Du Yun HUNDRED HEADS

DU YUN (2014)

Commissioned by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Ludovic Morlot as part of its Sonic Evolution project that celebrates the past and future of Seattle’s music scene

First Performance: June 04, 2014, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Ludovic Morlot

DUR. ~ 16’

Score in C

Instrumentation

3.3.3.3; 4.3.3.1; perc (3); Pno/Celesta; Strings

Hundred Heads is the third installment of Du Yun’s three-part Mythology series

Mythology I: Kraken

Mythology II: Mantichora

Mythology III: Hundred Heads

Program Notes

The Hundred-Heads is a fish created out of a few words’ karma by posthumous repercussions down through time. One of the Chinese biographies of the Buddha says that one day the Buddha encountered some fisherman pulling in their nets. After endless effort, they dragged up on shore an enormous fish, with one head a monkey’s, another a dog’s, another a horse’s, another a fox’s, another a pig’s, another a tiger’s, and so on, to the number of one hundred.

“Are you not Kapila?” the Buddha asked the fish.

“I am Kapila,” the Hundred-Heads answered, and then died.

The Buddha explained to his disciples that in a previous incarnation, Kapila had bee n a Brahmin who had become a monk, and surpassed all men in his knowledge of the sacred texts. Sometimes his companions would make mistakes, at which Kapila would call them ‘monkeyhead,’ ‘ dog-head,’ etc. When he died, the karma of that accumulated invective made him come back to life as a sea monster, floundering under the weight of all the heads he had wished upon his companions.

Jorge Luis Borges “The Book of Imaginary Beings”

When I was asked by the Seattle Symphony to choose an artist who w as a part of the local cultural map as my inspiration for a new piece, very quickly, I chose Ray Charles. I’m captivated by this creature. In a way, I think Ray Charles has its own incarnations, his breaks, his many before-life’s. He wouldn’t not take the enlightment once the monster dies with him.

The Hundred-Heads is a fish created out of a few words’ karma by posthumous repercussions down through time. In a previous incarnation, Kapila had been a Brahmin who had become a monk, and surpassed all men in his knowledge of the sacred texts. Sometimes his companions would make mistakes, at which Kapila would call them ‘monkey-head,’ ‘ dog-head,’ etc. When he died, the karma of that accumulated invective made him come back to life as a sea monster, floundering under the weight of all the heads he had wished upon his companions. To me, Ray Charles is the echo of that spirit.

In my piece, traces of Ray’s most known tune Georgia is faintly suggested, so was his “Hard Times, (no one knows better than I am). Traces of his trademark brass rhythm is only hinted, often in breaks.

I often wonder our own musical language. What constitutes others, when does such becomes our own. When an assimilation evolves to an assault. When the boundary of the divide stops.

To Ray's spirit.

Performing Notes

The piece begins with a short 15-second playback of “Hallelujah I Love Her So.”

In the case that playback is not available, the piece begins at Rehearsal A.

General

to sustain the noteas, at the very end play a short and downward gliss; (brass and woodwinds: only play a semitone (down) when lip gliss is not applicable)

extremely high pitch

1/4 quarter-tone sharp

3/4 quarter-tone flat

Woodwinds

1/4 quarter-tone flat

3/4 quarter-tone flat

Denotes a crescendo hold the loudest crescendos at the very end

To random notes. Does not need to align across all registers

Extremely fast and raucously. Notes as fast as possible

Play with a chaotic sensation, creating a realm of mayhem and not necessarily aligned to each other

Keep playing the figured notes until designated beats

Woodwinds, ctd.:

Overblown; to create the higher octave.

Brass:

From the designated single note turning into a random multiphonic; often noisy. It’s okay if the fundamental of such multiphonic cannot be achieved based on the turning note. The key point here is morphing from a single note into random, noisy multiphonics.

Lip bending, flowing the shape. Keep the notes, lip bending flowing the shape; changing from bending down to back the notes, sustain, then back bending again.

Tongue Ram (Oboe, Bassoons): ramming the tongue against the reed (without blowing through the instrument) liberally to have the keys rattled.

Trumpets: shake extremely high pitch trill, while moving the valves; furiously fast

Trumpets 1 and 3 prepare a CD disk, to use the disk covering the bell in the fashion of using the plunger mute, in order to create an o -and-on buzzing mettalic sound.

Percussion: all should be played l.v., unless a mu ing sign afterwards indicates otherwise

Harp:

• The opening solo (Rehearsal A to Rehearsal B) should be played very crisp and angular, almost as if to evoke the sound of a bigger finger harp (Kalimba).

• chords always to be played non-arpeggio

pluck the string very hard to make a buzzing sound; make the strings rattle against each other

Harp, ctd.:

quick, strong glide

quick, strong glide, within a small region—usually in the lowest register

Strings:

holding the pedal halfway between two positions

U Bow vertically away from the fingerboard towards the direction of the bridge. Mu e the notees to create a very muted, rubbing sound. Almost no pitch

Fast, uneven tremolo

There are four di erent kinds of vibratos, other than the normal vibrato:

wide vibrato: a very exaggerated, wide vibrato—sometimes within a third interval

quick vibrato: faster than the normal vibrato

rapid vibrato: is quick and wide—much faster than the wide vibrato, and wider than the quick vibrato

irregular vibrato: suggests to freely change the speed and width of a vibrato. A theatrical e ect.

Additional notes

Vibra gliss: do a continuous vibrato gliss

When there are glisses in-between, pitches are only suggested. It should be a more glissed e ect.