CFAMC Listening Page #4

First issued February 13, 2005

A monthly musical offering by a composer member of the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers.
Both your listening and comments are encouraged.

Tony K. T. Leung

Hands that throw stars into space

Saxophone quartet

Performed by the Vienna Saxophone Quartet

Program Notes

“Hands that throw stars into space” is the first work that the composer has written which makes a direct reference to God. The title comes from a verse in Graham Kendrick's “The servant King”:

“Come see his hands and his feet,
the scars that speak of sacrifice,
hands that flung stars into space
to cruel nails surrendered.”

This work contains a quotation of the hymn “Be Thou My Vision” of Irish folk origin.

“Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.”

I heard the song “The Servant King” during church worship service. The words left a deep impression with me. Around the time that I composed the piece, we were playing “Be Thou My Vision” at church, so it was on my mind.

The recording that you are hearing is the first version, which I wrote in 1998. It was recorded during a workshop held at the University of Calgary, Canada. The performers were the Vienna Saxophone Quartet. In 2001, I extended the piece to 12 minutes, but I do not have a good recording of the new version.

Composer's Statement of Faith

Donald Wilson once said: “…I came to believe that God is the source of my inspiration, that in fact God is the Continuum of all musical materials (and all artistic materials, too, for that matter)—not only for me but for anyone who wants to seek it out and ask for it. Whether this continuum of creativity is available to anyone at all or just to born-again Christians, I have no idea...”

Don asked me for my thoughts on this. The following is my response:

If this continuum exists, then I think it is available not only to Christians. Maybe “more” is available? When I look back at my life before becoming a believer, God already had a hand in it, before I even acknowledge or seek Him. And because He offered Himself first, it convicted me. When I consider the music of non-Christian composers, say, my teacher’s, I think: If he had become a Christian, maybe he would realize that God was there all along. I think that if I had not turn towards God, I would have stopped composing already. From 1989-1992, I was under the guidance of a composition teacher (a non-Christian). After that period, I was on my own, and did not write anything other than a 5 min work in 1995. It was not until 1998 (1 year before my baptism) that I wrote a piece for sax quartet called “Hands that throw stars into space”. This is the first work of mine that acknowledged God. There were several reasons for this:
  1. From reading the program notes of some non-Christian composers that I knew, I sense the search for spirituality. The search leads nowhere as the composer is looking in the wrong place. I too was looking for “inspiration” in the dead-end areas. If God is out of the picture, why bother spending so much effort writing art music? My desire to learn and write art music came long before coming to know Christ. Where did that desire come from? I am not sure, but probably from human effort, but after a while, I ran out of steam on human effort alone.
  2. Open my eyes! God is the master composer! In my early works, I would say that I was overly concerned with why this pitch here, why this pitch afterwards, etc. I observed the freedom with which others composers wrote. Could I appreciate a piece without knowing the technical analysis? Did I not enjoy nature even with all its mystery? With that in mind, I let it “flow” in this piece.

Composer Biography

Tony K.T. Leung is a Toronto-based composer of art music. His music has been performed and broadcast in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Korea, Luxembourg, USA, and Canada, by leading contemporary music ensembles. Recordings include CD releases from Luxembourg Sinfonietta and Canadian Electroacoustic Community. A Luxembourg critic described his music as displaying “... a real compositional technique put at the service of a clearly structured musical idea.”

Born in Hong Kong, he discovered music through his first instrument, the erhu, and later the cello. As a youth, he arranged music for Chinese orchestra, which sparked an interest in western music and composition. From 1989 to 1992, he studied composition privately with University of Toronto Professor Chan Ka Nin. He is a member of the Canadian League of Composers, and an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre.

In 2003, his chamber music was selected for the ALEA III International Composition Competition finalist concert in Boston. In 2004, his orchestral music was performed during workshops by Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and Esprit Orchestra. He has served as the Composer-in-residence at Peoples Christian Academy, and has been commissioned by the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble.

- - -  SOLI DEO GLORIA!  - - -

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