My first concert symphony!

~ Hello everyone! Long time no see.  It’s finally Spring Break now T^T  I hope you all did well on the mid-term exams, and no matter what happened, good job!

     Back to the topic, this week I want to talk about the concert symphony experience in Pantages Theatre (Downtown Tacoma). On Sunday afternoon, I was required to go the Water Passion after St. Matthew symphony by composer Tan Dun for my Music 101 class.

     First off, here is some information that some of you may consider interesting before I tell you more about my impression of the concert: 

#1. The composer of the piece, Tan Dun, is Chinese. His religion and the religion that he had known of or lived with through out his lifetime is Buddhism. However, he was requested to compose this piece for Christianity.  In an interview, he said that this was one of the biggest challenges in his composing carrier, and he thought it would be something alluring to work with. Because the piece also represents a perspective from another religion, many critics assess this to be an intriguing composition.

#2. Tan Dun’s childhood was surrounded by water, in which later on became his inspiration to write this cantata. On the other words, water is used as percussion instrument in the performance. Because the story is about Jesus’ s death and resurrection, Tan Dun then demonstrates water as beginning and the end. Water is essential in our life; it has its own cycle that symbolizes the revival of Jesus.

#3. If you’re fan of Chinese Kung Fu movies, you may have heard or watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by director Ang Lee. And guess what : Tan Dun is the composer for this movie soundtrack  Isn’t that cool?? 

Okay, now I will talk about what I think of the performance. To be honest, it was kind of dissonant to me. Like it was interesting to hear, but not what I would want to hear again. Nevertheless, this performance is the first symphony I have ever gone in my life!! So it’s still my favorite  It’s a little bit funny to realize that I haven’t been to any symphony in Vietnam before even though I have lived there for nearly my whole life. Anyway, here is the bonus picture for the symphony theatre in Hanoi, Vietnam 

Have a great Spring Break guys/girls!

~ Van Nguyen (Cloud) ~