Lei Liang

2 Flutes (1st doubling piccolo; 2nd doubling alto flute)
2 Oboes
2 Clarinets in Bb (1st doubling detached mouthpiece; 2nd doubling Bass Clarinet)
2 Bassoons

2 Horns in F
2 Trumpets in C (with straight mute and Harmon mute)
Tenor Trombone (with straight mute and Harmon mute)
Bass Trombone (with mute)
Tuba

3 Percussionists*

Harp
Piano

Violin I (10)
Violin II (10)
Viola (8)
Violoncello (6)
Double Bass (6)

*I: Xylophone, Gong (medium), High Bongos (2), 2 Suspended Cymbals (high and medium), Temple Blocks (5), Pebbles (one pair), Spring Drum (small), Tam-tam (large), Bamboo Chimes, Tubular Bells, Thin Beaters, Bamboo Chimes, Guiro, Finger Cymbals, Reibestock (friction stick, for arco), Bow of Double Bass (arco) II: Crotales (2 octaves), Marimba, Congas (2), Cymbal (large), Temple Blocks (5), Pebbles (one pair), Spring Drum (medium), Log Drum, Guiro, Reibestock (friction stick, for arco), Bow of Double Bass (arco) III: Crotales (2 octaves), Cymbal (large), Bass Drum, Temple Blocks (5), Vibraphone (with motor), Bamboo Chimes, Pebbles (one pair), Spring Drum (large), Timpani (1) with Crotale, Guiro, Chamois mallets (for Bass Drum) Bow of Double Bass (arco)

This piece is in two parts: Part I “A Thousand Mountains” (mm.1-338), and Part II “A Million Streams” (mm.339-end), preferably performed without a break.

Winner of the 2021 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition

I always wanted to create music as if painting with a sonic brush. I think in terms of curves and lines, light and shadows, distances, the speed of the brush, textures, gestures, movements and stillness, layering, blurring, coloring, the inter-penetration of ink, brushstrokes, energy, breath, spatial resonance, spiritual vitality, void and emptiness.

The search for a lost spiritual home that has been violently destroyed is at the core of my artistic discovery. Born at the end of China’s brutal Cultural Revolution, I experienced the devastating cultural destruction, and the profound human cost of government-enforced social reform. Living in the dangerous times of the world today, we bear witness to the threats upon our physical homes, as well as the effects of global warming, exacerbated by human irresponsibility, that cause violent disruptions to the living things of this planet.

A Thousand Mountains, A Million Streams meditates on the loss of landscapes of cultural and spiritual dimensions. Using a sonic brush, I paint an inner journey: darkness, hints of luminosity, emergence, pulsing impulses, shattering, and fragmentation…showers of light…the return of the tender heartbeat. The work implies an intention to preserve and resurrect parallel landscapes - both spiritual and physical – and sustain a place where we and our children can belong.

– Lei Liang