Night Thoughts

Score title

Night Thoughts

Composer

Chen Yi

More about the composer

Date

Instrumentation

Program note

Co-commissioned by the Virginia Arts Festival, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, La Jolla SummerFest, and Chamber Music Northwest, and supported by Meet The Composer's Commissioning/USA program, my trio NIGHT THOUGHTS is a lyrical tone poem scored for flute, cello, and piano, and premiered April 28, 2004 by Deborah Cross, Keith Robinson, and André-Michel Schub at the Virginia Arts Festival.

The inspiration for this music comes from the ancient Chinese poem NIGHT THOUGHTS, written by the great poet Li Bai, in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

On couch bright moon shone,
Thought frost on the ground,
Raised head facing bright moon,
Lowered head dreaming of home.
Translation by Chen Yi

This work is dedicated to Heather A. Hitchens, president of Meet The Composer, for her hard work and strong support of living composers and new music creation in America.