The Dream of a Man in Qi State

This piece, scored for an ensemble of four contrabasses, was the output of my collaboration with visual artist Yunyun Wu (吴芸芸) on her video “杞人梦” (“The Dream of a Man in Qi” is my own translation).

Qi (杞) was a small state in ancient China that existed from the beginning of Shang Dynasty (16th century BCE) until the beginning of the Warring States period, c.445 BCE.

The title of the video is from an old Chinese idiom “杞人忧天”, which tells of a man in Qi often needlessly anxious about impossible or inconse- quential matters. Once he began to fear that the sky would fall and crash on his head. He became so anxious that he could neither eat nor sleep.

The scenario sketched by Yunyun Wu divided the video into six episodes, which correspond with my score:

I. White

II. Light Grey

III. Medium Grey

IV. Black

V. Grey

VI. White