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Ha Long Suite - 5. Haunting Memories; Cloud, Rain, Thunder and Lightning; The Dragon Rises
SM-000365233
| Composer | Kevin Phillips |
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| Publisher | Kevin Phillips |
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| Genre |
Classical / Contemporary
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| Instrumentation |
Piano |
| Scored for | Solo |
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| Type of score | For a single performer |
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| Key |
E major |
| Movement(s) |
5 to 5 from 5 |
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| Duration |
4'10" |
| Difficulty |
Advanced |
| Year of composition |
2019 |
| Description |
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In the final movement of Ha Long Suite I tried to capture three moods in three sections, "Haunting Memories", "Cloud, Rain, Thunder and Lighting" and "The Dragon Rises".
In the first section, Haunting Memories, I started with a growling of the dragon, a menacing, thunder-like idea in the left hand, followed by a haunting, raindrop-like idea, repeated over and over. The intent was to keep the listener in suspense, never sure what will happen next, and never sure if it will ever stop. In between the thunder and the raindrop, there are haunting melodic ideas that make the listener feel as though he's returning to a place in his memory that he hasn't really explored.
In the middle section, "Cloud, Rain, Thunder and Lightning" I imitated slightly Debussy's "Sunken Cathedral" prelude, and if you listen closely you can hear the rain clouds forming, which end in the thunder and lightning before the descending and accelerating 16ths. The three sections do blend together a bit, as that was my intent.
The finality of the piece is a climactic "rising" of the majestic dragon, which uses the melody of the second movement, hidden beneath the changing movement of the flowing left hand harmonies. It ends with rising and falling 16ths in contrasting harmonic progressions with a final "western" type conclusion contrasted with very high parallel 4ths in the right hand just before the final cadence of an E-major arpeggio. |
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