Works

Duration: c. 7′

In Darkness and Light is a work for small orchestra that explores the idea of expressing light and shadow through shifting timbres, juxtaposition of contrasting instrumental textures and tessituras.

Duration: c. 5’30

All the bells at once, written for solo piano, is inspired by bell concerts. A bell concert is a performance of bells being rung throughout the city in co-ordination and in a specific sequence. This concept was made famous by famed bell-concert composer Llorenc Barber as he studied the sonic quality of each bell, observed the urban soundscape of the city and consider how other elements such as wind and air-resistance could affect the overall sound world he was composing. Barber did many bell concerts in different cities including Innsbruck and Rome.

This piece is my sonic imagination and interpretation of experiencing one, as the auditory soundscape blends and transforms when you walk from one point in the city to another.

All the bells at once

Duration: c. 3’20

Daffodils are usually planted in September. They spend several months developing roots before bursting forth with flowers between February and May. This piece for solo violin reflects that, as the music begins from the planting of the daffodil to its dormancy during the winter months with a sparser musical texture before bursting forth with rapid arppeggiation to signal the blossoming of flowers.

Memories of a daffodil…

Duration: c. 9′

A Japanese Poem was written in celebration of Kris Foundation’s long-standing friendship with pianist Miyuki Washimiya.

It is an expression of deep appreciation for Japanese culture and aesthetics; from Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s text, In Praise of Shadows, and Japanese poetic forms such as Hokku and Tanka.

A Japanese Poem

Duration: c. 8′

This piano piece is inspired by 7 paintings by the German expressionist painter, Gabriele Münter. The paintings are, From the Greisbräu Window, Head of a Young Girl, Dice Players, Pentecost Still Life II, Sleeping Girl (Blond), Lady in the Armchair Writing and The Blue Excavator. 

All 7 paintings are individually represented by 7 different Tempi and distinct musical materials. The single-movement work flits between the different tempi seamlessly, gradually generating its own structural form.

Duration: c. 8′

Composed during the pandemic where there was so much fear and confusion, Dare we dream? for solo cello reflects our contemplation and hope for the future with inexorable passion.

Dare we dream?

Duration: c. 5′

Serenata del Caffè is a lyrical guitar piece written for a university friend going through a difficult time. The feeling of a serenade comes from the music’s focus on the guitar’s natural open tones and resonance, and the ‘caffè’ comes from our mutual appreciation of coffee.

Serenata del Caffè

Duration: c. 5′

This fast and rhythmic piece for solo bassoon explores the use of modes as a harmonic and structural device and aims to showcase the bassoon’s range.

Where the wind blows

Duration: c. 24′

Tropical Suite is a five-moment work for solo viola that I composed in Singapore during the pandemic lockdown. The five movements have programmatic titles: Ocean’s Consolation, Brushstrokes, Bittersweet, Tempore… and Tropical Rain.

Tropical Suite

Duration: c. 7′

Cornish Tides is a two-movement suite for harp inspired by a summer road trip to the tidal island of St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. The piece evokes the sunshine, the sand and the surreal feeling of walking across the granite walkway that felt almost like walking on water.

Cornish Tides

Duration: 3’15

Reverie is a piano solo piece that depicts being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts.

It begins with a cheerful melodic theme that feels like someone whistling a tune while walking down the street. However, it gradually gets ambushed with anxieties and insecurities as the piece progresses. It tries to find its way back and does so, but never reverting to the way things were.

Reverie

Duration: c. 6′

Flower Visages, composed for solo piano, was one of the first few pieces I composed when I started my journey as a composer, and was also the very first composition I dedicated to my mother. It has a combination of Western and Eastern musical elements, much like the famous piano transcription of 彩云追月 (Colourful Clouds Chasing the Moon) that my mother and I loved listening to.

Flower Visages Recording 
Purchase the score

Duration: c. 5’30

Hues is a trio for flute, french horn and piano. It is structured into three sections and focuses on the exploration of timbral colours, modal mixture and modal rotations.

Hues

Duration: c. 6’35

This piece for violin, B-flat clarinet, cello and piano starts off with a lively dance-like musical material.

Over the course of the music, it gets fragmented and sapped of its energy, causing the music to be structured as a big temporal decay from a macroscopic point of view; going from fast to slow.

Before the groove stops

Duration: c. 14′

Embrace is a highly passionate and dramatic string sextet that goes through melodic and structural transformation throughout the piece. It unfolds like a story. The musical material continually gets developed by the situations it finds itself in and emerges as something different by the end of it.

It was inspired by the performance of Elgar’s Nimrod during Prince Philip’s funeral in the spring of 2021.

Duration: c. 14′

All four movements of Voyage have titles that imply a sense of emotional ambivalence and ephemerality. The movements following Golden hour uses musical gestures found from the latter, showing how the slightest musical seeds can be developed to express different ideas and emotions.

Voyage

Duration: c. 6′

Concrete Jungle No. 23 evokes an urban landscape with busy streets and towering skyscrapers. The music evokes noticing the juxtaposition of old and new architecture; the familiar with the unfamiliar.

It is scored for B-flat clarinet, violin, harp, piano and percussion.

Concrete Jungle No. 23

Duration: c. 3’30

This cheeky duo for clarinet in B-flat and violin is about negating the negative notion of tritone (also known as the devil’s interval) through humour.

The instruments try to recapture the seriousness they started off with but keep getting distracted by one another. Instead of fighting to have the last word, both instruments are resigned to their fate and decide to pull a joke on the audience at the end with a surprise ending. 

Maybe it’s fun?

Duration: c. 6′

Scored for clarinet in B-flat, French horn, Piano, violin and viola, Silver Moon Suite is a dramatic imagination of nature worship. Rain Dance is a fast, angular and dissonant piece that expresses a sense of ritual through the use of repetitive motifs.

By contrast, Singing to the moon is calmer and more melodious.

Duration: c. 2’20

Although a solilquy is usually made by only one person, the specific scoring for two cellos reminds the listeners that the human experience is complicated – one may have conflicted feelings and not say how they truly feel.

Soliloquy

Duration: c. 4′

The Poet’s Song is a choral setting of Alfred Tennyson’s poem of the same name.

Drawn to the intrigue and vivid imagery within the text, the music is composed to reflect this through a dramatic setting of the words with two contrasting sections with varied musical textures.

Duration: 5′

Syzygy is the alignment of three celestial bodies. The results of this phenomena are varied and ephemeral, ranging from solar and lunar eclipses to new moon. In the music, the three celestial bodies are represented by three musical motifs that appear at various times throughout the piece.

They finally come together in syzygy for a brief moment at the end, only to dissipate just as quickly as it appeared.

Duration: 10′

Myths from the Maelstrom depicts a voyager sharing his stories with a group of children through six distinct sections of music. One of his stories include surviving a maelström and being transported to magical islands, which are represented by the lively, dance-like sections.

The veracity of his stories are challenged and is reflected through the chordal and sustained passages that seem to blur the boundaries between reality and dreams; being harmonically ambiguous. The answer to whether his stories are true are only revealed at the end.