The Turns of Life
虞美人．聽雨, 2013for SATB Chorus, Piano and Percussions
performed by The Greeners’ Sound
The Turns of Life
JIANG Jie (1245-1301)
When I was young,
I listened to the rain in sing-song girls’ boudoirs,
The red candles on brocade canopy casting a dim light.
When I was middle-aged,
I listened to the rain in travelers’ boats:
The clouds low, the river wide,
In the west wind the stray geese cried.
Now I listened to the rain in monasteries,
My temples specked with grey.
Joy and sorrow, parting and reunion-
They do not touch me so much anymore.
Let the raindrops drip, on the doorsteps till morn.
Buddhist philosophy advocated that human mind could create perception toward the physical world without the aid from the 5 “entities”: color, sound, scent, taste and the objective circumstances. One of the examples is the story of Song Dynasty Poet Jie JIANG having different insights from listening to the rain at different points of his life. Even though “raining” is merely an objective climatic phenomenon, people endow subjective emotions to these scenes, confirming that perception is ultimately controlled by human mind.
I tried to express the moods and feelings JIANG conveyed in his song poem through my music. The piece begins with a monophonic melody in a gloomy atmosphere, later weaving melodies from different voice parts which results in a complicity and abundance in texture and timbre. The tonality turns bright at the end of the music, with the rhythm gradually slowing down into calmness, leading the music to end in tranquility. With such artistic arrangements in this music, JIANG’s full understanding to tastes of life leading to his reluctance to express his feelings is completely rendered to the audience.
《虞美人．聽雨》
蔣捷 (1245-1301)
少年聽雨歌樓上，
紅燭昏羅帳。
壯年聽雨客舟中，
江闊雲低、斷雁叫西風。
而今聽雨僧廬下，
鬢已星星也。
悲歡離合總無情，
一任階前、點滴到天明。
佛家說：「唯識無境，境由心造。」，意思是人的意識不需要透過接觸五境(色境、聲境、香境、味境、處境)，便能由衷創造一種心境。如詩人蔣捷在不同的人生階段聽雨皆有個別的感悟，即使下雨這景象是客觀的，人對這景象卻產生主觀的情感，所以「境」始終由心主宰。
受宋詞《虞美人．聽雨》影響下，我嘗試以音樂描寫蔣捷在此詞抒發的情懷。樂曲開始時以單一的旋律發展，氣氛陰沉；隨後不同聲部的旋侓亙相交疊，產生複雜的織體和音色變化。未段調性轉為明亮，節奏由密轉疏，氣氛平和，樂曲在靜謐中作結；表現詩人蔣捷在老年識盡人生滋味，總使有著萬般心緒，卻不知由何說起，倒不如欲說還休。
//[Score preview]