Earthly Branches won a prize in the 2013 Beijing Modern Music Festival’s “Orchestral Composition Grand Prix” (I came third), and the piece was premiered in Beijing Concert Hall by Qingdao Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Zhang Guoyong.
I added the following text to the inside page of the score for Earthly Branches. This reflects how I felt (and feel) about the direction that the human race is heading in, in the face of climate change and ecological disruption. The piece was in some way a reflection of these worries.
We, who encounter another flood,
Like those in which others went under,
Remember
When we speak of their failings
The dark time too
Which we must escape.
(after Brecht)
I also added this programme note:
地支
“地支”是中国古代年代学时间名称,我很快就被这个词汇所吸引，“地支”的深刻内涵涉及世间万物的生态循环，以及人类生命中的许多层面。在本曲中，三个基本材料之间将会有非常丰富的相互关联，材料之间也会有许多交错和重叠：弦乐将演奏一些多调性的典型装饰性音符，木管将传来梦幻微分音的音乐，铜管爆发出无调性音乐。在一系列的全奏中（在开头，字母H，R及U处），这三个材料“民主互动”中——即是说，虽然并不完全和谐，但却在一种不协调的融合中达到均衡共存。在其他时间，一个材料将会支配衍生其他材料（字母E的梦幻般的音乐，字母N的火山般的音乐，字母T的轮唱的音乐）。
在这首曲目中，我希望将我的真实生活与我对音乐的纯粹热爱协调在一起，去寻找一种音乐风格-安排在材料中可以与音乐以外的事情有关系。而现在最紧要的问题是人类文明的延续可能性-有些事情不能想当然。音乐有一种积极的精神实质-像丰饶的大自然，原子能的绽放-都在我创作时给了我巨大的印象（在我创作时我听了贝尔格第三乐队组曲op.6）积极、乐观，这必须要符合困扰的可能性都完全崩溃。闪闪发光的第三全奏体现了这一乐观的前景，但第四合奏和下面的灾难性高潮带来的解体和突然变成了黯淡空虚。“地支”是热情地献给Cornelia Bogen.
Earthly Branches
The Earthly Branches were designations of time in ancient Chinese chronology; the phrase immediately attracted me for its metaphorical connotations relating to the deep interconnectedness of the ecological cycles of the planet and the wild, chaotic co-existence of the many different realms of life. Such rich interconnectedness finds musical expression in three fundamental textures or materials which are overlaid and interleaved in different ways through the work: a polytonal and canonic tapestry belonging to the strings, an aerial music of high woodwind notes in quartertones, and a volcanic, atonal music in the brass. In a series of tuttis (the opening, letters H, R and U) the three materials exist in a “democracy of the elements”—that is to say, not a harmonious existence, but a turbulent co-existence. At other times one material comes to dominate the others (the aerial music at letter E, the volcanic music at letter N, the canonic music at letter T).
In this work I hope to have reconciled my purely musical interests with real-life concerns, to find a musical style- sets of materials and procedures- that can parallel extra-musical concerns. The issue at hand is the possible continuation of civilisation- something that cannot be taken for granted. The music has an essentially positive spirit- that of teeming nature, of atomic energies bursting forth- yet it struck me as I composed (while composing I had listened to the third of Berg’s Orchestral Pieces Op.6) that this positivity and optimism must be tempered with the haunting possibility of the total collapse of it all. The glittering third tutti embodies this optimistic outlook, but the fourth tutti and the following cataclysmic climax bring disintegration and an abrupt descent into bleak emptiness. Earthly Branches is dedicated affectionately to Cornelia Bogen.
(Thanks to Feng Chuguang for his help with the Chinese translation, which at that time was far too difficult for me.)