" Le premier empereur "
Opera
- Nominated for : The Musical Composition Prize 2007
Tan Dun was born in 1957 in the Chinese province of Hu Nan. After working as a provincial band organizer for the Peking Opera, he spent eight years at the Central Conservatory in Beijing. In 1986, a scholarship allows him to move to New York where he completed a doctorate in music composition. He currently lives in New York.
Tan Dun works are known for their "sense of drama...their wonderfully expressive harmonies... colours full of imagination" (London Times). Composer and conductor with many facets, a supporter of conceptual art, Tan Dun has left his mark on the world music scene through a repertoire that embraces creativity, at the same time crossing the boundaries of classical traditions and multi-media of the West and the East. Covered in the most prestigious awards - the Grawemeyer Award for classical composition, a Grammy, an Oscar and named "Musician of the Year" by Musical America - Tan Dun sees his special music played around the world in places as prestigious as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Lincoln Center in New York, Suntory Hall in Japan, the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Opera Bastille.
< br /> Famous for his film scores, like "Tiger and Dragon" and "Hero" by Ang Lee, he is also the author of original contemporary creations. He is particularly interested in the creation of new programs and works that can reach a diverse audience that would have broken the boundaries between classical and non-classical, East and West, avant-garde and indigenous art forms.
Tan Dun's works of the 1980s fit into the spirit of a cons-culture similar to that of Toru Takemitsu or John Cage, who challenged the dominance of Western music. Tan Dun's writing changes in the late 80's. He begins to integrate into a single work, stylistic elements and cultural variety of sources. Its simple and refined style will greatly influence other Chinese composers.
His opera Marco Polo, created in 1996, is a very good example of his style of musical writing that looks like a "mosaic" of sound. It incorporates musical themes borrowed from various cultures and from other works, including Le Chant de la Terre of Mahler, texts of Shakespeare (recited in the style of Peking Opera)...
His Symphony 1997 is also filled with the most diverse musical quotations. We hear, among others, the famous Chinese bells, quotes from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, a melody of a street opera in Hong Kong and a quote from his Cello Concerto ... Tan Dun cites, reproduces and imitates other music in order to "re-contextualize" these melodies.
In addition to classical compositions, Tan Dun is known for his experimental projects: music for ceramics, for water (Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra), for paper (Paper Concerto for Paper Instruments and Orchestra), for stones. He also works with artists from other disciplines, choreographers, directors.
Opera has occupied a significant place in the works of Tan Dun for a good ten years: Marco Polo (1995-1996) Peony Pavilion (1998), Tea (2002) with a libretto by Xu Ying and Tan Dun set to music using ceramic, stone instruments paper and orchestra.
The piece features the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Huang, the builder of the Great Wall ruthless despot committed to building the future empire, imposing a single language in a clear break from the past. In the first act, the master of the Yin-yang makes sacrifices along with ritual songs, the music, that of the past, not like the Emperor Qin who wants a new song to inaugurate his reign, which will be the starting point of a "music of the future" ...
The piece took ten years of work, between Shanghai and New York. The work meets the classical forms of the Opera (choir, ensembles, arias, duets and even a ballet), while reinventing them through an Eastern influence: with the made-up narrator from the Peking Opera to drumsticks replaced by stones through the Chinese zither or very inventive use of percussion. Note in particular the use of a gigantic bell 5 meters high which rings out insistently the rhythm throughout the last scene.
"I want this Opera to be both melodic and dramatic, romantic and hard, I want the public's heart to tremble !" says Tan Dun, who finally gives us accessible music, more in line with the music for the film Tigres et Dragons rather than to a work more difficult as the Water Passion After St. Matthew.
Time: about 1:35