November Story
ISMN : 979-0-2325-5829-5
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In 1523, two Japanese trade fleets, respectively led by Kendō Sōsetsu (謙道宗設) and Rankō Zuisa (鸞岡端佐), had a conflict in Ningbo (寧波), China, known as the Ningbo Tribute Conflict. The incident caused the Ming Dynasty to officially launch an isolationist policy called Haijin (海禁), or Sea Ban, which heavily affected both the fishermen in the coastal areas in east China and the regular maritime trade between Japan and China. Striving to survive, some Chinese fishermen joined the Japanese pirates, looting along China's east coast. A long warfare between the Ming dynasty and the Japanese pirates began.
Among history's vicissitudes, Qi Jiguang (戚繼光) was considered one of the most famous Ming generals during these battles. At the time, the Weiyuan Fortress (威遠城) he built in 1560 was an insurmountable barrier for the pirates. For a long time, I have been thinking of composing a music work about this part of history, as Ningbo is my hometown, and the Weiyuan Fortress was a 15-minute walk from my childhood house. In 2021, I got the opportunity at a music festival in south China. The piece was based on a re-visit of Weiyuan Fortress in November 2020 during the COVID. In the music, I used different musical textures to paint the battles and the sea waves as seen from the fortress. However, shortly after I started to write the work, I was told that the premiere would be cancelled due to the pandemic.
I had another opportunity to submit this work to the "Contemporary Chamber Music from China Tour" at CUHK Shenzhen in 2024. Eventually, the piece was premiered in Shenzhen and Vienna under the title "Into the Depth of East China Sea." After the premiere, I published the score and changed it to its original title, "November Story".
Clarinet
Percussions
Piano
Violin
Cello
Pages - 48
Max Käck
Michael Shingo Crawford
Mathieu
