Tan Dun's Martial Trilogy

[GeneChing]

Thought about making this it's own thread, but then figured the way this particular thread opens fits well.

Hero (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=531)
The Banquet (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43584&)
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?5071-Crouching-Tiger-Hidden-Dragon)


Composer Tan Dun combines film scores to create ‘Martial Arts Trilogy’ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/composer-tan-dun-combines-film-scores-to-create-martial-arts-trilogy/2011/07/26/gIQANOwNhI_story.html)
By David Mermelstein, Published: July 29

Plenty of Americans may not recognize Tan Dun’s name, but they know his music. The Chinese-born composer won an Academy Award for writing the score to Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), which has to date grossed more than any other foreign-language film in the United States. And fans of martial-arts movies may also be familiar with his contributions to Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” (2002) — another foreign hit — and Feng Xiaogang’s “The Banquet” (2006).

Now Tan, who turns 54 on Aug. 15, has refashioned these scores into more or less traditional concertos for cello, violin and piano, respectively. Together they make up his “Martial Arts Trilogy,” which he is conducting at four venues this summer, including Aug. 5 at Wolf Trap, where he will lead the National Symphony Orchestra. Three NSO players — James Lee (cello), Heather Green (violin) and Lisa Emenheiser (piano) — are to perform the solo parts.

In the concerts, movie clips accompany his music. “We pretty much follow the order of the films but use smaller bits,” Tan said by phone from New York earlier this month. “We let the orchestra tell the story, with the solo lines like dialogue. The movie clips enhance it, but the music takes the major role.”

A cycle of martial-arts films has been something of an idee fixe for the composer, who says he turned down many offers to write music for movies after his Oscar win, simply because such projects were not what he calls “love tragedies with martial arts.” Although it took time to find directors who were planning the type of pictures Tan wanted to score, his patience was rewarded with music that he contends is more than the sum of its parts.

“The three soloists tell different kinds of stories,” Tan said. “After using the cello in ‘Crouching Tiger,’ I thought maybe I should continue this love-tragedy motif with the next instrument. Eventually, I thought I might even bring the three instruments together in something like a resurrection.”

Although combining all three solo instruments in a single score didn’t occur to Tan until his trilogy was underway, a tetralogy appears imminent thanks to a chance encounter with the director Jia Zhangke. “He’s shooting his first martial-arts film now,” the composer said. “So in the next few months I am going to finish my cycle and have four film scores as one. And after that, I will start to accept commissions for other films.”

But for now there is just the trilogy. “We will see if Washington, D.C., audiences like and accept it,” Tan said of the combined program, in which the concertos run 30 to 35 minutes apiece, slightly shorter than if they were each performed on a bill without the others.

A big reason the “Martial Arts Trilogy” was programmed at Wolf Trap is Tan’s presence on the podium, suggested Nigel Boon, the National Symphony’s director of artistic planning. “I love the idea of composers conducting,” he said. “We’ve had Oliver Knussen and John Adams, and we’re looking at others as well. It’s always interesting to hear a composer’s own view of his music.”

Yet performing does not particularly appeal to Tan. “After this run, I hope to hand over my duties to different conductors,” he said. “And I’m sure they will enjoy it, because this kind of new structure for conductor — with electronics and acoustics combined in a multimedia presentation — is very 21st century. Composers have embraced the future, and now conductors must also.”

Ben Hong, a cellist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has twice performed the solo part of the “Crouching Tiger” concerto — at the Hollywood Bowl in 2008 and in revised form July 21 with the San Diego Symphony, the first stop of the series.

“I think audiences will find very honest emotion from this concerto,” Hong said. “They will also find very different aesthetics and sensibilities in the way the music is made, but because it’s very direct it won’t be difficult to understand or relate to.”

Hong describes Tan’s writing as “as absolutely brilliant and very creative,” lauding the composer’s use of unconventional instruments. The cellist singles out Tan’s use of rocks as percussion instruments. “It’s not just direct impact,” Hong said. “It could be grinding or sliding as well. He’s very interested in exploring those kinds of limits. His understanding and interest in breaking down the barriers of his traditional Chinese background with Western music to create a much broader spectrum of musical aesthetics — that’s the most obvious difference between him and other composers.”

Tan’s embrace of video is another. Even in his pieces for the concert hall, the composer will sometimes incorporate a visual component, as he did with “The Map,” a sprawling cello concerto from 2002. “I often tell my friends I’m interested in music for film and film for music,” Tan said. “If you go to the cinema, you will enjoy my work as a movie. But if you go to a concert, you will see a movie for music. It’s kind of symmetrical.”

Mermelstein is a freelance writer.

Tan Dun: Martial Arts Trilogy

8:30 p.m. Friday at Wolf Trap’s Filene Center. Tickets $20-$52. Information at wolftrap.org.

[GeneChing]

Seems more significant with each report. I hope it comes to my town. I think I'd enjoy this.

Evoking Forbidden Love and Flying Ancient Armies (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/arts/music/tan-duns-martial-arts-trilogy-at-lincoln-center-review.html)
By STEVE SMITH
Published: August 14, 2011

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/08/15/arts/tan/tan-popup.jpg

His high profile drew an overflow crowd to Damrosch Park on Friday night for a performance of his “Martial Arts Trilogy,” a splashy multimedia event derived from three popular film scores. Performed by the Metropolis Ensemble and presented by Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the project linked quasi-concerto suites from Mr. Tan’s music for “Hero,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “The Banquet” into an evening-length sequence, with scenes from the films projected on a screen behind the musicians.

Mr. Tan, who conducted, clearly sees the trilogy as more than a greatest-hits medley; in effusive comments from the stage he termed it a cycle and likened it to Wagner’s “Ring.” If you knew the films, you recognized themes of honor, obligation and forbidden love running throughout the scenes, which were difficult to see at the start of the concert but became sharper as a gorgeous summer night wore on.

Even if you couldn’t discern a plot that linked these fleeting visions of lovers and schemers, clashing armies and spectacular flying warriors, you could admire Mr. Tan’s knack for giving each film and scene its own character. His language, a mix of Hollywood grandeur and primal, percussive vitality, was consistent throughout the evening, yet each segment had its own distinct sound.

In “Hero Concerto” the soloist Ryu Goto played two violins — one tuned down to a violalike sob — over passages that jolted like Prokofiev and thundered like Basil Poledouris’s potent 1982 score for “Conan the Barbarian.” The cellist Dane Johansen performed the extensive, ravishing solos in Mr. Tan’s warm, eloquent “Crouching Tiger Concerto.”

In the concluding “Banquet Concerto,” originally fashioned for Lang Lang, the exciting young pianist Jiayi Sun barreled through Bartok-inflected combat scenes and tenderly caressed rhapsodic swells plainly inspired by Rachmaninoff. The Collegiate Chorale lent the music an epic quality; still, its twinkling palette aside, this was the patchiest and least satisfying of the distillations.

The Metropolis Ensemble, a talented freelance orchestra, responded with skill and exuberance to Mr. Tan’s thrusting arms and clutching fingers. Now and then his face, captured by a camera on his music stand, filled the screen overhead: like his film music, oversize and imperious yet clearly meant to entertain.

[GeneChing]

To add to the initial post, here's our CTHD thread. (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1125114)

Posted at 01:10 AM ET, 08/08/2011
Reviews: Tan Dun’s “Martial Arts Trilogy” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/classical-beat/post/reviews-wolf-trap-operas-hoffmann-tan-duns-martial-arts-trilogy/2011/08/08/gIQAdHTl1I_blog.html)
by Stephen Brookes

Ah, tragic love. Wolf Trap was awash in it — not to mention aerial sword fights, blood-soaked revenge, thundering armies on horseback and all that other irresistible stuff — on Friday night, when the composer Tan Dun brought his hot-off-the-presses “Martial Arts Trilogy” to the Filene Center stage.

Tan Dun, of course, is the Chinese composer who burst into the mainstream after winning an Oscar for his score to the 2000 blockbuster “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” famous for its balletic, gravity-defying martial arts. He went on to score two similar films — “The Banquet” and “Hero” — and in this new work he’s reconfigured all that music into a set of interlocking concertos, which follow the sacrifices, passions and billowing dresses of the female leads as scenes from the movies unfold overhead.

And as you’d expect, this was an epic, multimedia production, full of big-screen emotions and unabashed melodrama; Beijing Opera meets Hollywood, more or less. Tan Dun’s melodies soared and swooped through the air — like the actors, they were borne aloft on gusts of wind — and he generally steered clear of the avant-garde territory found in much of his other music. But that’s hardly a complaint. This was movie music and proud of it, as voluptuous and stylized as the cinematography of the films, designed to draw you into a weightless fantasy world where raindrops fall in slow motion and the light is always golden and death is rather pretty if you just choreograph it properly. Sure, there was more surface than depth; but it’s summer, and anyway — what a surface it was.

The theme of tragic love tied everything together, and the opening “Hero” concerto followed the story of a woman who sacrificed love to defend her country. Violinist Heather LeDoux Green turned in a fine, full-bodied performance, capturing the sweeping emotions of the work without tugging the heartstrings too obviously. The “Crouching Tiger” concerto that followed was the most musically interesting of the three, and James Lee gave a passionate account on cello; his intimate, beautifully-calibrated solo was a highlight of the evening. The concert built to a rambunctious close with the “Banquet” concerto (about sacrificing love for power) played by the always-exciting pianist Lisa Emenheiser.

The narrative behind all this was a bit hard to follow if you didn’t already know the films, but it made for an entertaining and enjoyable evening nonetheless. Tan Dun himself led the National Symphony Orchestra, and, while it’s interesting to hear a composer conduct his own music, it’s the rare one who can really do it well. Dun seemed ill at ease at the podium, and, honestly, generated about as much electricity as a sack of laundry; kudos to the NSO players for bringing the score to life as well as they did.

--Stephen Brookes

[GeneChing]

...but worthy of archiving here


A Symphony of Martial Artistry: Tan Dun at Wolf Trap, Filene Center (http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2011/08/symphony-martial-artistry-tan-dun-wolf-trap.php)

Tan Dun is not the next John Williams.

Sure, Tan won an Oscar for the soundtrack to 2000's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and this opera master also scored the martial arts flicks "Hero" (2002) and "The Banquet" (2006). And, yes, the 53-year-old Hunan Province native is now conducting the multimedia concert "Martial Arts Trilogy" with the National Symphony Orchestra, featuring his soundtrack music synced to film clips. But, as Tan explains, these movies simply fit into his grander, long-simmering plan to write a specific operatic cycle.

Were you influenced by martial arts soundtracks as a kid?
Basically, I hate martial arts film music in general. That's why I turned martial arts film music completely upside-down. Most of my martial arts music was inspired by [19th-century] Peking opera, not 1970s martial arts films.

How did you choose film projects after "Crouching Tiger"?
So many people approached me to write film soundtracks, but I always asked them three questions [and "Hero" and "The Banquet" fit the criteria]: Is this a tragic love story? Is this a martial arts film? And can I write for piano or violin [since "Crouching Tiger" featured cello]? I have turned down about 30 movies since I won the Oscar.

How did the idea for the "Trilogy" come together?
After I composed the music for "Crouching Tiger," I decided to make a martial arts trilogy linked in the way like Wagner's Ring Cycle opera. I'm an opera writer. I thought I should make a trilogy with a [single] instrument being the focus in each movie [soundtrack].

Was it hard to link the music from three unrelated movies by three different directors?
I'm very proud. It's like a charmed operation. But it came together, and it made sense. The three instruments represent three girls, and they all sacrifice for love in different ways. In "The Banquet," the girl sacrifices her love for revenge and desire. In "Hero," it's for patriotic love. And in "Crouching Tiger," it's for the dream of wuxia [martial arts storytelling]. And all three [women] are played by the same actress [Zhang Ziyi]. It's an amazing coincidence.

» Wolf Trap, Filene Center, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna; Fri., 8:30 p.m., $20-$52; 877-965-3872, Wolftrap.org.

Posted By Christopher Porter at 12:00 AM on August 4, 2011

[GeneChing]

I just might have to add this to my collection..

TAN DUN The Martial Arts Trilogy (http://theclassicalreview.com/cds-dvds/2011/09/tan-dun-the-martial-arts-trilogy/)
September 26, 2011
By Marc Rochester
Tommy Anthony, Susan Botti, CoCo Lee, Wendy Pedersen, Jane Lian Ying Zhang (vocals), Itzhak Perlman, Tan Dan (violin), Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Lang Lang (piano), David Cossin, Archie Peña (percussion), Dan Warner (guitar), Julio Hernández (bass guitar), Kodo (drums), Ancient Rao Ensemble of Changsha Museum, Shanghai Percussion Ensemble, Shanghai Opera Chorus, China Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai National Orchestra / Tan Dun.
Sony Classical 88697923632
cd sleeve

Of the many Chinese-born composers who have settled in the U.S. and celebrated their cross-cultural credentials through fusing Western and Eastern musical elements, none has done it quite so vividly as Tan Dun. He has written that he composes as “a path towards reconciliation of my own personal past and present, and a quest for human roots. It is music for and about people.” So it seems entirely appropriate that his music first hit phenomenal international popularity in 2000, not with a concert work, but with his first venture into the world of movie scores, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

He has since written a lot of equally evocative Western-tinged Chinese music for the concert hall and the cinema but, rather like Bruch and his G minor Violin Concerto, or Barber and his Adagio for Strings, he has never really been able to escape the huge success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This latest release includes four tracks from that soundtrack along with several from two subsequent movie scores.

Each of the original movie scores was centered around a leading performer. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has Yo-Yo Ma exuding atmosphere and nostalgia for the homeland in some particularly soulful cello writing. The first three tracks set a clear if dreamy mood for the opening of this Martial Arts Trilogy, but with the fourth things rather go astray musically with a dismal attempt at American soul music. ‘A Love Before Time’ sees Yo-Yo Ma pushed aside in favor of Hong Kong starlet CoCo Lee struggling not to sound like a rejected American Idol giving a final, tear-stained rendition. It might work in the cinema; it does not work here.

Lang Lang takes centre stage for five numbers from the score to the 2006 movie The Banquet (released in the U.S. as Legend of the Black Scorpion). This is the least obviously Chinese of the three, at times sounding more like a Bollywood dance sequence or outtakes from Kismet, but otherwise content to unfold a series of unfocused mood pictures in which Lang Lang does little more than dribble aimlessly over the keys as if in a trance.

On the other hand, when it comes to investing deep emotion into the most trite musical patterns, no one does it better than Lang Lang, and the force of his artistic personality manages to sidestep comparisons with Richard Clayderman – although it comes pretty close in places. In a saccharine-laden ‘Only for Love’, where Jane Lian Ying Zhang oozes out Chinese words of love to the Shanghai Opera Chorus’s lyrical oohing and aahing, he ripples delicately over some inoffensive arpeggios, but even he cannot make the ‘Sword Dance’ sound like anything other than an instrumental version of the Tammy Wynette classic, Stand by your Man.

The most successful music in the context of this CD comes from the 2002 movie Hero. The headline soloist is Itzhak Perlman, but in
reality he shares the honors with the potent ethnic drums of Kodo
and the Ancient Rao Ensemble of Changsha Museum. Neither is Perlman the only violin soloist in these four tracks. Tan himself takes over the instrument in the final two numbers, his ‘Sorrow in Desert’ duet with the ethnic percussionists, in particular, is an ingenious piece of fusion music with the violin magically evoking the sounds of ancient Chinese strings.

The performances from three orchestras – Shanghai Symphony, Shanghai National and China Philharmonic – are very good indeed,
and the recording nicely balanced to give the whole thing a slightly romantic sheen. But this is essentially mood music which is clearly designed to accompany visual images. Heard in isolation, after the initial ear candy of exotic sounds, The Martial Arts Trilogy quickly outlives its 44-minute playing time.

[GeneChing]

'eating vegetables and practising martial arts movements'

Music career inspired by nature (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/music-career-inspired-by-nature/story-e6frg8n6-1226478365827)
by: Tim Douglas
From: The Australian
September 21, 2012 12:00AM

http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2012/09/20/1226478/365811-tan-dun.jpg
Composer Tan Dun in Adelaide yesterday. 'Everyone I speak to tells me you need to travel to Adelaide,' he says. Picture: Tait Schmaal Source: Supplied

TAN Dun, a child of China's Cultural Revolution, will never forget the first time he heard Bach.

"It was like medicine, a spiritual medicine. It fixed me," says the internationally renowned composer, who was a rice planter at a labour camp during Mao Zedong's notorious sociopolitical movement.

"You must understand that before the Cultural Revolution, every family was broken; everyone was injured inside and outside. I was a late teenager and was so hungry (for music from the outside world).

"When I heard Bach's music, I was changed forever."

For the 55-year-old, then, having been awarded last week the City of Hamburg's 2012 Bach Prize -- presented every four years to "an exceptional composer of our time" -- must be at the very forefront of his consciousness.

"It is a very important honour for me, yes, but I am really just focused right now on coming back to Australia," he says.

"That, for me, is the real dream come true. Everyone I speak to tells me you need to travel to Adelaide. So I am."

Tan will conduct the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in his Martial Arts Trilogy, a multifaceted concert featuring music and multimedia displays, tomorrow and Sunday.

A headline act at the annual OzAsia Festival, Tan will feature his famous scores from the Chinese martial arts-inspired films Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and The Banquet.

While Tan admits he is no martial artist, he says the philosophies of the physical arts are imperative in his composition.

Before composing the score for cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Crouching Tiger, Ang Lee's 2000 film, Tan spent six months in a temple "eating vegetables and practising martial arts movements".

"I learned the gestures and then transposed them into sounds," says the Oscar and Grammy award winner.

"It's not about physical action but the ego and mind competing. It's about balance.

"The most important lesson in martial arts is: play loudest sound in silence, or victory without fighting. And I use that philosophy in my music."

Tan has led some of the world's most notable orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw, London Symphony and the New York Philharmonic, and is a recognised global innovator.

His Internet Symphony, commissioned by YouTube, has accumulated 15 million hits.

But Tan says he will never forget his roots; everything in his output can be traced back to his humble beginnings in a small shamanistic village in Hunan province during the Mao years.

"As a child I would watch the village shaman making music with water on a stone," he says. "Those sounds -- the music of nature -- are still with me."

[GeneChing]

Anyone here near Adelaide?

Strains of martial arts movies hit the spot (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/strains-of-martial-arts-movies-hit-the-spot/story-e6frg8n6-1226479758123)
by: Graham Strahle
From: The Australian
September 24, 2012 12:00AM

http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2012/09/23/1226479/758111-tan-dun.jpg
Film music composer Tan Dun. Picture: Schmaal Tait Source: Supplied

MUSIC
Tan Dun: Martial Arts Trilogy
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Tan Dun. Adelaide Festival Theatre, September 22.

ONE of the world's most accomplished film composers, Tan Dun is known particularly for the music he wrote for three wuxia or martial arts films that have proved highly successful in the West: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Hero (2002) and The Banquet (2006).

The first, with cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma, won him an Oscar, and all three scores also exist in concerto versions for performance in the concert hall.

To have this martial arts trilogy performed for the first time in Australia, and with the composer conducting, was a real treat. Excerpts from the films were projected behind the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, along with live video feeds of the players and the small, wiry figure of Tan Dun at the podium.

To call them concertos is a bit of a stretch, because they do not stand entirely on their own as concert works, at times falling into a subservient role of accompanying the visual image and occasionally combining with sound effects, dialogue and even wordless singing in the film excerpts.
FREE 28 Day Trial last Chance

Nevertheless, these are wonderful scores that belong at the pinnacle of film music as an art, and the fact they integrate so intimately and seamlessly with the visual dimension makes them only the more admirable. Emotively powerful, they are melodically lush but elegantly restrained, and extremely clear in their gestural content.

Hero is a thunderous, exciting score that sets eloquent solos from violin and guqin (Chinese zither) against a backdrop of dark-hued strings, muscular rhythms and explosive percussion. Sword thrusts in the fighting scenes and a hailstorm of arrows fired from an army on horseback were precisely matched in musical terms by bursts of blazing brass and razor-edged slashes of bow. Violinist Natsuko Yoshimoto was ravishing in her solos, perfectly judging the music's changing moods.

A darker, gruffer but equally invigorating work, the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon concerto for cello maintains a more consistent, equal partnership with the visual image. Playing with great fervour, cellist Li-Wei was joined by one of the orchestra's percussionists who lightly tapped a hand-held drum as he sauntered up to the stage front for an intriguing improvisation halfway through.

The Banquet concerto for piano is an ebullient work of a more Westernised stylistic orientation that achieves a closer, quite intricate interaction between soloist and orchestra. Ending with a gushingly uplifting melody, soloist Jiayi Sun reached into the music and gave it exactly what it needed.

The OzAsia Festival continues until September 30.

MUSIC
Tan Dun: Martial Arts Trilogy
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Tan Dun. Adelaide Festival Theatre, September 22.

[GeneChing]

April 25, 2015. I must make a note in my calendar...

TAN DUN’S MARTIAL ARTS TRILOGY—FILM WITH THE SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY (http://www.sfsymphony.org/Buy-Tickets/2014-2015/Film-Tan-Duns-Martial-Arts-Trilogy–Film-with-the.aspx)

http://www.sfsymphony.org/SanFranciscoSymphony/media/Library/Artist-Images/D/Dun-T_583x300.jpg?width=583&height=300&ext=.jpg

FILM SERIES

Subscribe for savings and perks! This concert is in packages:
Film
Conductor/Performers
Damian Iorio
conductor

San Francisco Symphony

Program
Various Selections from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Banquet, and Hero

Buy Tickets
Sat, Apr 25, 2015 at 8:00pm
Davies Symphony Hall

If you would like assistance purchasing tickets for patrons with disabilities, please call the box office at (415) 864-6000



Gems of Chinese Cinema at S.F. Symphony (https://www.sfcv.org/article/gems-of-chinese-cinema-at-sf-symphony)
BY JANOS GEREBEN,
September 2, 2014

https://www.sfcv.org/sites/default/files/u36849/hero-jet_lee.png
Jet Lee in Hero

One of the most amazing scenes in all cinema is a sword fight in the rain against the strains of a guzheng — Chinese plucked zither — seen through a curtain of individual raindrops each in a bizarre closeup. That's just one of the hundreds of scenes in Christopher Doyle's stunning cinematography that help make Zhang Yimou's 2001 Hero a masterpiece.

Hero is about the first Chinese emperor (Qin Shi Huang, 259-210 BC) and the warrior (Jet Lee) who may or may not assassinate him. It is one of the great films of recent times — complex, gripping, with a fabulous cast, and an unforgettable soundtrack. As Yo-Yo Ma's cello solo resounds over the resplendent court, all elements come together in one overwhelming whole.

This entire epic wu xia (martial arts) story is a kind of visual music. Set on a huge scale, with incredible vistas, immense, operatic crowd scenes, and brilliant colors, Hero is grand musical theater of history and passion. It also has a depth of emotional, philosophical, and political substance, the conclusion representing a dramatic change in Zhang's stand on the vital issue of the individual versus the state.

The all-star cast (Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Donnie Yen and Chen Dao Ming as the Emperor) is seen against the background of grand palaces in Hangzhou, the natural reserve of Jiuzhaigou (with the Nuorilang water falls), Xian, Luoyang, and others, with visuals reminiscent of pointillism, abstract expressionism, and photomicrography.

https://www.sfcv.org/sites/default/files/u36849/hero-maggie.png
Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung in Hero

Personally, I am not a great fan of Tan Dun's other works, such as Water Passion After St. Matthew, nor even of his and Zhang's collaboration on The First Emperor, an opera on the same subject as Hero, produced at the Metropolitan Opera. The best of Tan Dun is in his film scores: Hero, Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and Feng Xiaogang’s The Banquet.

Damian Iorio, artistic director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Murmansk, will conduct the San Francisco Symphony on April 25, accompanying excerpts screened from those three films with the music of Tan Dun.

The SFS Film Series will also feature:

Sept. 27, The Wizard of Oz (Harold Arlen and Herbert Stothart)
Oct. 31, Organ accompaniment by Todd Wilson to silent classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dec. 12 and 13, Home Alone (John Williams)
Jan. 9 and 10, The Godfather (Nino Rota)
March 28, "Great Moments of Dance in Film" — scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Brigadoon, Madame Bovary, An American in Paris, others

[GeneChing]

Fortunately, I subscribe to the S.F. Chron and the pink section reminded me that this is this Saturday. I was scheduled to do something else (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?56828-World-Tai-Chi-and-Qigong-Day&p=1282901#post1282901), but I might change plans...

[GeneChing]

Tan Dun’s Martial Trilogy (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1218) by me.

[GeneChing]

Two of my favorite things - sword fights and the symphony - combined into one. How could I not love it?

This should really have been called Tan Dun's Z Martial Trilogy because Z is in every film. Z (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?63797-Zhang-Ziyi) is in all of the 'classy' Kung Fu flicks (and then there's that Rush Hour installment) And while I really admire Z as an actress, I don't really care for her in Kung Fu flix. She always dominates them, scene-stealer that she is, but her Kung Fu always comes off as too balletic for me.

The performance opened with the Hero Concerto, which was a good opener as Hero (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=531) is a dazzlingly colorful film, and when cut up into backdrop scenes, it works really well. Violinist Ryu Goto is a rock star and he knows it. He had great attitude and man, can he play. I did find the film a little distracting as I felt I had to constantly not get sucked into these movies I've seen so many times and focus on the live concert in front of me. The sword hottie (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?41007-Sword-hotties) fight (Michelle (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?44824-Michelle-Yeoh) vs. Z) actually had sound, which I thought was really distracting. However, this was the most engaging part of the trilogy for me because of Goto and the visual quality of the film.

The CT Concerto featured Peter Wyrick on cello and I never realized how hard Tan Dun is on his stringed instruments. Wyrick was excellent too, not nearly as rock star-ish as Goto as a cellist is seated and can't do all the dramatic rock star poses. He seemed delighted to be showcased. The audience seemed to really enjoy this one as I'm sure most of them have seen CTHD (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?5071-Crouching-Tiger-Hidden-Dragon).

An intermission followed.

The Banquet Concerto concluded the performance and that was good because the Banquet (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?43584-The-Banquet) is so abstract. Honestly, I don't remember that film very well. I remember I didn't really care for it and thought it was another trying to coattail on CTHD, but for the life of me I cannot remember the plot. I'll have to revisit it. The pianist was replaced but I failed to get the name of the replacement. She had a stunning red evening gown and her arms moved like a prima ballerina. Unfortunately, the Concerto, despite focusing on the piano solo, is quite discordant overall, so it didn't really showcase her skills, whoever she was. That, on top of the surreal Banquet imagery (the clips focused a lot on the masked scenes) made for a change of tone which would have been harsh had it not been separated by the intermission. I found myself wondering how many people in the audience ever saw the Banquet. I may have to revisit it soon.

All in all, a splendid evening and a truly wonderful way to experience Kung Fu films.

[GeneChing]

...that was the name of the replacement.



April 28 6:00 2015
by Harmony Wheeler
BWW Reviews: Tan Dun Martial Arts Trilogy at SF Symphony (http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwclassical/article/BWW-Reviews-Tan-Dun-Martial-Arts-Trilogy-at-SF-Symphony-20150428#)

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San Francisco Symphony continues to provide innovative, new programming for its film series. Saturday night saw a particularly different kind of film score as orchestra members used their hands, feet and voice next to their usual instruments.

Tan Dun's martial arts scores require extra coordination and concentration. His complicated chords and rhythms with their Eastern influence make for an incredible experience, and combined with gorgeous cinematography, their fascination increases. One might expect more unique instruments for an evening of Eastern music - the only Eastern instruments present at the Davies Symphony Hall were some drums - but the second half of Dun's music, its Western influence, became especially clear in his score for "The Banquet," the third of three martial arts films featured at Saturday'sconcert. According to program notes, Dun has said that he seeks to "cross boundaries and disciplines and to bring different genres together." He crosses instruments, as well, starting with a violin soloist for "Hero," moving to the cello for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and finishing with the piano in the more modern-sounding "The Banquet." All are exquisite to hear and view.

Soloists Ryu Goto (violin), Peter Wyrick (cello) and a last minute replacement for Robin Sutherland (piano) showcased mesmerizing passion against the backdrop of clips from the three films. Dun's notes state that martial arts came from Chinese opera in the nineteenth century. The influence shows in the balletic movements of martial arts against stark colors. Green cloths in Hero. Black night in Crouching Tiger. White masks in The Banquet. Dun's scores dance between clashing tones and smooth melodies. The composer masterfully reaches deep emotions with the gentle, delicate violin and the banging of piano keys.

San Francisco Symphony and other orchestral groups use multimedia and present film series, as well as concerts of Broadway musicals, in efforts to combine art forms. Although the film clips were out of focus, Saturday evening's Tan Dun concert made an outstanding and successful example. Up next, the Symphony will present film concerts of the new Star Trek and Back to the Future as a part of its summer series.

[GeneChing]

Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl with Tan Dun himself conducting. You can't beat that.



'Crouching Tiger' composer Tan Dun will give L.A. Phil a martial-arts workout (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-ca-cm-tan-dun-conversation-20150809-story.html)

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Composer-conductor Tam Dun at his home in New York City on July 20, 2015. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
By Jeffrey Fleishman

Tan Dun is a composer of many sounds. He has coaxed birdsong from cellphones and is intimate with the pipa, the ancient Chinese lute. At once global and local, he is an old soul tuned to modern fascinations, mixing Asian and Western styles that fit as well into cinema as they do the concert hall. Tan won the Academy Award for his score for Ang Lee's martial arts film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." He will conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic on that score and music from two other films as part of his multimedia "Martial Arts Trilogy" at the Hollywood Bowl on Aug. 13.

You have said that your "Martial Arts Trilogy" program was inspired by Richard Wagner's "Ring" cycle of operas.

The trilogy is a cinema- and opera-linked concept. Opera is ancient cinema. The love, hope, dream, fighting, revenge and soul themes are very much like Wagner's "Ring" cycle. All the themes come jumping together. I used the river and water theme as a base to link the "Crouching Tiger" dream theme, the "Hero" hope theme and "The Banquet" love theme to all come back as a super trio.

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Orchestras are struggling to reach new and younger audiences. But are they being experimental enough, especially when it comes to multimedia?

Everyone is trying to do something with image and sound. But in most cases they use images as a complement to sound and sound a complement to images. But a multimedia show should focus on a synchronization of color and timbre that becomes so powerful. If you see Martial Arts Trilogy you will see everything is synchronized. The music should be the most dramatic, the most operatic and meanwhile we use image and story to the best multimedia effect.

You grew up during China's Cultural Revolution and now live in New York and Shanghai. You conduct and perform around the world. How has globalization influenced how classical and other forms of music are composed, presented and listened to?

It doesn't matter if it's globalization or nationalism. You have to have drama, theater and the visual. The rest of the things are actually pretty much practical orchestration or stylistic kinds of things. It's like Federico Fellini. I love Fellini's films. His work is Italian, but it talks to everybody. It's very global, dramatic and visual.

How can composers incorporate the sounds of different cultures to bring people together?

The composer or artist has to be trained in various techniques. The Western orchestra technique or maybe the media or computer technique. They must have a strong knowledge of Eastern or African or Aborigine or indigenous sound worlds. If you are trained, you can put something very powerful together. It depends on technique and philosophical needs and how culturally trained you are.

Your new composition, "Passacaglia: Secret of Wind and Birds," was recently performed in Carnegie Hall by the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. You used mobile phones to create birdsong. What inspired this?

The ancient instruments always started with the birds singing. I was thinking for a long time if I wanted to turn social media or the cellphone into an instrument. If you're using hundreds of cellphones to play this ancient instrument of birds singing, it's really like an unbelievable forest of sounds. This convinced me that the cellphone could be an instrument in today's symphony orchestra. The question is how to transpose the digital birdsong into the orchestra. It's a miracle. It's so fun.

You've characterized China as taking a long nap from the international community following the end of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s. Today, China is emerging as a global economic power. What are your thoughts on where your native land is headed culturally and in other ways?

When I was young I experienced this very bloody revolution, almost every family was broken. This made me think of human beings, of life, the future. People ask me why my music has that haunting or lonely or kind of melancholia [quality]. Maybe this is from early childhood or a Cultural Revolution suffering memory. But now China is waking up as a new force for culture, specifically for classical music.

You really feel China is going to be the home of classical music. Every month there's an opera house or concert hall debuted. Thirty million kids are studying piano and 25 million are studying violin. And every day in Europe and America we are shrinking orchestras, shrinking budgets. But in China, government funding is growing year by year.

[GeneChing]

A friend of mine just got tickets to this. I'm jealous.


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METLIVEARTS
Tan Dun: Terracotta Symphony and Hero Concerto
(http://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/tan-dun-17-2?eid=254175)
SATURDAY / APRIL 1
2:00 P.M.
Buy Tickets
$65.00 to $85.00
Tickets to this event include Museum admission during open hours.

World Premiere Featuring The Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by Tan Dun

The exhibition Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.–A.D. 220), on view April 3–July 16, 2017, brings to The Met the terracotta warrior sculptures that were buried with the Emperor Qin Shi Huang to protect him in the afterlife. To celebrate this extraordinary exhibition, The Met commissioned a new work from composer Tan Dun—Terracotta Symphony, based on music from his opera, The First Emperor, featuring terra cotta drums sourced specifically for this piece. Also on the program is Hero Concerto for violin and orchestra, with music drawn from Tan Dun’s film score for Zhang Yimou's Hero.
Bring the Kids for $1

Also on Friday, March 31

This commission is made possible by The Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation.

The exhibition is made possible by the Joseph Hotung Fund and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

Tickets to this event include Museum admission.

Enjoy a pre-performance drink in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. Doors will open approximately one hour prior to the event and you may purchase a drink and relax in your seat prior to the show.

Above: Photo of Tan Dun's Water Passion in The Temple of Dendur in the The Sackler Wing by Stephanie Berger