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Quintet
2020
Cello
Clarinet
Horn
Piano
Violin
- Program Notes
- Buddhist cosmology typically identifies six realms of rebirth and existence: Gods, Demi-Gods, Humans, Animals, Hungry Ghosts and Hells. These six different realms can be divided into two main categories: Three good paths: Heaven Realm, Demi-god Realm and Human Realm and Three evil paths: Animal Realm, Hungry Ghost Realm and Hell Realm. People's souls are immortal after death and people's souls will be reborn into different realms depending on their good and evil deeds during their lives, and the story of the six realms is played out again and again. The Heaven Realm: Heavenly people live here, playing and even singing and dancing for the whole day without worrying about food and clothing. However when death comes, they have fearful pain before death. The Demi-god Realm: This is the world of fighting or strife. The realm or state of mind of violence. The Human Realm: Suffering from birth, old age, sickness and death. In the world of humans, sometimes we are happy; sometimes we are sad; sometimes we are laughing; sometimes we are crying. The Animal Realm: Birds and beasts are foolish, often chased, slaughtered, and fearful all day long. The Hungry Ghost Realm: Live in public toilets and woods' periphery. Their throat is as thin as a pinhole, and they always suffer from hunger and thirst but are unable to eat and drink. The Hell Realm: Hell refers to the realm of suffering. The state of suffering and pain, which through cause and condition people will enter. Stories of The Six Realms of Samsara is a work for mixed quintet structured in a series of seven miniatures which flow together with minimal pause to form a single 16-minutes trajectory. Each movement has its own emotion and texture. In the first movement, The Hell Realm, I describe the pain, struggle, and hopelessness of hell by using the extreme ranges of various instruments. In the second movement, The Heaven Realm, I attempt to make dichotomy and different textures and techniques compared to The Hell Realm in order to depict the carefree existence and joy. However, when the time comes, the heavenly beings foresee their own death and the next place of their reincarnation. The heavier color fully expresses the fear of the heavenly beings. The third movement, The Hungry Ghost Realm , describes the painful state of beings in the path of hungry ghosts seeking food every day and night. The multiphonic part of the clarinet highlights their disappointment when they find some water source, which they approach soon, but suddenly the water disappears. The last phrase of the violin solo intensifies the sense of despair. The fourth movement, The Demi-God Realm, describes the scenes of fierce struggle between them every day for power and interests. This movement mainly uses the form of duet and trio to describe the scenes of different forces fighting. When the music reaches its climax, the unison of all the instruments expresses the tragic scene of beings in the Asuras, sacrificing themselves to fight for rewards. With the end of the piano block, the work comes to the fifth movement, The Animal Realm, which expresses the habits of different kinds of animals and the pain the animals suffered. The sixth movement, The Human Realm, describes a person's life experience from childhood to old age. Different harmonies and melody colors represent the pain and happiness we experience at the stages of life. The end of the music expresses people's extreme anxiety and fear when their lives will end....The seventh movement, The Way to Liberation, is the only movement in this piece that does not describe one of the six realms. It expresses that after a person dies, he longs for his soul to be rescued. He fantasizes the scene of being able to follow the Buddha and Bodhisattva to Western Elysium. The color of extreme transparency fully describes that piece of pure land without pain and any evils, and we will receive eternal relief and happiness. Every one of us is desires such a pure land, no longer reincarnation, free from the six realms!
- Performer Credits
- S.E.M Ensemble
- Publisher
- Jiaqi Wang