The Little Dolly Man and the Unhappy Giant
Item
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Score title
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The Little Dolly Man and the Unhappy Giant
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Composer
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Lam Shun
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Program note
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The Little Dolly Man and the Unhappy Giant was based on a self-created fairy tale centering around a little fairy and a giant.
The composer adopts melodic fragments of The Little Dolly Man, a piece composed by her son Arthur Lo Wang-yu at the age of six, and uses the techniques of variations, exploiting basic means, such as diminution, augmentation, repetition, extension and octave displacement, while adding sections B and C between the unhappy mood of "The Giant" composed by Lam Shun herself, and these with lots of augmented chords and intervals in darker mood.
The piece is perceived in varied Rondo form (ABCBA):
Section A(s): Lam's idea (with excited mood in G Major/F Major final section)
Section B: alternation between fragments of dolly's tune and that of the giant
Section C: peaceful mood (a tranquil melody over fragments from A section)
This work is for two pianos was world premiered on the 24th of September 2011 at Beijing Renmin University Yi Fu Centre; it was performed by the composer and her 9 year old son Arthur Lo Wang-yu.
Lam Shun