Uncertain Journey to the Tai Shan

The work traces a journey suspended in the ambiguity of an imaginary voyage to Mount Tai Shan, located in Shandong province in eastern China. Considered one of the Five Great Sacred Mountains, it has, for millennia, been a place of pilgrimage, contemplation, and inner transformation, deeply connected to spiritual traditions such as Taoism, where it symbolizes the passage between the earthly and the transcendent. Through intricate textures and subtle sonic gestures, the piece proposes a narrative in which everything seems to elude precise definition, like an intangible dream whose origin and conclusion remain undefined.

Originally conceived with the inclusion of a dizi (Chinese bamboo flute), the present version replaces this instrument with the bassoon, offering a different timbral perspective while preserving the work’s expressive intent.

The soundscape that unfolds renounces the search for certainties or clearly defined destinations, instead situating itself within a realm of uncertainty and anticipatory intuition. In this way, musical contours emerge and dissipate like fleeting reflections, like resonances that suggest more than they explicitly reveal.

Uncertain Journey to the Tai Shan, awarded second place in the CHINA-CEEC Music Academies Union Chamber Composition Competition, had its premiere in Hangzhou, China. The work also received an Honorable Mention at the Andrea Ceraso Rome Award, further recognizing its distinctive musical expression.

Live performance by Cepro Music on February 28, 2026.