Longa Brevis
vita brevis, ars longa · for string ensemble · 2024
vita brevis, ars longa · 为弦乐合奏而作 · 2024
Life is short, art is long: stillness and dance, strings swaying like willows in the wind.
人生短暂，艺术长存：静中有舞，弦乐如风中垂柳，彼此摇曳。
| Instruments 编制 | String ensemble: 4 pairs of violins, 3 violas, 2 cellos, double bass 弦乐合奏：四组小提琴（每组两人）、三把中提琴、两把大提琴、一把低音提琴 |
|---|---|
| Dedication 题献 | In memory of my teacher and friend David Lumsdaine (1931–2024) 纪念我的老师与挚友 David Lumsdaine（1931–2024） |
| Commission 委约 | PUENTE Festival Interoceánico 2024, Fundación Orquesta Marga Marga 2024 PUENTE 跨洋艺术节，Marga Marga 乐团基金会 |
| Premiere 首演 | 2024 — Orquesta Marga Marga, Festival “Puente, Encuentro Interoceánico de las Culturas”, Teatro Municipal de Viña del Mar, Valparaíso, Chile 2024——Marga Marga 乐团，“Puente”跨洋文化交流艺术节，智利瓦尔帕莱索比尼亚德尔马市立剧院 |
| Listen 聆听 | ▶ Orquesta Marga Marga, 2024 (video) ▶ Marga Marga 乐团，2024（视频） |
总谱的一页：每小节都是长度各异的乐句，纵向从不对齐。
Programme note 节目介绍
Vita brevis, ars longa, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile.
Life is short, and craft long; opportunity fleeting; experiment perilous; judgement difficult. — Hippocrates
Vita brevis, ars longa, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile.
人生短暂，技艺长存；时机稍纵即逝；实验险阻；判断艰难。——希波克拉底
This work for string ensemble was composed in memory of my dear teacher and friend David Lumsdaine, who was like a father to me, inspiring me not only in music but in life since my undergraduate days in London in the early 1990s. It is not a lament but a celebration of his life: music formed, and time created, interactively in an ensemble, as a tribute to his wide-open mind about sounds, both of nature and of humans, becoming music in different lands and cultures.
这部弦乐合奏作品是为纪念我敬爱的老师与挚友 David Lumsdaine 而作。自上世纪九十年代初我在伦敦求学起，他便如父亲一般，不仅在音乐上、也在人生中给予我启发。这不是一首哀歌，而是对他一生的礼赞：音乐在合奏中互动地成形，时间在合奏中互动地被创造——以此致敬他对声音的开阔胸怀：自然与人的声音，在不同的土地与文化中成为音乐。
The work also takes its spirit from the Entrée de Polymnie in Rameau’s last opera, Les Boréades — an entrance for the Muses, the Zephyrs, the Seasons, the Hours and the Arts. David’s music always held stillness and dance at once. Here the strings sway to one another like willows in the wind, each part bending and influencing the others, by turns ethereal and earthy.
作品的精神也取自拉莫最后一部歌剧《北风神之子》中的《波吕许谟尼亚的进场》——为缪斯、西风、四季、时辰与艺术而作的进场舞。David 的音乐里总是同时蕴含着静与舞。在这里，弦乐彼此摇曳，如风中垂柳，每个声部都牵动、影响着其他声部，时而空灵，时而质朴。
In our shared love of the guqin, musical materials are given as physical movements on the instrument that give rise to sounds to be attended to in sequence, articulated with compassionate timing, allowing each sound to speak and grow into the next — a musical flow we experience as time. Hippocrates’ words seem to reflect these qualities of music-making: instantaneous response that yet requires long experience, where lifetime and performance time merge into musical time.
在我们对古琴共同的热爱中，音乐材料以乐器上的身体动作给出，由此发出的声音须依次被专注地聆听，并以慈悲的时机来表达，让每个声音都能说话、并生长为下一个声音——这种音乐的流动，便是我们所经验的时间。希波克拉底的话似乎正映照着音乐创作的这些特质：即时的回应，却需要长久的经验；人生的时间与演出的时间，融为音乐的时间。
How it is played 演奏方式
座位图：观众可以坐在表演空间之外，也可以坐在其中。
The conductor plays the ensemble like an instrument, taking different cueing roles in different sections to give each part room to speak. Each bar is a phrase of its own length; nothing on the page is vertically aligned in time. Every part is played soloistically, and entries are decided in the moment, as in a live conversation around a common topic — bringing out fragile harmonics, expressive pitch bending and colourful bowing.
指挥把整个合奏当作一件乐器来演奏，在不同段落中担任不同的提示角色，为每个声部留出说话的空间。每一小节都是一个长度各异的乐句；乐谱上的纵向对齐并不代表时间上的对齐。每个声部都以独奏的方式演奏，进入的时机在当下决定，就像围绕同一话题的现场对话——突显脆弱的泛音、富于表情的滑音与多彩的弓法。
Thanks 致谢
With thanks to Andrián Pertout for bringing Singapore composers this opportunity to work with fellow music-makers across the Pacific, to PUENTE Festival Interoceánico 2024 for its hospitality, and to Orquesta Marga Marga for lovingly realising this music.
感谢 Andrián Pertout 为新加坡作曲家带来与太平洋彼岸音乐同仁合作的机会，感谢 2024 PUENTE 跨洋艺术节的热情款待，也感谢 Marga Marga 乐团以满怀爱意的演绎实现了这首作品。
For scores, performance materials and other enquiries:
chungshih@chungshih.info
乐谱、演出资料及其他查询：
chungshih@chungshih.info