CUCCS0020 O, Know, Sweet Love (SATB)

O, Know, Sweet Love Music by Ng Wah-hei 伍華晞 曲

Words by William Shakespeare 莎士比亞 詩

CU Chorus Choral Series

CUCCS0020

樂曲介紹 2008年，我正在密蘇里大學堪 斯分校攻讀博士，那時Kansas City Chorale舉辦了名為Crescendo Choral Music Competition的作曲比賽，勝出作品將可獲 隊享譽全球的合唱團作世界首演，也會獲選為音樂學院校 慶誌慶作品，最後我揀選了莎士比亞描寫詩人向情人述說內心熱情的第76首十四行詩。創作《O, Know, Sweet Love》(2008/2015) 時我得面對不少制約，例如長度要求令我只能節選原詩的最後六行作歌詞，而比賽規則也 指定作品必需是調性音樂̶​̶不過 既然是我第一首合唱作品，我在和聲寫作上也很自覺地傾向保守，不敢造 次。既然未有在和聲上作新探索，我就花上更多心思在節奏與無意義音節的運用，務求令作品更添個性，也希望 藉此能為聽 帶來既清新又活潑的氣氛。《O, Know, Sweet Love》於2008年11月1日，由Charles Bruffy指 揮Kansas City Chorale作世界首演。

伍華晞（作曲） 伍華晞於香港中文大學音樂系畢業，獲文學士及音樂碩士學位，主修作曲，師承陳永華和陳偉光，並於美國密蘇 里大學堪 斯分校取得音樂博士學位，其老師包括陳怡、周龍及James Mobberley。他的作品由各地著名音樂 家演出，包括香港青年交響樂團、格林美得主Charles Bruffy及Kansas City Chorale、北京現代室樂團、 Jenga敲擊樂四重奏、紐約Talea現代音樂室樂團、NEXTET、香港創樂團、六秀士等。作品多次獲獎，包括 SCI/ASCAP學生作曲比賽地區優勝者、Crescendo合唱作品比賽第一名、密蘇理州州立大學室內樂作曲比賽第 一名、Max Di Julio作曲獎。伍華晞現居於香港，為自由音樂人。

莎士比亞（詩人） 威廉·莎士比亞（1564-1616）是英國文學史上最傑出的戲劇家，也是西方文藝史上最傑出的作家之一，全世界 最卓越的文學家之一。他流傳下來的作品包括39部戲劇、154首十四行詩、兩首長敘事詩和其他詩歌。他的戲 劇有各種主要語言的譯本，且表演次數遠遠超過其他戲劇家的作品。（摘自維基百科）

*樂曲介紹可在音樂會簡介及場刊上自由轉載。

Programme Note In 2008, I was pursuing my doctorate degree at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. At that time, Kansas City Chorale held the Crescendo Choral Music Competition, a composition competition. The winning piece would be premièred by this world renowned choir, and as part of the anniversary celebration compositions of the music faculty. I chose Shakespeare’s Sonnet 76, which depicts the poet’s passion for his lover. In the process of composing O, Know, Sweet Love (2008/2015), I encountered a few restrictions — only the last six lines of the Sonnet are set to music due to limits on work duration, and the piece has to be in tonal idiom. As this was my first choral composition, I was deliberately restrained on the use of harmony, and thus shifted my musical exploration on rhythm and non-lexical vocables, making this a refreshing and lively piece with strong character. O, Know, Sweet Love was first performed on 1 November 2008 by the Kansas City Chorale, conducted by Charles Bruffy.

Ng Wah-hei (composer) Ng Wah-hei obtained his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Music degrees from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, major in composition under Chan Wing-wah and Victor Chan. He finished his doctoral degree in the Musical Arts at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), where his composition teachers included Chen Yi, Zhou Long and James Mobberley. Ng's compositions are performed by renowned musicians around the world, including Hong Kong Youth Symphony Orchestra, Grammy Award-winning conductor Charles Bruffy with his Kansas City Chorale, Ensemble ConTempo Beijing, Jenga Percussion Quartet, Talea Ensemble of New York, NEXTET, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble and Les Six. Ng’s music won many awards, including regional winner of SCI/ASCAP Student Composition Commission, first prize of Crescendo Choral Competition, First Prize of Chamber Music Composition Competition at UMKC, and the Max Di Julio Prize. He currently lives in Hong Kong as a freelance musician.

William Blake (poet) William Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. He produced a diverse and symbolically rich œuvre, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God" or "human existence itself". His Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789/1794) contains his most renowned poems. (partly extracted from Wikipedia)

*Programme Note can be freely reproduced in concert introduction and house programmes.

Lyrics

歌詞

O, know, sweet love,

你要知道，愛人，

I always write of you,

我寫的永遠是你，

And you and love are still my argument;

你與愛永遠是我的題材；

So all my best is dressing old words new,

我擅長的是把舊詞變成新的，

Spending again what is already spent:

已經用過的不妨再用一回；

For as the sun is daily new and old,

太陽每日出沒，新舊

So is my love still telling what is told.

我的愛也永遠是老調重彈。

(from Sonnet 76)

中譯 梁實秋

，

(來自 https://cykung.pixnet.net/blog/post/83264292)

參考錄

Sample Audio

2021 第一版 First Edition 2021 中大合唱協會有限公司出版 Published by CU Chorus Association Limited 樂曲介紹 Programme Notes: 伍華晞 Ng Wah-hei 樂譜排版 Music Typesetting: 太元 Zha Taiyuan 總編輯 Editor-in-Chief: 林凱昌 Lam Hoi-cheong 中文編輯 Chinese Editor: 朱振威 Leon Chu 英文編輯 English Editor: 吳學而 Sari Ng © 2021 中大合唱協會有限公司 CU Chorus Association Limited www.cuchorus.org.hk cuchorus@cuchorus.org.hk

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Catalogue No. CUCCS0020 ISMN 979-0-805701-09-7

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