The Gong Strikes One
Hong Kong Music Miniatures
The “Hong Kong Music Miniatures” website is an online collection of over a hundred newly written “mini-music” pieces. Intended to be used in actual performances, these are written based on the musical styles, forms and dramatic needs of traditional Chinese theatre. All “mini-music” pieces are dedicated to the public domain and these can be adapted, rearranged and integrated freely just as the existing traditional repertoire.
The project includes a series of online programmes. In this series, aspects of Chinese traditional theatre music will be discussed alongside performances of traditional pieces and selected new “mini-music” from the website. The project will feature the premieres of new pieces including adaptions of traditional forms and contemporary compositions.
The Gong Strikes One
Founded in 2012, The Gong Strikes One specializes in Chinese traditional theatre music, creating original works that preserve its musicality and theatricality. The group embraces various performance settings, such as concerts, story-telling concerts, theatre and improvisation. Its debut theatre work, I, Wu Song (2017), is a one-man Chinese Opera without words, which sets out to explore the very essence of operatic movements and music. The group is also known for writing site/occasion-specific Cantonese narrative songs. One of its major projects, Singing Nanyin as We Go (2019-2020), presented by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office), tours the city with original lyrics specifically written for each district. The group also gives public talks and live demonstrations. Recent programmes include “Melodies of Chinese Opera” (2020 RTHK CIBS), “The Melodies of Nanyin” and “Reading Cantonese Music Notation” (2019; West Kowloon 101 Talk Series).
Creating a Tradition from Traditional Conventions
The most noteworthy element of Chinese traditional theatre music is undeniably the repertoire of set pieces, which serve as intros, interludes, set tunes, set rhythms, etc. Each of these set pieces signifies a specific scenario, mood or action, and thus, the same piece can be adapted in different scripts or for different characters. Not only can these miniatures be mixed and matched, they can also be adapted to be interpolated in a certain scenario. Like building blocks, these mini pieces are often recycled and rearranged for the creation of new works. In fact, it is these mini pieces which transforms Chinese traditional theatre into essentially a “music collage”.
The website is home to an online collection of over a hundred newly written set pieces. Intended to be used in actual performances, these are written based on the conventional musical styles, forms and dramatic needs of traditional Chinese theatre. All the set pieces are dedicated to the public domain so that they can be adapted, rearranged and used freely just as the existing traditional repertoire.
The project includes a series of online programmes, released from February to June 2021. Different aspects of Chinese traditional theatre music will be discussed alongside performances of traditional pieces and selected new “mini-music” from the website; music requests from the audience will also be taken. The project will also feature the premieres of new pieces including adaptions of traditional forms and contemporary compositions.
