Listen to works of Tony K.T. Leung

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Date	Title	Instrumentation	Duration (min)	Score
2007	Eight phases of the Moon	Octaphonic	8
2006	Woven threads	Clarinet, Percussion, Violin, Double Bass	9	Borrow/Buy
2006	Drip Drop Drup Drap Drep	Acousmatic	4
2005	Snakes and Ladders	1/1/1/1,1/0/0/0,Strings	6	Borrow/Buy
2005	Synesthesia	String quartet	14	Borrow/Buy
2004	Ancient voices	Erhu, Piano	6	Borrow/Buy
2003	Naked I came and naked I will depart	Flutes, Clarinets, Percussion, Piano, Violins	10
2003	In the beginning	Orchestra 2/2/2/2,2/2/1/0, Timp, Perc(2), Strings	14	Borrow score and rent parts
2003	Wandering wind	Dizi, Yangqin, Pipa, Ruan, Erhu	6	Borrow/Buy
2002	Six Degrees of Separation	Flute, Clarinet, Vibraphone, Piano, Violin, Cello	10	Borrow/Buy
2002	Naked I came and naked I will depart	SATB voices	10	Borrow/Buy
2002	Winter's edge	Acousmatic	5	View
2001 /1998	Hands that throw stars into space	Saxophone quartet - Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone	12	Borrow/Buy
2001	Do you truly love me more than these?	Clarinet, Vibraphone	8	Borrow/Buy
2001	Dialogue with Chinese dancer	Erhu	3	Borrow/Buy
2001	Hyperdreams	Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Vibraphone, Viola, Double Bass, CD	10	Borrow/Buy
2001	When light first shone	Acousmatic	5	View
1999	Seven Trumpets of the Seven Angels	Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, 2 Soprano Saxophones, Tuba, Percussion, Accordion, Violin, Viola, Cello	7	Borrow/Buy
1995	M1R 4H8 - Home life and other diversions	Soprano, Flute, Cello	5	Borrow/Buy

Early works

Date	Title	Instrumentation	Duration (min)	Score
1995	River of Sorrow	Chamber orchestra	5
1992	String Quartet No. 1	String quartet	9
1991	Quintessential Moment	Orchestra	8
1991	Theme and Fugue	Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon	3
1990	A Moment in A	Violin, Cello	2	Borrow/Buy
1990	To the 4th power	Flute	2	Borrow/Buy
1989	Fantasy on 2 strings	Erhu, Piano	5

Program notes

A Moment in A

This piece won a first prize at the 1991 Kawanis Music Festival. The adjudicator, Clifford Crawley, had these encouraging words:

Ancient voices

The two instruments, erhu and piano, participate in a kind of dialogue, alluding to long distance conversations (e-mail), inter-generational interactions (parent-child), or dialects of a common language (Mandarin-Cantonese). The score is written using proportional notation to allow for the imprecise timing and rhythmic freedom inherent in spoken conversation.

Each page of the 4 page score is on its own music stand. The stands are arranged to form the sides of a square, with the erhu player at the centre. At each new page, the erhu player turns to face the music stand. In a subtle way sonically, but visually and symbolically explicit, the acoustics of the performance venue is explored. The subtitles of the pages or sections are – East, South, West, and North.

Dialogue with Chinese dancer

Traditional Chinese dancer Elena Quah was looking for a newly composed contemporary section to fit into the middle of a traditional Chinese folk dance melody. The choreography and the music of this new section express the dancer's personal search, uncertainties, and disillusions. The dancer and the erhu player perform their parts ad libitum.

Features of the music include angular lines, wide intervals, wide vibrato, pressure vibrato, left hand pizzicato, scratchy bowing, and bow tapping.

God uses crisis experiences in our spiritual journey to reveal Himself to us in a new or fuller way. Peter's denial of Christ was a turning point in his leadership among the disciples. After Peter's denial of Christ three times, He asked him three times: "Do you truly love me more than these?" in John 21:15-17. Peter learned that his mission was to feed and take care of sheep. At the end of the piece, the clarinet repeats a phrase 3 times, asking the question: “Do you truly love me more than these?”

Drip Drop Drup Drap Drep

The sound of a dripping faucet can be disturbing, but if you had to listen to it closely, each drop has a unique character, not unlike a snowflake.

This piece uses a Freesound Project sample by sazman released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus license.

Eight phases of the Moon

The revolution of the Moon around the Earth makes the Moon appear as if it is changing shape in the sky. This is caused by the different angles from which we see the bright part of the Moon's surface. These are called "phases" of the Moon. The Moon does not generate any light itself; it just reflects the light of the Sun.

In Eight phases of the Moon, the listener is surrounded by eight speakers where 4 adjacent speakers are used at any one time. As the piece progresses, the active set of speakers is shifted over one by one, creating a revolution of the sound around the listener. The climax of the piece occurs during the fifth phase – Full Moon.

Fantasy on 2 strings

This is my first composition. It is in the traditional Chinese folk style. I discovered music through the erhu, so I thought I would write for this instrument first.

Hands that throw stars into space

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:

Hyperdreams

In a dream, we experience a series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations involuntarily. Sometimes we recognize what we are dreaming about, and sometimes the dream remains as an enigma. The recorded material, derived mostly from manipulating the recordings of the composer’s past works, represents the subconscious events in a series of hypothetical dreams. The role of the live ensemble is that of conscious state. The subconscious and the conscious coexist in a collage, made possible in the synthetic construction of a "hyperdream." With anything synthetic, it is not to be taken too seriously.

In the beginning

The form of In the beginning consists of 7 sections, corresponding to the creation of the world in 7 days, as described by the biblical account (Genesis 1).

In the beginning was composed with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.

M1R 4H8 - Home life and other diversions

M1R 4H8 is the postal code of a little house on a crescent.
On the front lawn is a cool maple tree.
Idle neighbours watch from their porches.
My neighbour's got insomnia, and the highway noise keeps her up!
Birds and neighbourhood lawn mowers annoy you when you are trying to sleep in.
And then baby starts to cry!
Inside you will find the warmth of home.

This piece was written during the period between the births of my first and second daughters. While the demands of parenthood are great, so are the rewards. This work is dedicated to my loving and supportive wife, Patty.

Naked I came and naked I will depart (choral)

The title of Naked I came and naked I will depart is taken from the bible passage Job 1:21. Along with his physical suffering, Job struggles with spiritual and philosophical questions. His three “friends” are quick to provide “answers” to his dilemma. Job’s demand for vindication ultimately leads to God’s rebuke. Only after Job’s repentance did his troubles end.

From my mother’s womb, naked I came.
From my mother’s womb, naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
May the name of the Lord be praised.
Why did I not perish at birth and die as I came from my mother’s womb?
I have no peace, no rest, only turmoil.
Does not man have hard service on earth?
Are not his days like those of a hired man?
Like a slave longing for the evening shadows.
Like a hired man, waiting for his wages.
From my mother’s womb, naked.
I depart, naked.

Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.
Like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
He feels but the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself.
Like a hired man, waiting for his wages.
I know that you can do all things.
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand.
Things too wonderful for me to know.
My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
I despise myself and repent.
From my mother’s womb, naked.
I depart, naked.
May the name of the Lord be praised.

Naked I came and naked I will depart (instrumental)

The title of Naked I came and naked I will depart is taken from the bible passage Job 1:21.

Along with his physical suffering, Job struggles with spiritual and philosophical questions. His three “friends” are quick to provide “answers” to his dilemma. Job’s demand for vindication ultimately leads to God’s rebuke. Only after Job’s repentance did his troubles end.

Naked I came and naked I will depart was commissioned as part of a composer residency at Peoples Christian Academy

Quintessential Moment

River of Sorrow

River of Sorrow borrows from a folk melody of the same name from North East China. There is a story about a woman whose husband was conscripted and killed. She returns to the river side where they last saw each other to pay her respects.

This melody was later adapted for erhu and became widely known. It is now considered to be the quintessential sad piece for erhu. To hear Patty Chan's erhu performance, click here.

I chose this melody to be the basis of a western chamber orchestra piece, for its extra-musical associations and its inherent musical drama. I took the erhu version, which is 9 minutes long, and reduced it to its essentials, resulting in a piece lasting just 4 minutes. I felt that by doing so, it would increase the directness and intensity of the original melody.

Seven Trumpets of the Seven Angels

Seven Trumpets of the Seven Angels takes its title and form from Revelation 8:6. There are 7 episodes, with each episode beginning with the sounding of the Trumpet, as played by the pair of saxophones. This piece does not attempt to portray the meaning of the words through music (if that is possible at all). Rather, it raises the awareness of a serious message.

"A quite different substance, on the other hand, is to be seen in "Seven Trumpets of the Seven Angels" by Tony K. T. Leung, ... These scores display a real compositional technique put at the service of a clearly structured musical idea."
Pierre Schwickerath
Luxemburger Wort - 23 February 2000

"Things are different with the Canadian Tony K. Leung (b. 1963 in Hongkong) who, in his apocalyptic "Seven Trumpets of the Seven Angels", displays a syncretic manner of writing in which extremes do not meet but join their voices in the pure lyricism of an ecumenical dialogue between east and west."
José Voss
Lëtzebuerger Land - 18. August 2000

"There is direction, clarity, and wonderful sounds
(in Seven Trumpets of the Seven Angels)."
Chan Ka Nin

Six Degrees of Separation

The term Six Degrees of Separation is the result of an experiment conducted by American social psychologist Stanley Milgram in the late 1960s. He sought the answer to this question: How are human beings connected? Do we belong to separate worlds, operating simultaneously but autonomously, so that the links between any two people, anywhere in the world, are few and distant? Or are we all bound up together in a grand, interlocking web? He got the names of over a hundred people, at random, who lived in different cities, and he mailed each of them a packet. In the packet was the name of a businessman who lived in a yet another city. Each person was instructed to give the packet to a friend or acquaintance that he thought would get it closer to the businessman. Milgram found that most of the letters reached the businessman in five or six steps.

To model this musically, the piece opens with the 6 performers playing unsynchronized. The "experiment" begins when the flute plays alone, attempting to send a musical message to the clarinet. Having received the message, the clarinet responds in imitation and further passes the message to the piano, and so on, until the last instrument, the cello, gets the message. Having found the path, the group plays together as an ensemble

The performers are physically separated with 2 instruments on stage and 4 instruments off stage at the 4 corners of the audience area.

Six Degrees of Separation was composed with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.

Snakes and Ladders

Snakes and Ladders is a playful piece that takes its title from the board game of the same name. As you try the climb the “ladder”, there are always “snakes” lurking in the shadows ready to knock you down.

String Quartet No. 1

String Quartet No. 1 is based on an earlier work for violin and cello. The material from the duet occupies most of the first movement. A rhythmic idea, beginning with a pair of diminished fifths, alternates with a melody resembling a folk tune. The tune reappears in the second movement as a legato fugal subject. The first movement ends with a passage played double speed, followed by a fast shifting pattern that will be explored further in the third movement.

The second movement begins with a four voice fugal exposition. The viola leads and the second violin follows. The violin becomes impatient and interrupts the second violin. The cello interrupts in a similar fashion. The pulse quickens as the end of the exposition marked triple forte approaches. The subject is restated in various ways before leading to the next movement without a break.

The energetic third movement recalls the fast shifting pattern of the first movement in a "stuttering" manner. From time to time, a little waltz intrudes.

Synesthesia

Synesthesia is a unusual condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, such as seeing a color when hearing a sound. This piece is structured as 7 sections, corresponding to the order and spectral colors of visible white light - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. As the piece unfolds, the music takes on progressively cooler quality. Within the sections, the music is influenced by the qualities of a kaleidoscope, an object that contains loose fragments of colored glass and reflecting surfaces so arranged that changes of position exhibit its contents in a variety of colors and symmetrical forms.

Synesthesia was composed with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.

Theme and Fugue

I think what attracted me to music initially was counterpoint. That is why I love fugues. I like expositions the best, so this fugue has two.

To the 4th power

This is one of my first compositions. The music is based on fourths (perfect & augmented), and major/minor seconds.

Wandering wind

The mood of Wandering wind is one of being carefree, where the traveling direction is whichever way the wind blows, guided by the confidence that knowing the truth brings.

When light first shone

The focus of this piece is on the bible passage "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3). Prior to this event, "the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Samples of thunder, string harmonics, pizzicati, crystal glasses, wind chimes, bowed crotales and vibraphone, are orchestrated to depict the interplay of light colors, reflections, and intensities on an earth that has never been lit.

Winter's edge

Living in Canada, it is not easy to forget the harshness of winter. The piece is formed from 2 contrasting elements – clusters of violin tones in the high register and treatments of a girl’s choir singing the phrase “Winter was hard.”

Woven threads

The Chinese folk song (sān shí lĭ pù -- Thirty mile village) from Shaanxi province is thematic to Woven threads. This tune, in altered mode, begins the piece. After a double bass solo, the source material is heard within the new context of 5/8 meter. The opening tune returns after a clarinet solo. The folk song is woven together like a thread with other strands to form a simple tapestry.

Woven threads was created over a 4 week period during 2006 Arraymusic Young Composers' Workshop.

Compositions

Early works

Program notes

Naked I came and naked I will depart (choral)

Naked I came and naked I will depart (instrumental)