Mellifluous Monday! (3)

Hi everyone! Today's Mellifluous Monday! will be featuring a local piece in Singapore. Singapore, like many other countries, contains many folklore and urban legends. An example will be the Sisters' Island legend. The Sisters' Islands is located the South of the Singapore mainland. The 2 Islands are separated by a narrow channel, where are currents are so strong water activities are dangerous. Singaporean composer, 王辰威 (Wang Chen Wei) got inspiration from the legend and decided to compose a Chinese Orchestral Symphonic Poem based on the story. Titled "the Sisters' Islands".
Link: The Sisters' Islands

Composed at age 17, "The Sisters' Islands" won the "Singapore Composer Award" at the 2006 Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestra Composition and was subsequently featured on CD albums by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra and Taiwan Philharmonic Chinese Orchestra. The symphonic poem consist of mainly 4 parts,

1: Fishing Village.
A strike of the gong opens the piece, introducing the peaceful tropical scenery of Singapore. The alto guan introduces the deep and broad "sea" theme in the prelog pentatonic scale upon a backdrop wave-like ornamentations in Indonesian Gamelan style. Next, the graceful "sisters" theme enters with the bamboo flute, representing the beautiful young Malay sisters Minah and Linah in an Asli dance. The music then proceeds into a lively Malay Zapin dance portraying the festivities of the village.

2: Capture of the Bride 
Suddenly, a throng of pirates raids the village, illustrated by the menacing "pirates" theme in hexatonic scale played the by the bass Suona. The captain, awestruck by Linah's beauty, intends to abduct her as a bride. A weeping zhonghu implored the release of Linah but to no avail as she was dragged onto the ship.

3: Raging Waves
Bass instruments played a transformed "sea" theme, while woodwind glissandi octatonic scale and percussion effects depict the stormy sea. A struggling "sisters" theme emerges amidst the chaos as Minah swims after the pirates until she was overcome by exhaustion and disappears amidst the raging waves. Linah struggles to break free from her captors and jumped into the sea to join her sister represented by a liuqin solo. This tragedy incurs the wrath of the gods; thunder and lightning strike, and a giant orchestral wave engulfs the pirate ship. After a long timpani roll, calmness was restored.

4: Spirit of the Sea
The next morning, a pair of islands surrounded by corals appears where the sisters were drown. A conch calls out as a symbolism of the sea and a lament for the sisters' death. The original "sea" and "sisters" theme returns, this time more stately and passionate. At the coda, both themes are played together in counterpoint, building up to a climatic ending as the sisters have merged with the sea in their eternal transformation into the Sisters' islands.

I personally love this piece a lot as it was able to bring me through the legend. From the festivities to the invasion of the pirates, every scene was carefully depicted. Unfortunately, not many orchestras can play this piece perfectly as it is technically difficult and hard to portray the scenes. That being said, I would love to play this piece in a high standard orchestra. That's all for today's Mellifluous Monday! Do leave comments below if you do enjoy it.

Musicality: 10/10
Difficulty: 10/10