迴光 - Remnants of the Day

for unaccompanied SATB Choir
ca. 5’30”

迴光: 1) Twilight; 2) a brief return to mental clarity and memory in a patient in the time shortly before death

迴光 (2018) was originally a poem written by my good friend Brian Kot during his final year of secondary school. When he first showed me the poem in December 2017, I was immediately transfixed by its stark imagery and its dark, brooding tone, and set my mind on using the text for a choral work. The opportunity to do so soon arrived in the form of a competition in the US, and I wrote a setting that was rather fast and rhythmic, emulating the way the persona was killed in the poem and the feeling of dread and fear in the process. However, after sitting on the piece for a week or two, I decided to write a completely new setting for the text that is much more melancholic and stretched out. I felt that my first setting was too brute and forced, and I wanted to focus more on painting the same brooding atmosphere that I experienced when I first read the poem. 

I once enquired Brian about the meaning of the poem in preparation for the composition of the piece, and he was adamant that I should form my own conclusions, telling me that even he himself is unsure of its implication. In respect of his uncertainty, the setting that you will hear is based more on the surface of the poem, in close reflection of the persona’s emotions as he meets his death in his mirrorless, light-less world.

Text:

迴光

在沒有鏡子的世界
我不敢相信光
閃燈下的我
影子異常修長
映在地上躺著的是
無面目的瘦形魔
然後直立起來殺了我
從此白天成為黑夜的傀儡
光線渾濁的世代
就是影武者執政的世代

葛浚浠

Performances:

27 Jan 2023
Hong Kong Youth Choir: A Choral Panorama——The Local Sound IV
Sheung Wan Civic Center, Hong Kong
Hong Kong Youth Choir; Grace Chiang, conductor

21 Jul 2018 (world premiere)
Entreat Me Not to Leave You, Diocesan Choral Society Summer Concert
Yunni and Maxine Pao Auditorium, Diocesan Boys’ School
Diocesan Choral Society; Ronnie Kay-yen Cheng, conductor