon by the weeping willows and lapping waters of a lake, recalling tender days of childhood innocence and memories of loved ones. Dark, swirling clouds threaten to veil the moon, but the moon emerges in victorious radiance. As the poet struggles with troubled memories, villagers in a distance send off firecrackers that fall like a shower of stars. The sounds of revellers recede and are soon forgotten, as the poet continues his reverie beneath the moon’s glowing orb.

2. The Floating World

‘Ukiyo-e’ (pictures of the floating world) draws its name and inspiration from the famous Japanese woodblock prints, particularly the landscape prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige. This short piece for piano aims to recreate the contemplative atmosphere in these delicate depictions of the natural world and provide a space to reflect on the transience of earthly things. I have attempted to achieve this mainly through the use of a simple motif that repeatedly ‘floats’ in high tessitura. The piece also showcases influences from Joe Hisaishi and the In pentatonic scale used in traditional Japanese music, most notably the folk song ‘Sakura’.

3. Caprice in G-flat major

‘Fish Pond’ aims to evoke both boisterousness and tranquility, as the piece imagines a boy in the Qing dynasty feeding his carp fish which thrash and swim excitedly in the small pond of his family courtyard. As he feeds the fish, he daydreams that he is rowing a boat across a sparkling lake blooming with lotus flowers. His idle thoughts bring him as far as the great Yellow River, where he sees the fabled carp swimming persistently up a cascading waterfall, striving to be transformed into a mighty dragon.

4. Spring Song

This short piece for piano showcases Chinese musical influences, aesthetics and philosophy. It is subdued and reflective, an ode to the gentle awakening of Nature at the start of Spring. The program behind this song without words is as follows:

A millennium ago, in the Song dynasty, a scholar returns to his home village on a solitary path. Drawn by the sound of a flowing stream, he enters a bamboo forest where bright shafts of sunlight pierce through the foliage and birds perch, calling to each other on the bamboo tops. Where winter snow once hung, now white flowers unfurl their petals on leafless branches. Breathing in the fresh air and seeing the delicate beauty of this hidden grove, the scholar delights in a rare glimpse of earth and heaven in harmony.